UFO/ET/alien visitation talk has legs.

[Bubba]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice

UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some.

What gives it legs?

 

[Denver]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice

UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some.

What gives it legs?

It offers something for everybody:

- Spiritual elements (planetary alignments, ascensions, visitations)
- Plenty of science terms to throw around and sound smart about
- Easier than Ghosthunting (less equipment, and just go outside. Or to bed.)
- Generally more and better past alien movies and tv shows to build upon
- Lots of room for the conspiracy minded and anti-government people
- Very fertile ground for making things up about 'encounters', with little evidence
- A source of hope (Disclosure is coming! Peace is coming! Free stuff is coming!)

So I think as other topics and fields become less popular for whatever reason (ratings, debunking, time/expense, hackneyed repetition), the UFO stuff is always a source of imagination and renewal.

And no matter what the truth, the night sky is beautiful and will always be more inspiring than pouring over redacted government documents or wandering around the basement with an EMF meter.

 

[simonxlong]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice

UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some.

What gives it legs?

A few of things:

With something like 9-11, it's a single event. It happens once, to a specific group of people and then it's over. It's analyzed and reanalyzed until there is so much evidence that the official story becomes impossible for the rational to deny, so what's left of the truther movement gets relegated to the extreme fringe even by other conspiracy theorists. At the same time, the debunkers get tired of engaging with them. How many times can you tell someone the sky is blue before you just give up and quit bothering?

Also, with something like 9-11, distance starts to prove things wrong. For instance, some truthers claimed that 9-11 was supposed to be a false flag so the government could take over, yet by and large 15 years later, the average American's life hasn't changed. The only real difference is longer wait times at the airport, which is hardly the 1984 scenario proposed by some truthers.

Additionally, distance also means lessening public interest in the debate, especially as the debate becomes more and more academic and less and less immediately relevant to our daily lives. How often do you see new thread on the JFK assassination? My guess is that many truthers simply begin to move onto other items as new issues arise in the media.

With UFO's, it's a very different animal. Many, many people have had "experiences," and many continue to have such. It has a much wider appeal, both because so many have witnessed things, and because, in a way, UFO's are much easier to believe in. The idea of life on other worlds is widely accepted as a real possibility by main stream science, not to mention pop culture, so it's really not a huge leap for the average Joe to imagine that aliens might be visiting Earth.

Also, aliens are cool. Most people think that discovering aliens would be awesome, so there is a desire for them to be real, at least on some level. Not so much with an evil shadow conspiracy to murder thousands of people. That added to continued pop culture interest in aliens and the thousands of encounters each year, it becomes easy to see why Ufology remains popular.

On top of that, it's impossible to disprove. Unlike the one event that can be investigated, with tons of evidence and eye witnesses, most encounters are difficult to entirely explain, often because they are vague or have little evidence to be evaluated. Not to mention that for every sighting that does get explained there are a thousand more no one ever even bothers to tackle.

I think this type of stuff keeps Ufology mainstream, meaning it attracts new followers, adds new "evidence" each year, and retains it's old followers much better than a truther movement does.

 

[Mojo]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice

UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some.

What gives it legs?

How many legs?

 

[Mojo]

With UFO's, it's a very different animal. Many, many people have had "experiences," and many continue to have such. It has a much wider appeal, both because so many have witnessed things, and because, in a way, UFO's are much easier to believe in. The idea of life on other worlds is widely accepted as a real possibility by main stream science, not to mention pop culture, so it's really not a huge leap for the average Joe to imagine that aliens might be visiting Earth.

Also, aliens are cool. Most people think that discovering aliens would be awesome, so there is a desire for them to be real, at least on some level. Not so much with an evil shadow conspiracy to murder thousands of people. That added to continued pop culture interest in aliens and the thousands of encounters each year, it becomes easy to see why Ufology remains popular.

On top of that, it's impossible to disprove. Unlike the one event that can be investigated, with tons of evidence and eye witnesses, most encounters are difficult to entirely explain, often because they are vague or have little evidence to be evaluated. Not to mention that for every sighting that does get explained there are a thousand more no one ever even bothers to tackle.

I think this type of stuff keeps Ufology mainstream, meaning it attracts new followers, adds new "evidence" each year, and retains it's old followers much better than a truther movement does.

And also, governments tend to be very interested in unidentified objects flying in their airspace. Not because they think they are extraterrestrial, but because they could belong to other governments. But UFO enthusiasts will claim that this means that governments take extraterrestrial visitations seriously

 

[Axxman300]

The difference between 9/11 CT BS, and UFOs is that it's a big universe, there is intelligent life out there somewhere, and people see stuff in the night skies once in a while that confuse and excite them, while 9/11 has been a done deal since 9/12.

 

[Fudbucker]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice

UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some.

What gives it legs?

Articles like this:

"Another Earth could be circling the star right next door to us.

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had detected a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest neighbor to our solar system. Intriguingly, the planet is in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” where it may be neither too hot nor too cold. That means liquid water could exist at the surface, raising the possibility for life."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/science/earth-planet-proxima-centauri.html

 

[JesseCuster]

Articles like this:

"Another Earth could be circling the star right next door to us.

