This is not evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. This is rank hearsay, and it doesn't belong here.
The mans family said he had PTSD and Anxiety. The gun he killed himself with was his own gun. Considering those factors and occam's razor it feels disrespectful to have this sort of speculative conversation. If this were his wife, kids, mother I would be inclined to say news worthy, but random friend as the only person who heard this story feels a whole lot like someone looking for their own 15 minutes of fame.
Note: I did not flag it and have a comment on one of the other threads...
I do, I didn't, but I understand why it happens. my HN account is 14 years old, I read comments frequently, comment rarely, upvote occasionally, and flag very very rarely.
I don't downvote because can't, I don't have enough karma yet. so, even if people who can't yet downvote don't know the full effects of flagging it's _literally_ their only option to indicate their belief something doesn't belong on the front page.
there's an implicit analogue between comments and submissions. i suspect low karma users use the only tools at their disposal for both
But who would do something like that and have the resources to do that? (<-- that applies to TFA and the meta situation)
I found this info interesting in a Reddit aviation thread. It helps with the tinfoil hat feelings.
>He was not testifying against Boeing for anything to do with their planes. He already did that and has been public about it since 2019. This deposition was for the appeal for his own civil defamation case against Boeing, which he orginially lost. So Boeing was not threatened by his testimony in anyway. Even if they lost the case or settled, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the harm he has already caused them and other legal issues they are already having...
Okay then it should be flagged by your reasoning, did you read the article? Because there's no proof in it that he ever said it. A woman who refused to identify herself past a first name claims he said it.
Comments can be upvoted, downvoted, or flagged. There, voting may be used to express agreement and disagreement, but flagging should only be used for comments that violate the site's guidelines.