Its only a conspiracy theory if people on the other side of politics believe it

Nothing like politics to make people miss the beam in their own eye

People who believe nonsense about the government assassinating our own citizens come from all across the political spectrum, especially on the fringes. I legitimately don't know the politics of the people commenting here, nor do you know mine.

Were Anwar al-Awlaki, and the three other U.S. citizens they smoked at the same time also fringe conspiracy theory?

or maybe you’re just not fully familiar with the rules of engagement Continuity of Government sets for itself.

Officials in the US government confirmed to reputable reporters that al-awlaki had been killed in a CIA drone strike almost immediately after it happened.[0] Speculating that the US government is secretly assassinating US citizens that are not members of a foreign terrorist organization that the government has been authorized by Congress to wage war against is a huge leap that requires justification

[0] https://abcnews.com/Blotter/anwar-al-awlaki-killed-officials...

I'm well aware of Anwar al-Awklaki. Lived in Yemen and was a recruiter for and a senior member of Al Qaeda, a terrorist group we are at war with, connected with a number of terrorist attacks against the west, as well as kidnappings and assassination plots. And thats kind of just scratching the surface.

He wasn't working at US Cyber Command in the US.

I'm assuming you understand the vast difference here. And that waging war against the US puts you on a different playing field.

I assumed you would assume that.

I was specifically replying to

> People who believe nonsense about the government assassinating our own citizens

ensuring the reader knows the US definitely kills US citizens (without / in absence of trial) depending on the circumstances.

Brings me no joy to report, but many falsely believe otherwise.

I confused by this comment. You do not know the politics of people here but I should before making a comment that agrees with yours?

> come from all across the political spectrum

My point is that people are far more likely to call something a conspiracy theory if it comes from the other side to their own

Being that this is the internet I mistook your statement for saying that I was just calling this a conspiracy theory because I was on the opposite side of the politics of the people I was speaking ill of.

If that wasn't the case, I apologize for my misunderstanding.

I should have clarified I was agreeing too.

> Being that this is the internet

True and funny and depressing at the same time.

it's pretty much impossible to engage with people in a sane way in threads like this. hide and move on.

HN wasn’t always this way, and was one of the last to fall. But yeah, it’s a shame

The problem with that is, eventually the conspiracy people think that there's no good answer to what they're saying.

That, and all the undecided lurkers reading pages of unchallenged conspiracy.

Conspiracy theories thrive in environments of silence. If no one can talk about their time in government organizations (military, CIA, etc.), speculation is all we have left.

the real problem you seem to be describing is a lack of faith or trust in the institutions, rather than the silence. if we had faith and/or trust in institution X, Y or Z then the silence wouldn’t be a problem.

in my experience; speculation fuels distrust, which fuels more speculation, which leads to a spiral.

similar thing as gossip. why would i trust you when you’ve been gossiping with me about our mutual friend? then i go off and gossip about you gossiping to my other friend etc.

loose lips sink ships — the things we say have consequences.

Omitting truth also has consequences, hence the speculation.

yeah, but you and i can't do much about what some institution is doing on a daily basis. we can, however, do a lot more about what we're doing on a daily basis -- i.e. not engaging with or spreading speculative bullshit / FUD.

there's enough bullshit for people to deal with in the world. why add to it?

Conspiracy theorists are also the ones who are most likely to read HN constantly, and will get to new posts first. Once it gets bumped up enough, the regular people see it, and as you can see, the conspiracy theories have been properly dealt with.