How to Talk About the Pentagon’s UFO Report Without Sounding Like a Conspiracy Theorist
The idea of alien life has long seemed like fiction, immortalized in pop culture and discarded in the mainstream as a stupid conspiracy, but a Republican senator from Florida wants you to know that the truth, uh, might be somewhere nearby.
In a recent appearance on 60 Minutes, Marco Rubio spoke of the existence of “unidentified aerial phenomena” that, according to an upcoming report from the Office of Naval Intelligence and the FBI, have regularly crossed unauthorized airspace over the United States for many years. confusing pilots and senior Pentagon officials.
“The men and women we have entrusted to protect our country are reporting collisions with unidentified planes with superior capabilities,” Rubio said, according to the Tampa Bay Times . “We cannot allow the UFO stigma to prevent us from seriously investigating this case. The forthcoming report is one of the steps in this process, but not the last. “
This is not the rumble of a man hallucinating, but part of a growing concern that real UFOs are racing in the skies over Earth, as confirmed by naval pilots and senior intelligence officials . In the 60 minutes segment, Luis Elizondo, former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, described technologies with otherworldly capabilities:
Imagine a technology that can travel between 6 and 700 G-forces, that can fly at 13,000 miles per hour, that can evade radar, and that can fly through air, water, and possibly space. And, by the way, it has no obvious signs of movement, wings, control surfaces, and yet it can withstand the natural effects of earth’s gravity. This is what we observe.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions when it comes to the possibility of alien life, and this debate is often split between two camps: one insists on the existence of an unknown truth worth exploring, while the other dismisses it as science fiction. But given that the US government is really serious about these observations, what should we do about this issue and how do you talk about the possibility of extraterrestrial life without pretending that you will seize any chance to herald an unfounded conspiracy?
What you need to know about the Pentagon’s UFO report
In recent years, Congress has publicly scrutinized research into various alleged UFO sightings, with former Nevada Senator Harry Reid pushing for the Pentagon to investigate the phenomenon in 2017 (the same year the agency published a report on the topic).
The current report, which is due in part to the public in about six weeks, was part of an item subtly wedging into last year’s $ 2.3 trillion COVID relief package. Specifically, it is part of a provision that applies to the FY2021 Intelligence Authority Act, particularly in the Advanced Air Threats section, as reported in March by the Washington Post . This effort was spearheaded by Rubio, along with the bipartisan faction of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Office of Naval Intelligence, the Unidentified Aerial Activity Task Force and the FBI have collected the details. If the hype is confirmed, the June report will be a bombshell, providing “in-depth analysis of data and intelligence on unidentified aerial events” in what is likely the most unadorned public view of previously classified government UFO information.
The report was certainly not unprecedented. Last April, the Department of Defense declassified two videos filmed by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015. Subsequently, these videos were leaked in 2007 and 2017, respectively, and show bizarre collisions with planes that confused the military. Despite all the inspiration over the years on the speculation about videos, the Pentagon did not jump to conclusions or conclusive answers, noting in a statement that “the aerial phenomena seen in the videos are still characterized as ‘unidentified’.”
Now that the 60-minute segment is broadcast nationwide, the intrigue has only heightened, which likely heralds an important news event. In an interview with CBS, Elizondo, a former intelligence officer, uttered an ominous tone: “I’m not telling you it doesn’t sound stupid … I’m telling you it’s true. The question is, what is it? What are his intentions? What are its capabilities? “
How do we talk about UFOs now?
While all this evidence can create a very compelling drama, the truth remains that you don’t really know anything. As far as civilians are concerned, we can only repeat the public statements by intelligence officials and naval pilots who witnessed these strange events so that you don’t risk sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
Undoubtedly, officials from the Pentagon to the Senate and the FBI are hedging and calling for caution, and the fact remains – and likely likely – that the government is still keeping confidential details of these unknown sightings.
All we can do, since people with no access to facts or secret government documents, is speculation, which is okay and probably pretty funny, but we just realize that all we can do is speculate. Postulating your own theories from a few short news videos only makes someone seem like a child who has let their imaginations run wild.
I mean, at the cost of losing all the fun of humanity’s first (possibly) confirmed encounter with extraterrestrial life, let’s do ourselves a favor and wait until we know more before yelling aliens! from our bedroom windows. Eventually, the report will be out next month. And then we can scream a lot more.