The UFO Conspiracy is itself a Conspiracy

[kernals12]

In the mother of all ironies, UFO conspiracy theorists are playing right into the hand of the government. A CIA memo from 1954 suggests that one way to distract the American people from the coup they were staging in Guatemala was to fabricate a story about "flying saucers"

[Max Rockatansky]

I changed my mind, let's open the floodgates on political discussion.

[kernals12]

I changed my mind, let's open the floodgates on political discussion.

I don't think this can be considered a political topic. UFO nuts come from all sides.

[wxfree]

This is a confounding topic.  Scientists tell us that there is likely to be, somewhere in the vastness of the universe, life on at least one of those other planets.  But if you believe that, you're a kook.  Scientists tell us that the distances are so vast that it's impossible for people in other parts of the galaxy to get here or communicate with us.  Scientists are certainly too smart to believe that.  If you bring someone from centuries ago to today, they would accuse you of witchcraft, with your tiny boxes in which people live and speak with you, and your miniature sun that lights up a room without fire, and your immortality demonstrated by living past 30.  Of course, that's just science.  The world has changed vastly in the past thousand years.  But scientists are absolutely certain that in the next thousand years, we'll still be driving wheeled vehicles powered by dinosaur juice, because they must believe that to propose that a species that's been around a thousand years longer, or a million, or a billion, will simply never discover different laws of physics and are forever bound by whatever their word for Einstein is.

That's the reason they say aliens aren't here.  It's too far.  The speed limit in interstellar space is too low.  It isn't because we're too uninteresting to get the attention of someone so advanced.  It isn't because the aliens are all around us but invisible because they have space magic, or they exist slightly out of our time where we can't see them, or maybe that they aren't here physically but are reading our minds from a million light years away.  They aren't here because it's too far.  Something about this topic shrinks people's minds to ridiculous levels.

By the way, I've seen a UFO.  It was just a star-like thing in the sky, a thing you wouldn't notice unless you were looking up and watching the sky.  It wasn't in orbit, it went this way and that way, it made right angle turns and backed up at one point.  It had some kind of gravity defiance and propulsion systems.  I have no idea what it was.  I would guess that it's a test of some secret technology, but it isn't really a secret.  It had a million watt light on the bottom so it could be seen from the ground miles below.  I didn't notice reverse lights when it backed up, but it was so far away they may not have been visible.  It would have been very easy to hide by turning that light off (and not driving it in such an obviously unnatural pattern) if they wanted secrecy.  Maybe it's aliens playing games with us, but I think it's more likely to be humans playing games with us.

[kalvado]

One should be aware that an actual UFO doing flyby in September 2017 is now called natural object. Nothing to see there.

[Rothman]

AI has entered the chat.

[wxfree]

AI has entered the chat.

Is that Al Borland or Al Bundy?  Those two bring out very different types of reactions.

[vdeane]

I think flying saucers are quite real.  I mean, the TSA hasn't banned saucers from airplanes, so I'm sure someone has flown with one in their luggage before.  And I'm sure some have been shipped that way.  That doesn't make me a kook!

[freebrickproductions]

I think flying saucers are quite real.  I mean, the TSA hasn't banned saucers from airplanes, so I'm sure someone has flown with one in their luggage before.  And I'm sure some have been shipped that way.  That doesn't make me a kook!

If you throw a saucer through the air like a frisbee it'll be flying, if only briefly.

[Plutonic Panda]

Count me as somebody who thinks that there's something weird going on we're not being told about. Now I'm not gonna sit here and say whether or not it's aliens. It could be a natural phenomenon that we don't understand. It could be a modern day Manhattan project from us or another country. Whatever the case is, there's definitely been some weird shit flying around our skies.

Now I've never seen anything like it in person. But if you think about what you're saying for a second, the government doesn't want people to believe in UFOs so they create conspiracy theories that there are UFOs to distract people from the fact there aren't UFOs? I mean, I'm not saying it's something that would never happen. But you certainly can't say that's any more or less crazy than delegating recent unusual aerial phenomenon to alien spacecrafts.

And how the fuck did a Chinese balloon the size of a jumbo jet get over Montana before a private citizen spotted it? And from what I understand over Lake Huron, the US Air Force was engaged in one of the first real world air to air combat situations recorded in NORAD history, but everyone forgot about it after we were told that it was a weather balloon from Southern Illinois. And we have reports of all this stuff, but we still haven't seen any images or videos that are clear but fighter pilots are reporting with sort of stuff not just conspiracy theory nuts.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of those things. And by the way, since you live in Phoenix now, what's your opinion on the Phoenix lights? What do you think that was? Possibly the government trying to convince people that aliens exist in an attempt at reverse psychology, so conspiracy theories come out of the woodwork and then people start to believe they don't exist? So does that mean they really do exist in the government's covering it up by trying to make people think they do so they don't?

I've heard this argument many times and till this day it still makes no sense to me. If you think conspiracy theorist are nut jobs in your promoting the sort of nonsense then you are one yourself.

I think there are definitely weird things and coverups that happen that we aren't told about. There are things in this universe and life we don't understand. I myself get excited about conspiracy theories because they're just fun to think about, but usually there's a logical explanation behind a lot of them. But you don't need a conspiracy theory to explain that there are a lot of wacko out there that believe in a lot of crazy shit.

There's people out there that think they hate mass transit so much and love cars to the point where we should have 150 mph self driving cars that you can't even drive yourself. Now to me that's a real conspiracy theory.

When it comes to whether or not, there's aliens out there, my favorite saying is either we're alone in the universe or we're not. Both are equally as terrifying.

