An interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that they functionally serve to direct attention away from obvious, straightforward, and plausible truths — which even if unintentional, kind of makes them… the ultimate conspiracy.
I see this play out in the Signal conspiracy theories that come up every week. Although honestly, sometimes the most disappointing thing is how unimaginative they are.
Can’t I at least be a reptilian lizard person, or something a little more creative than an unlikely CIA agent?
This seems to be in response to Dessalines’ essay. And its pretty telling that the only “argument” this guy has is to call it a conspiracy theory, and distract with talk about “lizard people”. To me that confirms that the essay is broadly correct (otherwise they would make some actual arguments).
He often does deflect whenever there are legitimate criticisms made.
For the record also, I never called marlinspike a CIA asset, otherwise why would he decry some of the US’s staunch allies like UAE and turkey.
But it is undeniable that signal got a good amount of funding from radio free asia, and that its an un-self-hostable, centralized US messaging service, with mandatory phone numbers.
These wouldn’t be acceptable for any privacy-oriented messaging app, and people are similarly blinded in their devotion to signal in the same way they are to apple: because of its UX and other features.
However, there is no proof of whether Moxie actually read Dessalines essay. Not meaning to disrespect, but I would not be able to tell how “large” Lemmy devs are outside Lemmy. So let us not jump to conclusions (on whether Moxie referred them) yet.
The story got a lot of traction on lobste.rs and other social media as well.
I see it more like a jaded Buzz Aldrin constantly getting hounded by people claiming he never went to the moon. Would you waste any more time after the 100th time someone accused you of something you know 100% to be untrue?
