The UFO/alien abduction thread

Military is clearly less concerned with the possibility of alien visitations and more concerned with the possibility of a new Soviet technology or perhaps some kind of psy op being carried out by the Soviets. And they knew it was dangerous to national security to have too many UFO reports clogging up intelligence channels bc then reports of genuine threats would be harder to zero in on. Within the past year, The New Yorker has published several pieces (also at least one of their podcast episodes is) about US Gov dealing with UFO reports, managing to at least officially explain away most, but going to some lengths to discredit and thus discourage dissent on the subject. One prob is that officeholders get interested in the subject, then enthusiastic, and can't be brushed off or derided. At least one guy got hired or drafted to head the program because he said he didn't care about UFOs at all--think the exact interview exchange was, "What do you think about UFOs?" "I don't think about them."

Haven't read those pieces, but what I'm understanding from reading about the early UFO days is that the US Gov is in kind of a bind, because they don't want people *not* to report anomalies in the sky, but at the same time it's counterproductive for a wide swath of the public to jump to the conclusion that there is some kind of alien incursion going on. This is the kind of belief that could be manipulated for propaganda purposes by an enemy state. And yes, there has always been a sizeable minority in the US govt who actually do believe the alien hypothesis; that's a complication.

I went looking for something about UFOs to listen to and came across the podcast Strange Arrivals, which focuses on the Hill case for the entirity of its first season. I've not finished it all yet but it's been enjoyable so far.

Definitely check out The Saucer Life podcast too.

it is interesting that many people believe in this stuff now. like, i'll bring up the zimbabwe school incident in conversation and everyone there will have heard about it.

I've met far more people in my life who believe in them then people who don't.

Xp I think that's a story that did the rounds on twitter at some point - at least that's where i first heard of it.

Just listened to the Strange Arrivals episode “Regressed” which deals with the hypnosis part of the Hill case. Great stuff, I appreciate the skeptical bent of it, at least of this episode.

https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/

seems like something's going on here. this dude does not appear to be a crackpot.

Trying to figure out if this is one of the episodes where incontrovertible evidence is uncovered or where high-ranking officials have whipped up a convincing fake so that Mulder again loses faith.

The Pentagon says it's not true, which will be proof enough for some that it is true.

The Pentagon says it's not true, which will be proof enough for some that it is true.

(sorry, an alien made me post that twice)

in the Guardian now:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/whistleblower-ufo-alien-tech-spacecraft

gotta say I feel a little bad for the dumbass alien who crashed and accidentally alerted an entire species to their extistence

the smartest "skeptic" theory of this (which is to say, skeptical not of Grusch as a source but of the existence of a long-held conspiracy to conceal evidence of aliens from congress) is this one:

In light of the Coulthart/Debrief story about David Grusch, I'd just like to raise again this question I asked three days ago.

(With the caveat that Grush did not actually work in such a program, and we don't yet know who did) https://t.co/1QjMw2ylyN

— Mick West (@MickWest) June 5, 2023

if -i- had to bet i'd put my personal random guesstimates at:
60% they were just reverse-engineering chinese tech or private tech or whatever
25% there's a long-held conspiracy to conceal evidence of aliens from congress
15% Grusch isn't reliable

this dude does not appear to be a crackpot

i would have agreed, up until the dude claimed the usa is hiding ufos. now he does appear to be a crackpot

the responses to that twitter thread are a great example of how mere mention of ufos brings out the idiot in a lot of people. they’re busy debating “advanced tech indistinguishable from alien / magical / wakandan / time traveler tech” … but the article never says he saw anything advanced, just metallurgy he didn’t recognize. for all we know could be like a lot of the weird rocks found in meteorites and/or spit up by volcanoes, ie completely useless!

I am an alien

Less convincing than the eerie but thus far "zero evidence of alien origin" oumuamua

https://cropper.watch.aetnd.com/cdn.watch.aetnd.com/sites/5/2017/11/CharlieBrownLucyFootball.jpg

Okay this happened in California:

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/09/20/77623183-12725557-image-m-57_1699563393039.jpg

Daily Mail is obv. trash but I love their breathless UFO reporting

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12725557/Air-Force-officer-breaks-silence-red-glowing-UFO-size-football-field-hovering-low-altitude-space-launch-base-California-event-witnessed-half-dozen-military-personnel-People-screaming-scared.html

ah what a shame, my adblocker prevents me ever having to read the Mail.

80 people witnessed it but no photos.

It happened in 2003, but yeah.

razr/flipphone camera photos would be about as enlightening as no photo at all lol

Where does one sign up to volunteer to be abducted?

This planet sucks and I am tired of it.

they'll probe you and bring you back just to have recurring nightmares... trust me, it's not worth it

There is something very weird going on with the congressional hearings and intelligence community leaks on this topic over the past year or two. Especially these guys, all retired military commanders: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190390376/ufo-hearing-non-human-biologics-uaps

I do not for one moment believe the US government has crashed alien spacecraft and “biologics” in their possession. So why is this information being released? What is the point of the hoax and who is behind it?

They're diverting attention away from their own experiments with stealth and anti-gravity propulsion stuff? And linking it all to the little green men makes it easier to dismiss everyone who investigates as a crazy person.

I'd still like everything to be true but without actual proof time travel and faster than light and intelligent aliens etc are all just pipe dreams.

The next "oh that UFO shit you saw for the last 20 years, that was our new triangular stealth bomber, here it is, tadaa" has to be flying around already, they're not going to tell us until they've lost their advantage.

grusch's testimony doesn't project neatly onto this theory

the most reasonable explanation i've heard is that there are some secret programs keeping track of other foreign countries' super-high-tech (eg: china) and that grusch either misunderstood or was deceived about these programs, leading him to understand them to be non-human in origin

Nicholson Baker is not convinced, says it's balloons but doesn't offer a theory for Grusch's testimony.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/leslie-kean-ufo-sightings-aliens.html

a tiny core of purposeful disinformation, a vast army of useful idiots/credulous nitwits (including grusch) and a thin shell of chancers looking for a paycheck, is how I break it down to an extent.

what abt these guys

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFqmEVWWYAAJxih?format=jpg

elder gods are not space aliens

to them we are probably the aliens