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Comment by lylejantzi3rd | Hacker News Reader

Here's something for your daily dose of "that's strange:" In 2021 residents of East Palestine, Ohio were extras in filming a train derailment scene for the movie "White Noise"(2022).

"Ratner, 37, is in a traffic jam scene, sitting in a line of cars trying to evacuate after a freight train collided with a tanker truck, triggering an explosion that fills the air with dangerous toxins."

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailment-...

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This odd fact will spawn thousands of conspiracy videos and crisis actor accusations. Cue ominous music…

Derailment can be a result of sabotage. The location is near major food and water sources. So while not exactly a conspiracy yet, it seems important to understand exactly what occurred in this derailment.

Allegedly, some axles were already on fire 20 miles before the crash: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/02/10/...

Also a lack of proper physical safety measures. Known safety improvements that were recently blocked[0] specifically the requirement to run hazards/flammable liquids with ECP Brakes which reducing stopping distance by >50% and also prevent cars from building pressure in between better braking cars and derailing.

[0] https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rule...

Having taken a few rides on America’s rails, I don’t think it needs any sabotage. It’s collapsing on its own.

That's what makes it such a great target. The decaying state of our infrastructure makes it easy to sabotage in subtle ways and then blame it on negligence.

The term you'll actually hear from the conspiracy theorists regarding this is "predictive programming".

They were already talking about this several days ago, and the main talking point was how the media wasn't really talking about it.

This is the first place I've seen people openly talk of sabotage.

Conspiracies are a part of life and history. It pays to keep an open and curious mind.

Do you know the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth? Time.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of response are you expecting here? "I know the difference between reality and fantasy! The space aliens explained it all to me years ago."

None really - it was a joke. Claiming that the bush administration was lying about iraq having weapons of mass destruction would have been called a conspiracy theory, yet in time, we learned it was true.

I agree with you. I updated my original comment because I screwed up the wording.

I don’t know. Someone who was an extra could have easily been inspired by the movie to carry out this sabotage just a year later. It doesn’t take much to derail a train, I could go derail a train right now if I wanted to. You just need key bits of knowledge. Quick visit to a hardware store.

Wow. A disaster scene being filmed for a big-budget movie, and when the same disaster actually happens in the same place, it's largely overlooked - that's exactly the kind of thing that would happen in the book.

White Noise is way older than 2021. I read the book last century. I guess it's a coincidence that this was filmed a bit before an actual airborne toxic event, but I wouldn't think too much about it.

Isn't the coincidence that it was filmed in the same location at all?

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