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- cross-posted to:
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- news@lemmy.world
Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending::Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the all-domain anomaly resolution office, blames ‘core group’ of government workers
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What his team was able to deduce, Kirkpatrick said, was that at least 90% of recorded UFO sightings, including some videos of military encounters declassified by the Pentagon in recent years, have a perfectly logical explanation.
Yea but what about the other 10%! They have no explanation so it must be aliens, why are they hiding that from us!? Wake up people.
Honestly I actually think the government should spend a lot of money looking for aliens. But by that I mean with a giant telescope or by doing a flyby and taking a sample of Enceladus’ water.
My favourite conspiracy theory is that the US government is behind most conspiracy theories. The reason they do this is they throw so much crap and useless information out there it makes all conspiracy theories seem like they are fake. Some conspiracy theories have been shown to be true, so not all of them a bunk and that’s just a factual logical statement. But the words conspiracy theory makes you think it is trash.
Let’s say for a moment the JFK thing was done by the CIA and all those Internet people are right. The CIA goes out and blows up all this information about flat earth and suddenly a JFK conspiracy, which has at least has some possibility if being true is roped with something that definitely isn’t true. “Ooohhh JFK got kill by the CIA. Yea good one, I bet you also think the earth is flat”
As Kirkpatrick described in his own words, the extent of his investigation of whistleblower claims amounted to asking the government’s secret-keepers if a certain illegal program existed. Kirkpatrick’s approach, as astute observers have noted, is roughly akin to asking a mob boss if he is engaging in illegal activity, and subsequently being satisfied with a “no.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4432225-what-has-happened-to-the-pentagons-former-ufo-hunter/
But why is it always just the Americans?
There are many other countries out there. You’d expect something to come from them
If such programs exist, other countries may not want to show their hand if they know they trail behind the US. Sightings themselves could always be concealed due to national security concerns. Then there’s just the possibility of lack of interest or negligence in documenting UAP.
My favourite conspiracy theory is that the US government is behind most conspiracy theories.
Look into Gene Pope, the guy who bought up the National Enquirer and Weekly World News and turned them into conspiracy fodder.
Would you expect that he had graduated MIT in only three years?
How about that his job right before buying the Enquirer was in the CIA’s psyops division?
why are they hiding that from us!?
You have not read the article. It is explained there.
Wake up people.
This behaviour is explained there, too.
LOL.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Conspiracy theorists working for and within the US government are perpetuating myths about UFOs that millions of taxpayer dollars are then spent looking into, a “self-licking ice cream cone”, according to the Pentagon’s former chief investigator of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Aaro’s first comprehensive historical record report, which has been submitted to Congress and is set for publication later this year, contains no evidence of the existence of alien life, or any government cover-up, Kirkpatrick says.
Kirkpatrick declined to identify the people by name, but agreed with Bergen’s observation that “the actual conspiracy is being carried out by a group of true believers themselves to get the government involved in the business of investigating aliens”.
Kirkpatrick said in a resignation essay published by Scientific American last week that he feared lawmakers had succumbed to “conspiracy-driven decision-making” and sensationalism in their rush to “uncover the cover-up”.
He said his department’s mission to use a “rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach” to collate and evaluate UFO reports and sightings going back decades had been hampered by misrepresentations, half-truths and other snippets of misinformation from unreliable sources.
What his team was able to deduce, Kirkpatrick said, was that at least 90% of recorded UFO sightings, including some videos of military encounters declassified by the Pentagon in recent years, have a perfectly logical explanation.
The original article contains 777 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I came here to link exactly that article. It’s always important to do a little digging and verify claims before latching onto them, but people are embracing Kirkpatrick’s claims without a second thought. It’s easier for people to focus on one claim that supports their preexisting beliefs than to consider they may be wrong.
Whether or not any UAP come from some non-human origin, the government itself (including Kirkpatrick) has admitted there are unknown objects that don’t match any known technology. If they could apply a label of even potentially being a drone, plane, or balloon, they would do so as they have done before. At minimum, it’s a failure on the DOD to monitor our airspace. Just last year, the US engaged with and fired missiles at still publicly unknown objects over our airspace. However, Kirkpatrick is basically dismissing his former role as a waste of resources just because they can identify most (not all) reports.
My question is: What’s in giving these interviews and making these statements for him? He’s exited the role, he’s made himself clear about the stance he took when he was in the role. Why continue to talk?
When I leave a job and go somewhere new I’m not obsessed with dragging my old workplace.
He’s still in a potentially relevant role. It seems that he immediately moved on to a role at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Chief Technology Officer for Defense and Intelligence Programs. They do handle government contract work, so no telling if they have any projects that would benefit from his statements. I’m not one to delve into alleged government UAP programs, though I’ve seen Oak Ridge mentioned a lot. They have a lot of unique programs that are bound to stir curiosity.
Why do I have associations with SG-1 and Kinsey from this headline?
I’ve been watching a lot of SG-1 recently and Kinsey always frustrates me, mostly because I could picture him being a real politician.
Whenever I hear Kinsey I think of the sex researcher.
As long as we don’t combine the two topics. I’m not quite ready for alien sex researchers.
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite issue of Fornax on the Citadel!
Despite Star Wars EU having had rather sterile rules on what can be explicitly shown and described, it has prepared me for anything in the said area.
Amazing universe where one can find all kinds of interspecies sex, cannibalism, torture, drugs, kidnappings, pedophilia, literally everything, and of course genocide has been there since 1977. And all these things are integrated with it still being PG13 at worst.
That’s one case where sterile rules were used to widen the discourse.