And by the way, didn't that asteroid that's supposed to pass by the Earth in 2032 has its chances of a direct impact raised from something like 1 percent to 2 percent? I also believe that Bruce Willis(not to make fun of them because it's really sad to see the state that he's in) was the first actor to sell his likeness to be used as an AI generated actor in future movies when he passes away. We're gonna need him.

[SectorZ]

I think flying saucers are quite real.  I mean, the TSA hasn't banned saucers from airplanes, so I'm sure someone has flown with one in their luggage before.  And I'm sure some have been shipped that way.  That doesn't make me a kook!

If you throw a saucer through the air like a frisbee it'll be flying, if only briefly.

I just found a fun new pastime when I inherit the dozens of them my mother has.

[LilianaUwU]

Everything is a UFO if you suck at identifying flying objects.

[kkt]

The aliens aren't leaving us alone because we're boring.  They're leaving us alone because they're not interested in conspiracy theories.

[kphoger]

By the way, I've seen a UFO.  It was just a star-like thing in the sky, a thing you wouldn't notice unless you were looking up and watching the sky.  It wasn't in orbit, it went this way and that way, it made right angle turns and backed up at one point.  It had some kind of gravity defiance and propulsion systems.  I have no idea what it was.  I would guess that it's a test of some secret technology, but it isn't really a secret.  It had a million watt light on the bottom so it could be seen from the ground miles below.  I didn't notice reverse lights when it backed up, but it was so far away they may not have been visible.  It would have been very easy to hide by turning that light off (and not driving it in such an obviously unnatural pattern) if they wanted secrecy.  Maybe it's aliens playing games with us, but I think it's more likely to be humans playing games with us.

Alien driver's ed test.

[kphoger]

Everything is a UFO if you suck at identifying flying objects.

I'm more skeptical of the folks who claim to have identified every flying object.

[kernals12]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

[Plutonic Panda]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

[Max Rockatansky]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

A lot of CCTV in retail is still analog based.  The quality tends to be 240p or maybe 360p if someone bought higher end stuff.  Even if stores have quality camera infrastructure it likely isn't directly pointing at the offending party posted in BOLOs.

[Plutonic Panda]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

A lot of CCTV in retail is still analog based.  The quality tends to be 240p or maybe 360p if someone bought higher end stuff.  Even if stores have quality camera infrastructure it likely isn't directly pointing at the offending party posted in BOLOs.

I don't know much about it but I figured it was just these companies using shitty/outdated tech. Just like everyone who comes across Bigfoot. He'll only come around if you have a low resolution camera everyone knows that!

[Max Rockatansky]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

A lot of CCTV in retail is still analog based.  The quality tends to be 240p or maybe 360p if someone bought higher end stuff.  Even if stores have quality camera infrastructure it likely isn't directly pointing at the offending party posted in BOLOs.

I don't know much about it but I figured it was just these companies using shitty/outdated tech. Just like everyone who comes across Bigfoot. He'll only come around if you have a low resolution camera everyone knows that!

Even in the age of modern IP based CCTV I still turn the video quality down.  High resolution imagery chews up video retention length.

[Plutonic Panda]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

A lot of CCTV in retail is still analog based.  The quality tends to be 240p or maybe 360p if someone bought higher end stuff.  Even if stores have quality camera infrastructure it likely isn't directly pointing at the offending party posted in BOLOs.

I don't know much about it but I figured it was just these companies using shitty/outdated tech. Just like everyone who comes across Bigfoot. He'll only come around if you have a low resolution camera everyone knows that!

Even in the age of modern IP based CCTV I still turn the video quality down.  High resolution imagery chews up video retention length.

I suppose it depends of how much a company is losing inventory. Saw Facebook post about a bunch of thugs stealing from a Gucci store in century city the other day(or so the post said) and you best believe they had in high resolution.

[kphoger]

Yeah, if you're paying to store your security footage, and dropping the resolution allows you to store a bunch more footage for the same cost, then...

[Max Rockatansky]

It is remarkable how despite the enormous improvements in photography, pictures of UFOs remain as grainy and fuzzy as always

Sort of like how we can get crystal clear pictures of the surface of Mars or a picture of earth from Venus, yet when your local grocery store gets robbed, they ask you "have you seen this man" and show you a video that was recorded by a potato.

A lot of CCTV in retail is still analog based.  The quality tends to be 240p or maybe 360p if someone bought higher end stuff.  Even if stores have quality camera infrastructure it likely isn't directly pointing at the offending party posted in BOLOs.

I don't know much about it but I figured it was just these companies using shitty/outdated tech. Just like everyone who comes across Bigfoot. He'll only come around if you have a low resolution camera everyone knows that!

Even in the age of modern IP based CCTV I still turn the video quality down.  High resolution imagery chews up video retention length.

I suppose it depends of how much a company is losing inventory. Saw Facebook post about a bunch of thugs stealing from a Gucci store in century city the other day(or so the post said) and you best believe they had in high resolution.

Shoplifting usually doesn't require a ton of retention.  It is other stuff like internal cases, safety process control issues which necessitates having at least 90 days worth of footage.  Inventory shrink isn't necessarily all theft, probably a good 25-30% is just internal processes operating poorly. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Yeah, if you're paying to store your security footage, and dropping the resolution allows you to store a bunch more footage for the same cost, then...

Exactly, the trade offs are greatly outweighed by having triple or quadruple the length of retention.  A higher frame rate I've found is more valuable for review purposes versus the pixel count.

[freebrickproductions]

Just like everyone who comes across Bigfoot. He'll only come around if you have a low resolution camera everyone knows that!

Ain't there some suspicion that Bigfoot sightings could actually be people spotting bears that had just recently woken-up from hibernation?