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If someone in the government wanted to be rid of Hastings wouldn't it be far simpler to have him "just disappear"? You could always claim you didn't know where

by smoyer 13y ago

If someone in the government wanted to be rid of Hastings wouldn't it be far simpler to have him "just disappear"? You could always claim you didn't know where he was and there's nothing to investigate. Since he claimed to be going underground for a while, no one would even start asking soon enough to gather evidence. So I'm skeptical of this crash being an assassination simply because it's one of the harder ways to pull it off and it's inviting investigation. This crash being a way for Hastings to disappear would be much more plausible.

jlgreco 13y ago
This is exactly the sort of analysis that conspiracy theorists often never do. "Drones the size of 747's and several tons of thermite"? Why not just actually hijack a plane? "More reliable backup shooter on the grassy knoll"? Why not just put that shooter in the book depository in the first place? "Pacifying the masses by systematically poisoning the air with 'chemtrails' and the water with fluorine"? Why not just reality television, and cushy lives?
- smoyer 13y ago
  Most of us here are software engineers and are used to analyzing a problem and finding the least complicated method of achieving a goal to solve that problem. Yet conspiracy theorists seem to think that no one else in the world solves problems. I think your examples above are perfectly reasonable "easier" solutions.
ellisd 13y ago
Hastings' "own baggage as a recovering drunk/addict/screw-up"[1] is free cover for late night car crash to not be properly investigated. [1] http://trueslant.com/michaelhastings/2009/04/28/a-case-of-the-relapse-for-young-addictauthor/ http://trueslant.com/michaelhastings/2009/04/28/a-case-of-th...
leot 13y ago
It depends on whether people would talk more, and more inquisitively, about "disappear" as compared with talking about a "car crash" one. It also depends on the relative practical difficulties in orchestrating the two kinds of hits. Making a paranoid journalist vanish might be tricky, since they'd presumably be pretty cautious about meeting shady characters in out-of-the-way locations. I suspect an orchestrated car crash, which provides lots of possible counter-conspiracy narrative bits to grab on to, and for which the practicalities might have been thoroughly worked out ahead of time, could be an attractive approach for eliminating a domestic "threat to national security".

by smoyer 13y ago

jlgreco 13y ago

This is exactly the sort of analysis that conspiracy theorists often never do. "Drones the size of 747's and several tons of thermite"? Why not just actually hijack a plane? "More reliable backup shooter on the grassy knoll"? Why not just put that shooter in the book depository in the first place? "Pacifying the masses by systematically poisoning the air with 'chemtrails' and the water with fluorine"? Why not just reality television, and cushy lives?

smoyer 13y ago
Most of us here are software engineers and are used to analyzing a problem and finding the least complicated method of achieving a goal to solve that problem. Yet conspiracy theorists seem to think that no one else in the world solves problems. I think your examples above are perfectly reasonable "easier" solutions.

ellisd 13y ago

Hastings' "own baggage as a recovering drunk/addict/screw-up"[1] is free cover for late night car crash to not be properly investigated. [1] http://trueslant.com/michaelhastings/2009/04/28/a-case-of-the-relapse-for-young-addictauthor/ http://trueslant.com/michaelhastings/2009/04/28/a-case-of-th...

leot 13y ago

It depends on whether people would talk more, and more inquisitively, about "disappear" as compared with talking about a "car crash" one. It also depends on the relative practical difficulties in orchestrating the two kinds of hits. Making a paranoid journalist vanish might be tricky, since they'd presumably be pretty cautious about meeting shady characters in out-of-the-way locations. I suspect an orchestrated car crash, which provides lots of possible counter-conspiracy narrative bits to grab on to, and for which the practicalities might have been thoroughly worked out ahead of time, could be an attractive approach for eliminating a domestic "threat to national security".