John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

  • 4grams@awful.systems
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    488
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    I am not a conspiracy theorist. Reality is trying it’s damnedest to make me one.

    • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      226
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      9 months ago

      Eh. There will always be real conspiracies and then…lizard people conspiracies.

      This shit right here? yeah…they killed him. 100%. No doubt in my fucking mind.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        174
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        I mean, he was old…people die—

        It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

        oh shit they totally fucking killed him

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          9 months ago

          Not sure what to make of this chart except that a few items are misplaced imo and I agree conspiracy shit is an alt right pipeline in most cases. Maybe it wasn’t always but whatever.

          Anyhow.

          I haven’t followed up on the news. But there sure wasn’t much available yesterday. So as far as actual reliable evidence we the public have little.

          The guy being dead with an apparent self inflicted wound (as BBC and others said) or gunshot (as Corp Crime Reporter said) during whistleblower court proceedings against a giant company is consistent with suicide from:

          • Stress of the case or from blackmail
          • Stress from something totally unrelated.
          • Some other cause (depression, terminal illness…)

          It is also consistent with:

          • murder made to look like suicide to silence his further testimony and dissuade others

          Any of these is certainly plausible at least. As is Epstein being murdered. Actually, that one is more plausible, given the few suspicious coincidences and the sheer number of people who wanted his secrets to stay that way. Whereas extra-terrestrial UFOs aren’t all that plausible based on our current body of scientific knowledge.

          • xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            9 months ago

            I agree with pretty much everything you’ve written. The only point I would like to make is that the section where the UFOs sits is the “We Have Questions” section, which is between the “Things That Actually Happened” and “Unequivocally False But Mostly Harmless” sections. I interpret this section as containing things that cannot (as of 2021) be conclusively shown to be true or false. Also note that they’re not even saying ET UFOs, but just UFOs. I think the flying saucer is just for visual flair. If I recall correctly, the person who designed this is/was an actual graphic designer.

            • gila@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              Lol, they mustn’t be a great one, because their design seems to have led at least one of y’all to interpret the labels as denoting for the category below, rather than upper/lower bounds between two categories. i.e. things in the blue category above the “speculation line” label are speculative but not yet “leaving reality”

        • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          Epstein didn’t kill himself though. The circumstances where above the level of questioning, there were cameras turned off and he was supposedly on suicide watch.

          • xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            As I much as I also believe that, there is no hard evidence (that we know of) that he didn’t kill himself. I think that’s why it’s in that section. The suspiciousness of it is through the roof, but we can’t prove it.

              • xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                9 months ago

                Right, the chart is far from perfect, but they just grouped them both under the “we have questions” section. We have lots of unresolved questions about Epstein’s death, we have lots of unresolved questions about UFO sightings.

                • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  No, I understand we have questions but explaining epstein requires a couple of details, while UFOs require new laws of physics.

                  • xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    You definitely have a good point. I don’t think the designer probably meant much by it though. It’s only a casual classification.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      158
      ·
      9 months ago

      It’s possible it was stress from the litigation. In fact, if you don’t specify whose stress, I’d almost guarantee it.

    • SolidGrue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      There are circumstances where conspiracy the likeliest explanation.

      This is one of those.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      If it actually happened, it’s just a “conspiracy,” not a “conspiracy theory.”

      • GladiusB@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        53
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        This isn’t proof. That’s the crazy part. I hear ya. I’m with ya. I don’t see anything that is concrete physical evidence to tie it all together. As of now.

        • Kinglink@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          49
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          9 months ago

          I agree, I just was making a joke. It’s a conspiracy until you realize it’s a fact. MK-ULTRA, Government spying on you (which time? ) , Big tobacco hiding that cigerettes cause cancer, Stacks of ET games are buried in New Mexico, even dark stories like the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were all conspiracy theories at one time. Sadly they all turned out to be true.

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            50
            ·
            9 months ago

            There’s also the conspiracy theory of conspiracy theories that the government actually likes and even spreads conspiracy theories so that the real ones get lost in the noise and written off by the general public as “just another loony conspiracy theory”

            • Krauerking@lemy.lol
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              13
              ·
              9 months ago

              I like that one because I absolutely don’t like it, but it’s hard not to like and think that it’s worth being a likable conspiracy theory.
              And that’s the problem with conspiracy theories, you like to like them and then you can’t be sure.

              It’s just like that sometimes.

          • prole@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            9 months ago

            Very few conspiracies are as dark and terrifying as (checks notes) Atari games buried in the desert.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        50
        ·
        9 months ago

        A conspiracy is when a group plans to do something unlawful. So if it’s proven true it’s still a conspiracy. It just stops being a theory.

        • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          A “theory” is a collection of information we currently understand to be true.

          The term “conspiracy theory” is a misnomer that should be correctly expressed as “conspiracy hypothesis”. But that’s just a theory.

        • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          I think the confusion arises from the secrecy part. A conspiracy is understood to be a secret unlawful activity, especially of subversive nature. When it’s not secret anymore is it still conspiracy? or is it just organised crime? I know it feels just pedantic, but this is why the media abuses words to steer collective opinion. Nowadays you can just say something is a conspiracy and people will believe it’s fake without recourse.

          • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            I was just being kind of funny. Language is weird and I’m pretty sure that the word conspiracy is headed through the change to mean “Crazy people think this thing is true”

            • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              9 months ago

              Then we need to find another word to express when people gets together to do shady shit, which happens more often than not.

              • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                9 months ago

                No arguments here. I’d like to be able to differentiate between people going shady shit and flat earth believers.

      • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        That’s the most annoying misunderstanding. A conspiracy is still a conspiracy when you prove it happened/it’s happening. Conspirators remain conspirators, which means they were working together to do something illegal in secret. Ok, so now it’s not secret anymore, but they still conspired.

    • Kalysta@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      9 months ago

      The Gulf of Tonkin incident being created by the US was a conspiracy theory until it wasn’t.

      Not every “conspiracy theory” is wrong. Sometimes people in charge are actually trying to cover something up. It’s not insane to be skeptical of an official line until it’s backed up with proof.

      Lizard people, however, don’t exist.

      • 4grams@awful.systems
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        9 months ago

        My comment was meant to be tongue in cheek but you pretty much nailed the message I’m after. Don’t jump to the conspiracy conclusion but you have to have something wrong with your brain if this doesn’t at least tickle your skeptic gland.