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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

Might be a good idea to make these kinds of statements in a more public manner on the socials. @ing the company your commenting against as well as any local police, FBI, or other pertinent TLAs. Let the opposition know they are no longer operating in the shadows. Of course the TLAs won't actively do anything about it proactively, but maybe it'll give more credence than the grieving friend's say-so later??? Have it in writing notarized, and on display in the video you post. This isn't a Grisham novel from the 90s. It's much easier to document things today.

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I don't know about the game theory of the whole thing.

If a group does want to murder a whistleblower, they presumably want to do it for two reasons:

- To prevent them from testifying further - To scare other potential whistleblowers into not testifying

A public statement of "if something happens to me it wasn't suicide!" is certainly not evidence enough. But it's a strong hint...which is actually the most favorable outcome to the murdering org, since it maximizes the chilling effect of the murder.

It could also just be a ploy to get that life insurance payout when there's a suicide clause. It can be gamed from many directions

The problem is that even then you'll be able to get people to dismiss it with a "well, but he was mentally disturbed enough to lie about what we did, so clearly he just wanted to get one last dig in when he committed suicide". In other words, I don't think it'd be any significant deterrent to anyone prepared to call in a hit - anyone ready to do that would already have accepted that it will look dodgy and be prepared to counter it by smearing you.

If you want to deter a hit in a situation like that, I think the only way to do that is to ensure you have very significant additional data (or at least convincingly imply you do) and make it clear they'll be released if you "commit suicide".

I think John McAfee basically did this, and most people think he died by suicide.

https://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-tweet-said-his-s...

But also, he was John McAfee. The man was actually crazy and not a Joe Normal or even a whistleblower.

On one side I agree with you, on the other, such statements are far from conclusive proof of anything.

Let's make a small mental exercise:

- you end up being a whistleblower against your company

- every of your former friends hates you, your family isn't super supportive either for what you caused to the rest of the family (in reputation, attention, possibly financially)

- you decide to end it

- you leave such statements before ending it to clear your name / further punish the company

I am not saying that this has happened, but people can have millions of motivations and victims being vengeful or lying is actually a surprisingly common phenomenon even though they may really be the victims of the whole situation.

> every of your former friends hates you

Ah yes, people hate it when people call out corruption that results in the planes they fly to kill people!

>your family isn't super supportive either for what you caused to the rest of the family (in reputation, attention, possibly financially)

Again, I agree their neighbors and friends must have been super pissed when he called out Boeing for building dangerous planes that can kill people! Nothing makes regular people more upset when you put integrity over the profits of some corporation!

And I am sure the family were super pissed when pursuing a civil lawsuit that would benefit them. I am sure they were so upset about the negative repercussions to Boeing!

I guess we can all agree that he killed himself for the benefit of friends and family something that you always hear when a father kills himself! /s

actually, most people prefer the ignorance is bliss style of life like flamingos with their heads in the sand. your coming around and making me think about things really puts a damper in my plans, and quite honestly, it makes my head hurt. from now on, i'm no longer going to add you to my invite list just to avoid you telling me more things as well as no longer accepting your invites. i will change your contact in my device to include "ostracized" so i don't forget /s

> Ah yes, people hate it when people call out corruption that results in the planes they fly to kill people!

I obviously referred to former coworkers whose livelihood is on the table. Whether you believe it or not, whistleblowing isn't seen favorably from those that still work there. If it was, they would've been themselves.

> Nothing makes regular people more upset when you put integrity over the profits of some corporation!

If you're the wife/child and your own life is dragged by your father losing his job and being dragged in lawsuits, while you're the butt of the mouth of everyone you know may not be an enjoyable experience.

Anyway, mine was a mental exercise to show one of the possibilities, I guess this kind of thinking of different situations is not the strength of people that see the world in black and white.

Maybe hate is the wrong word, but people become tired, anxious, flee, in greater numbers than take a stand and give support.

TLA = three letter agency?

yes. it's a rather common three letter acronym used as an all encompassing way to refer to government agencies commonly known by their own three letter acronyms: FBI, CIA, NSA, DoD, DoJ, ATF, CDC etc

TIL

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