Two things can be true at once: there are likely intelligent aliens in the universe, and those aliens are not visiting Earth and sticking probes up our backsides.
I believe both of those things to be true. The first is because the universe is vast, the time during which it existed is even more vast, and because even if you believe there is no God, it's clear that life will find a way.
The second? Because the universe is vast, and given the vastness of time, the chance of intelligent life evolving at the same time in the same region seems small, and unless there is a way to exceed the speed of light, travel times will be too long to bother.
One follow-up: Since the newsletter links to an interview w/the late Harald Malmgren as one example of recent UFO testimonials, I should also link to this compelling-seeming case that Malmgren spent his later life confabulating tales of his own influence:https://t.co/tgOBxrKVAj
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) July 2, 2025
There are many reasons why we all secretly love the idea of UFOs, especially given that, since the sightings have been around for decades, without anything scary happening, such as an alien invasion. The idea is intriguing and hints at the idea that someday we, too, will travel the stars. I love reading sci-fi books with alien species and faster-than-light travel. And, of course, human beings are wired to find simple explanations for phenomena we don't understand.
For millennia, human beings have looked up into the heavens and imagined godlike beings. Mythology is filled with stories, and as our technology has evolved, our imaginations have found new ways to perceive these beings. Aliens have replaced the gods, but the idea is similar.
It's apparently 'World UFO Day.' So make sure to read 'The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America’s UFO Mythology' https://t.co/YkCkp4cflQ
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) July 2, 2025
Unsurprisingly, the Pentagon found the latent desire to see UFOs useful in hiding its own activities. They planted stories, hazed new officers with stories of fake UFOs, and even doctored photos. This is according to a Congressionally mandated investigation, and it has the ring of truth.
A tiny Pentagon office had spent months investigating conspiracy theories about secret Washington UFO programs when it uncovered a shocking truth: At least one of those theories had been fueled by the Pentagon itself.
The congressionally ordered probe took investigators back to the 1980s, when an Air Force colonel visited a bar near Area 51, a top-secret site in the Nevada desert. He gave the owner photos of what might be flying saucers. The photos went up on the walls, and into the local lore went the idea that the U.S. military was secretly testing recovered alien technology.
But the colonel was on a mission—of disinformation. The photos were doctored, the now-retired officer confessed to the Pentagon investigators in 2023. The whole exercise was a ruse to protect what was really going on at Area 51: The Air Force was using the site to develop top-secret stealth fighters, viewed as a critical edge against the Soviet Union. Military leaders were worried that the programs might get exposed if locals somehow glimpsed a test flight of, say, the F-117 stealth fighter, an aircraft that truly did look out of this world. Better that they believe it came from Andromeda.
This episode, reported now for the first time, was just one of a series of discoveries the Pentagon team made as it investigated decades of claims that Washington was hiding what it knew about extraterrestrial life. That effort culminated in a report, released last year by the Defense Department, that found allegations of a government coverup to be baseless.
Of course, this report could be part of a coverup--a psyop--too. Perhaps there really is an alien spacecraft hidden away somewhere, but if so I doubt that we are reverse engineering it to produce aircraft--at least not yet. All the things we see coming out of our R&D labs and flying in the skies are natural developments of our improved, and quite human, understanding of physics and material science.
No alien technology necessary. It may seem like magic, but so did gunpowder when it was invented.
The explosion in knowledge and human capabilities preceded any reports of UFOs--the scientific revolution began a few centuries ago, and technology has been developing at ever faster rates since then. Chances are that if the Roman Empire hadn't fallen, much of what we saw in the 19th century would have come about in the 5th or 6th century.
Are unexplained phenomena all derived from hoaxes? Certainly not. There are a lot of intriguing things to figure out. And, perhaps, we will discover that there really are little green or gray men visiting us.
But as for all those rumors floating around today, I am unsurprised that at least most of them are Pentagon plants.
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