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had detected a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest neighbor to our solar system. Intriguingly, the planet is in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” where it may be neither too hot nor too cold. That means liquid water could exist at the surface, raising the possibility for life."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/science/earth-planet-proxima-centauri.html

I don't think so. That sounds like scientists doing sciencey stuff and discovering interesting sciencey things.

There's a tendency amongst the Ufology crowd for a withering contempt for science in general and astronomy in particular, either accusing scientists of covering up all sorts of cool findings to do with aliens or being a bunch of arrogant know-it-alls.

 

[Steve]

How many legs?

Eight!

 

[Mojo]

Eight!

Does that mean it's two dogs?

 

[malbec]

Declining 9/11 Truther activity is discussed in a thread topic here.

Dissimilarly, I notice
UFO/ET/alien visitation topics and speculations apparently remain popular with some. What gives it legs?

There has been a marked increase in reporting such matters in the MSM accompanied by a marked change of tone .Open ridicule and attempted cheap laughs have been almost totally replaced by a more questioning and open minded outlook . The problem for sceptics is multi fold . Anomalies are being presented much more frequently ( at least daily ) because of phone camera availability plus the findings from those that continuously monitor live feeds from ISS and the array of major telescopes .Also we have reached the time where those working in sensitive positions over the 40s to 60s are in retirement and close to life end , and are prepared to whistle blow , regardless of consequences .Finally , it is evident to any close follower of cutting edge technologies that " We " already employ several technologies that have not yet been officially admitted to -- anti gravitics being the obvious example .Increasingly the relevant authorities understand that some degree of Disclosure is necessary , if only to restore some respectability to the voices of so called truthful institutions like NASA .

 

[Mojo]

There has been a marked increase in reporting such matters in the MSM accompanied by a marked change of tone .Open ridicule and attempted cheap laughs have been almost totally replaced by a more questioning and open minded outlook . The problem for sceptics is multi fold . Anomalies are being presented much more frequently ( at least daily ) because of phone camera availability plus the findings from those that continuously monitor live feeds from ISS and the array of major telescopes .Also we have reached the time where those working in sensitive positions over the 40s to 60s are in retirement and close to life end , and are prepared to whistle blow , regardless of consequences .Finally , it is evident to any close follower of cutting edge technologies that " We " already employ several technologies that have not yet been officially admitted to -- anti gravitics being the obvious example .Increasingly the relevant authorities understand that some degree of Disclosure is necessary , if only to restore some respectability to the voices of so called truthful institutions like NASA .

[citation needed]

 

[malbec]

[citation needed]

If I cited God's personal visiting card , those who need to disbelieve would still continue to do so .However , as I have offered my own summation as my post , that is my citation . Nobody who follows this subject closely and over an extended time would quarrel with anything I offered . More pertinent , the Disclosure project has called for mass defections in terms of whistle blowers . I expect considerable change in the near term .

 

[Mojo]

If I cited God's personal visiting card , those who need to disbelieve would still continue to do so .

Why don't you try that and see what happens?

However , as I have offered my own summation as my post , that is my citation . Nobody who follows this subject closely and over an extended time would quarrel with anything I offered . More pertinent , the Disclosure project has called for mass defections in terms of whistle blowers . I expect considerable change in the near term .

Hitchens's razor leaves you with nowt.

 

[malbec]

Why don't you try that and see what happens?
Hitchens's razor leaves you with nowt.

Now that you have relieved yourself , have you any relevant and useful comment to share ? I am fond of Occam's razor but was not aware that Christopher had his own and presumably different one .

 

[Mojo]

Now that you have relieved yourself , have you any relevant and useful comment to share ?

Do you have anything to offer beyond unsupported and unusually punctuated assertions?

 

[malbec]

Do you have anything to offer beyond unsupported and unusually punctuated assertions?

I see you maintain your record of not adding to the dialogue .I am now wondering if you muddled Occam and Christoher . Somehow you excluded reference to the one matter that might have been a contribution . All that I referenced in my original post is standard , public fact . If you bothered to use real news channels instead of outdated MSM sources , you might find yourself less surprised and puzzled .

 

[Pixel42]

Nobody who follows this subject closely and over an extended time would quarrel with anything I offered .

There are several regular posters on this site who have followed this subject closely and over an extended time who would quarrel with everything you offered. Check out the many past UFO threads, which comprehensively debunk pretty much every famous case and most of the less well known ones.

Hitchen's razor, incidentally, is "That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence".

 

[Bikewer]

I'm always tempted to repeat Carl Sagan's observation... That if there had been any decent evidence of alien visitation, the military forces of the world would have been clamoring for more and more money and research to counter this existential threat.
But instead, they all clamored for more money and research to counter earthly threats and the Cold War, and sattelite surveillance to watch not the skies but rather each other's nuclear and military goings-on.

 

[Stray Cat]

I predicted years ago with the advent of high res digital cameras that reported anomalies would increase while others said the better quality would lead to less reports because more objects could be identified.

Of course both of things can be and are true.

While very piece of 9/11 nonsense can and is demonstrated to be such, people will always see stuff in the sky that they can't identify.