4 ms·
Hastings ticked off some very powerful people in his short life. Ticking powerful people off is a good way to die in a plane wreck, a car wreck, a "fall" or any
by ferdo 13y ago
Hastings ticked off some very powerful people in his short life. Ticking powerful people off is a good way to die in a plane wreck, a car wreck, a "fall" or any number of other accidents.
I'm not saying this is what happened, but it seems more likely than not that he was assassinated for his work.
- snowwrestler 13y agoYou know who else ticked off some powerful people? Daniel Ellsburg. Seymour Hersh. Bob Woodward. Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. All of whom are still alive. Hastings wrote a magazine story that forced a general to retire. That general is now making a very cozy living as a speaker and consultant. Not exactly horrible stuff. I just object to the mindset that ticking off powerful people is likely to lead to murder, when there is so much obvious counter evidence.
- ferdo 13y agoJust like the guy that discovered Bush Jr's coke bust "committed suicide": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hatfield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hatfield This wasn't just a hit, it was personal. Someone really disliked Hastings.
- krapp 13y agoYou can go into a bookstore right now and find books calling Obama a muslim traitor and probably the antichrist. If the government actually killed authors who wrote negative things about presidents during their terms, it would be the second leading cause of death for American authors after alcoholism. Hating on presidents in the long form is practically an entire genre. Sometimes, you know, people take too many pills and then they never wake up. Sometimes people get into car crashes. Sometimes things just happen, and death like life doesn't have to follow a neat and obvious narrative.
- lobster_johnson 13y ago> You can go into a bookstore right now and find books calling Obama a muslim traitor and probably the antichrist. But those things are untrue. There is no point in trying to silence — or to avenge the publication of — something that is (1) untrue and (2) does no measurable harm.
- krapp 13y agoSure, but the administration already dealt with the book in the 'proper' way, which was to deny all allegations and discredit the author. I remember there being some jokes about it on late night television, but nothing major in terms of public relations fallout. I just don't see it as having been worth killing over, it was a minor though momentarily noteworthy event. I definitely don't see it as corroborating evidence that presidents so routinely have their opponents and critics killed that Michael Hastings' car crash must most likely have been a bomb (or whatever), when the more reasonable explanation seems to serve perfectly well.
- snowwrestler 13y agoOk, now the anecdotal data score is 2 to 5.
- leot 13y agoI've been wanting Freakonomics (or anyone, really) to systematically contrast death rates of more-powerful v.s. less-powerful parties* after it has become known that the more-powerful party has become significantly aggrieved by the less-powerful one. *if it's possible -- I'm not certain that it is
- JshWright 13y agoWait... more likely than not? People die in crashes every day... fiery wrecks happen all the time... Parts fly out of vehicles in high impact collisions... None of these things are uncommon, so how do you possibly make the leap that it's 'more likely than not'?
- ferdo 13y ago> how do you possibly make the leap that it's 'more likely than not'? Because I'm not a coincidence theorist when it comes to how power operates. The Obama administration has publicly claimed the power to kill American citizens, the first administration to do so. To ignore that consideration is just as shortsighted as saying, "A DRONE STRIKE DUN IT!".
- krapp 13y agoThat still doesn't make it more likely than not. A regular car crash is still far more likely.