this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024

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"Those of us in aerospace know how nonsensical and misinformed the John Barnett conspiracy is..." (hexbear.net)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was minding my own business in r/politics and I came upon this.

Emphasis theirs.

RingoBars comments on Why Did Two of Judge Aileen Cannon's Law Clerks Suddenly Quit?

Those of us in aerospace know how nonsensical and misinformed that conspiracy is, seeing as his defamation testimony posed exactly 0% threat to Boeing at any level. Because, after all - and contrary to what reading only headlines would have you believe - Mr. Barnett killed himself during his appeal for his rejected defamation lawsuit against Boeing.

Which is notably NOT his whistleblowing testimony which had concluded in 2019. The case had already been litigated, FAA implemented new regulations and the South Carolina 787 factory had to comply with those mandates - FIVE YEARS AGO. Barnett had not worked for seven years and did not even suggest he had “new information” to present.

The only threat Barnett posed to Boeing is in the imagination of Redditors who haven’t bothered to look into it past clickbait headlines.

John Barnett (whistleblower) - Wikipedia

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Gary Webb published his work on the CIA funding the contras in 1996, and then killed himself with two gunshot wounds to the back of the head in 2004

business as usual for the military industrial complex

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The gunshot wounds were not to the back of the head, and both his wife and his friend Douglas Valentine (who is explicitly anti-CIA) said that they believed it was suicide due to his behavior. You could still blame the CIA for his death due to ruthless slander of his work/career.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah, Webb was dragged by his colleagues ruthlessly for no real reason. Drove the guy to suicide essentially.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

It became a movie.

Kill the Messenger (2014)

Journalist Gary Webb, California 1996, started investigating CIA's role in the 1980s in getting crack cocaine to the black part of LA to get money and weapons to the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua.

I saw it last year. Sometimes I take notes about what I watch. But in this case I only have a one word review "Meh."

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

And how are those new regulations and that compliance going, exactly?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

Why are we listening to some random reddit comment from a merely alleged aerospace guy?

What jumps out at me though is that the "defamation lawsuit" was actually a particular federal law called AIR21 that is meant to protect aviation whistleblowers, and the rejection according to Barnetts lawyer was because the original suit was filed with the OSHA, which doesnt have subpoena power, and this new appeal/amended complaint was with the Department of Labor, which does seem to have subpoena powers from what I can tell.

Omitting that stuff seems like its meant to make Barnett come off like a pathetic kook, and I mean identifying yourself as someone in the aerospace industry when disparaging an aerospace whistleblower is pretty sus to my eyes.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's just much funnier if he was shot twice in the back of the head by a 727 so i'm sticking with that.

And not to be all conspiratorial, but being caught up in a lawsuit with a giant mic contractor is probably stressful as hell. Suicide mostly doesn't just happen, he certainly wouldn't be the first person put under so much strain that he succumbed to suicide by a lawsuit against a megacorp.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

if there's a term similar to "social murder" but specifically for driving enemies of capital to suicide, I'm not aware of it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

~~I'm confused. Doesn't the term "social murder" include capitalism?~~

Edit. I should be asleep and part of my brain is sleeping. You were very specific and you said "driving enemies of capital to suicide". I'll still leave this here...

Social murder

Although originally written with regard to the English city of Manchester in the Victorian era, the term has been used by left-wing politicians such as John McDonnell in the 21st century to describe Conservative economic policy as well as events such as the Grenfell Tower fire.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mr. Barnett killed himself during his appeal for his rejected defamation lawsuit against Boeing.

so you're saying if the appeal was successful, boeing would potentially owe him a lot of money? sounds like they still had a solid motive, then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

There's no way defamation damages are worth the reputational and legal risk. And even if they were, Boeing would've moved to kill him earlier then.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Oh, so the matter is clearly settled then, Boeing must of listened to his reports 5 years ago and then fixed all their mechanical problems, I guess his head just did that then, and all the doors flying off Boeing planes were just my imagination.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

frothingfash Those of us who are good bootlicker and ass kissers are man enough to shut the fuck up and keep our heads down.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have no idea, it's entirely possible and it's suspicious but maybe capitalism just manages to outsource even the silencing of whistleblowers, from the criminal enterprise to short sellers or something gawk

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

even entertaining that it was suicide, I'm left with: boeing abused a whistleblower, didn't fix shit (on flagrant display in recent news), and he was in the process of getting chewed up by the courts

if there's a term similar to "social murder" but specifically for driving enemies of capital to suicide, I'm not aware of it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

A Reddit link was detected in your post. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Again, if they needed him dead to avoid very incriminating facts entering the record, presumably they'd do it before two days of depos.

Dude was sick and spited Boeing on his way out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I want to know what he said in court. Boeing is the ones who wanted him to stay an extra day. It warrents an investigation.