It’s too early at this point for a clear understanding of the underlying cause the power failure on the M/V Dali. A few mariners have filled that gap with YouTube videos.
My view is that while these early videos have flaws they do help, if not providing clear answers they at least provide the most relevant questions.
Here’s the alternative to the YouTube videos from creators with a maritime background
Soon after 7 a.m. EST, on Tuesday, less than six hours after the bridge collapsed, Andrew Tate, an online provocateur with more than 9 million followers on X, posted, without offering a shred of evidence, that the ship had been “cyber-attacked” and was deliberately steered toward the bridge.
Sal’s videos, along with the others, while not perfect are at least in the right ballpark and provides an alternative to the conspiracy theory popping up everywhere. Sal’s video has about a million views, This Tate fellow’s X account has 8 million.
This article seems to be more of a pot shot about X’s lack of fact checking over the real root cause of the issue. In more gray areas like social issues and politics, I believe these hardline “fact checkers” can be a bad deal for discourse. While Andrew Tate is an idiot, what sets him apart from normal idiot is his “good” content actually makes a lot of sense, and it just happens to run counter to mainstream ideologies. He catches a lot of flack because he has gained a following of young men, and forces people who believe they know the facts to consider that perhaps, there are more than one way to skin a cat. Thats what the absence of fact checking is all about.
I think people should have the right to say “perhaps the ship suffered from Havannah syndrome at the hands of GRU Unit 29155” and we are within our rights to say “no, thats some dumb shit” after doing further research.
But the real reason the collapse spawned a bunch of conspiracies, is the human condition to find an explanation for why bad things happen. Whether it be Religion, foreign agressors, or the US goverment trying to hide the the President’s and Vice President’s involvement in the ENRON scandle. Conspiracies are a great coping mechanism for guilt an anxiety, being able to point at a boogeyman for the real cause of a death is a lot easier to process than the floor randomly falling out from underneath you one day due to no real fault of anyone. “A lot of people tried their best with the information they had avaliable at the time, and made the wrong call” is a lot scarier to grapple with than some grand conspiracy for total control, because “sometime I try my best, surely its going to work if I do it, right? Clealry there is an evil agenda here because the outcome sucked.”
I’m happy to look at conspiracy theories because many of them become fact some time later.
JFK wasn’t shot by a lone gunman but that is only now being officially acknowledged. The conspiracy theories started with the view that the official explanation (and investigation) were rubbish. Some famous three letter agencies told porky pies.
I’ve watched podcasts of expert engineers, explosives specialists, Team 6 Seals, all pointing out what they say are obvious (to them) thermite explosions (steel cutting charges) well away from the Daili’s crash site which resulted in the total collapse of the bridge spans. They aren’t hard to find, but you won’t find them on any main stream site.
Anyone like to hazard a guess as to why thermite might be exploding high up on the bridge steel spans in exactly convenient locations at precisely the right times for total collapse?
Has anyone asked why there are nice videos of the ship from well before it was of any particular interest beautifully capturing the bridge collapse?
And I don’t accept the authorities don’t know by now what happened in sufficient detail to explain why the ship turned to hit at a seemingly precisely vulnerably point.
Oh, and how the traffic was stopped. Pilots have this power? And the contacts handy? And who actually stopped the traffic? Traffic lights? A man at each end with a swinging lantern?
I’m thinking conspiracy theories are much more fun.
The difference btw conspiracy theory of 30 years ago and the truth was 10 years.
The difference btw conspiracy theory nawadays and the truth is 3 weeks.
Comparing Dr. Sal videos with conspiracy theorists videos is an insult directed at Dr.Sal.
Just saying
Addendum: Here is one fom the Mother or perhaps Father of all conspiracy theorists. The Grand Master and Pope of conspiracy church his excellency Alex with infowars channel
I’m more and more skeptical of everything I see on the internet these days. If I read something that interests me I try to find a somewhat reliable source to confirm or deny what that may be.
What I don’t like are partisan “fact checkers” or those who believe in censorship. I really really hate being told what to think.
That said… there are surely some whack-a-doodles out there these days.
