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.

  • gradyp@awful.systems
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    8 months ago

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

    • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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      8 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
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        8 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
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          8 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.

        • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
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          8 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
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            8 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
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                8 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
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                  8 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
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                    8 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.

    • SolidGrue@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      There are circumstances where conspiracy the likeliest explanation.

      This is one of those.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

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

    • Kalysta@lemmy.world
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      8 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.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      8 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.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        8 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
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          8 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
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        8 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.

      • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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        8 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
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          8 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.

          • prole@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

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

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
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            8 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
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              8 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.