You are not alone. I’m not sure what circle of the inferno it is, but a mid to four watch with an AB on the bridge can be some of the looniest shit you’ve ever heard and interminable.
Nothink like surviving a 4 hour sovern citizen lecture from the AB to have the captain show up and explain how we invated Iraq because of the Stargate “they” found in the desert.
Like those aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon? … that couldn’t be found anywhere in the wreckage? … and the engine that was found wasn’t fitted to any aircraft in that … hologram?
Lots of insults so far but no evidence or debate. Quite typical of this site.
Just for kicks, here’s a podcast discussing the strange confluence of events combining to bring down the bridge, seal the harbour and cut a vital road link.
I agree that the motive, our motive in fact is to find an explanation. What this Tate guy is doing is taking advantage of a hack into the human mind which is susceptible to various biases etc. The narrative fallacy for one, Nassim Taleb’s book “Fooled by Randomness” is about this. Ask chatbot about the book.
I believe it’s the same with your criticism of CNN’s article. Their articles are formulaic, the writers basically follow a template to write them. They need an example in the article and of course they’d pick a prominent one but the narrative that he’s the specific target is going to make more sense to some people.
There’s a whisper through the grapevine about the latest leap in secret government technology: the capability to create realistic holograms of ships. These aren’t your average light shows; we’re talking full-scale, sea-worthy vessels, conjured out of thin air, complete with the sound of crashing waves and the illusion of massive bulk moving through water.
Imagine the implications—phantom fleets appearing overnight on peaceful horizons, specters of naval power used to sway geopolitical tensions or manipulate maritime markets without firing a single real cannon.
It’s a new era of non-existent armadas that could change the nature of naval warfare and international relations. As always, the question isn’t just how advanced the technology might be, but how it’s being used, and what real events are being masked by these ghostly apparitions on the high seas.
Shipping has always attracted that crowd. Hell one navy reserve officer who basically worked for that era’s MSC who used the treasure trove of crazy crew to write science fiction and launch
even a global religion about alien spirits
But I firmly agree with your earlier post. It’s just as dangerous (possibly more) to dismiss outlier theories until the facts come in.
Finally I blame the military Public Affairs Officers. I have been covering these things for decades and, while incident commanders have always been reluctant to talk, I’ve never seen the government actively suppress the media this hard. It’s just last week where the media has finally been able to ask questions at press conferences and visit the incident command center.
Conspiracy theories tend to flourish when you suppress the media.
I don’t know who Andrew Tate is - my apologies up front.
I’m concerned that the “experts”, under the guise of shouting down conspiracy theorists, are sweeping reasonable evidence off the evidence table. The US government is shouting a Red Alert over Volt Typhoon. VT is the Chinese Cyber attack, on-going since March 2023 that targets critical Infrastructure. DHS CISA, FBI, NSA/Cyber Command have been bouncing off the wall since Dec 2023 in Congressional Testimony, but anyone who dares connect Volt Typhoon with maritime IT is being labeled a conspiracy theorist. Very unwise. VT is what led to the Biden Executive Order in February that specifically addresses the Chinese ZPMC Spy Crane issue.
There has been academic research going back a number of years positing the use of digital marine ship to short radio as an entry point for malign malware. Now, if anybody mentions it, they are labeled a conspiracy theorist. Far too early to sweep causal factors off the evidence table.
DHS, FBI, and now Cyber Command are freaking out over VT. But a wall and moat has been built between VT and Baltimore. Again, far too early to sweep it off the evidence table, not saying it was the cause in anyway shape or form. But we have to be open minded about causal and contributory factors.
I know the US Government, inter-agency process of reviewing such complex situations very well having lived through a number of large scale, breaches and living the hell of the inter agency process of reviewing the evidence.
I’m firmly straddling the middle on this one. I’m not saying it was cyber, I’m not saying it wasn’t cyber. I’m hoping the current team reviewing the evidence reviews all the evidence and does not politically dismiss evidence or declines to follow leads because of an established narrative. The federal government can’t shout Volt Typhoon and then ignore it when something happens.
