A Culture of Paranoia

No single individual can be held accountable if an entire organization is at fault.

This article will be a bit of a departure from my normal research. I've had a lot on my mind regarding the state of the UFO disclosure push over the past few months, and, perhaps selfishly, feel the need to communicate some of those points in a more comprehensive way than an X post would allow.

The topic I would like to address is the UFO community's tendency to embrace, foster, and enable unhealthy levels of conspiratorial thinking. When I use the word "unhealthy" in this context, it is not an attempt to belittle or dismiss researchers who have dedicated decades of their lives trying to unravel the very real web of conspiracy surrounding the government's handling of the UFO/UAP issue. To the contrary, I am attempting to legitimize that work by advocating for a more nuanced approach to how we interpret the data they have discovered.

One of the biggest self-inflicted roadblocks constructed by the UFO community in its quest for the truth originates in its framing of the US government as a monolithic entity. Not only is the nuance essential to such an investigation thrown out the window when one adopts this outlook, but this approach gifts those responsible for the cover up's most egregious acts an additional layer of obfuscation.

Here's a scenario that may actually be close to the reality of what we're dealing with. Imagine being the project manager of a compartmentalized legacy program that has been researching exotic non-human technology for fifty years with no congressional oversight. A presidential executive order issued decades earlier entrusted you and a few of your colleagues with a secret on the level of the Manhattan Project, or perhaps even higher.

During these years, other compartmentalized departments of select organizations within private industry were tasked with assisting in the reverse engineering of these materials. With such a massive stake in maintaining this secrecy in both the government and corporate worlds, muddying the waters to cover your tracks would be of the utmost importance.

The sprawling bureaucracy that makes up the US government would be one of your greatest assets in accomplishing this task. You would likely change the name of the program on a consistent basis, or wrap it in another program that would seemingly have nothing to do with the development of exotic technologies. Any method at your disposal, up to and including the assassination of potential whistleblowers, would be on the table. In a culture where that is an acceptable solution to any problem, a little public distrust in their institutions would be an obvious sacrifice you'd be willing to make.

The more people that are accused of a crime, the less likely it is that you will be the one convicted. No single individual can be held accountable if an entire organization is at fault. Sure, there are abuses of power that are enabled by systemic inadequacies, but this is not likely applicable to a program spanning multiple presidential administrations that has been operating outside the law for so long. In such an environment, lack of accountability is the status quo.

When the UFO community comes along with all the anti-government sentiment it espouses, you smile. When they shout aimlessly about a "government coverup" not even the current president is aware of, you rest easy knowing you are in the clear. Political tribalism and the long-time grifters at the forefront of disclosure will take care of the rest by doing what they always do: profit off the frustration of those who desire the truth by falsely asserting that only they can provide it.

You settle back in your chair, knowing that instead of real questions being asked by knowledgeable individuals, the public will turn to apps claiming to facilitate alien communication. Entire agencies will be blamed for the crimes that you and a handful of your colleagues committed, preventing any real attribution and solidifying your ability to stay in the shadows. At that point, the cycle of conspiratorial thinking has been successfully exploited and emotion rules the day once again.

There are a few things you can do to maintain this level paranoia and make your job even easier in the future. One of the most successful strategies employed by debunkers in recent years in their efforts to discredit anything about the UFO topic is to ensure it is tied to other unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. This is especially effective if you can manage to tie aspects of the UFO lore to ideas and figures considered radioactive within academia and the greater scientific community.

Exhibit A of this strategy can be observed in the artwork of debunker Mick West's most recent edition of his book. The graphic printed on its cover equates the UFO phenomenon with other more fringe, politically-charged conspiracy theories. The intention of the imagery is clear, as depicted by the topics written on Post-It notes and connected by string on a corkboard: UFOs, The Rise of QAnon, 2020 Election Fraud, 9/11 Conspiracies, The Coronavirus Pandemic, and Flat Earth.

As the manager for an illegal legacy UFO program, you would likely be overjoyed at the thought of your crimes being taken with the same level of seriousness as an Alex Jones monologue on the Sandy Hook massacre. The association of UFOs with such polarizing ideas and figures would allow any mainstream academic to feel justified in dismissing proponents of the topic as they would those of flat earth theory.

In this same vein, a more recent conspiracy theory engulfing social media over the past year has proven to be a legacy program manger's dream. The hoaxed VFX videos showing three orbs "teleporting" the missing MH370 plane has taken on a life of its own. Alex Jones himself has invited the leading voice pushing this hoax on his show, which should really tell you all you need to know about the level of credibility these claims should be considered to have.

The circus surrounding this hoax has likely done more damage to the credibility of the UFO topic than any one psyop could, and this harm has been entirely self-inflicted. I personally wouldn't be surprised if there were individuals connected to either the legacy program or our foreign adversaries propping up this conspiracy in particular, but maybe that's just me not taking my own advice. Regardless, the furor around such an obviously blatant ruse speaks to the point I am trying to make: conspiratorial thinking is a detriment to the actual truth, no matter how justified one might think they are in their thought process.

Cults of personality have long been an obstacle in getting to the truth around the UFO subject. The adversarial dynamic between the UFO community and the government has likely dissuaded many on the inside from assisting when they otherwise may have felt compelled to do so. This was also a point brought up by Tom DeLonge, as establishing a more cooperative relationship with government officials was a major aspect of his efforts with To The Stars Academy.

But we have now witnessed what happens when former government officials like Luis Elizondo and Christopher Mellon attempt to bring information out in good faith. The "never trust the government" crowd insists we don't need the help of people who know how to navigate the bureaucracies that have managed to keep this secret locked down for 80 years.

They insist that if the UFO community just keeps doing what it has always done — yelling at the CIA, summoning aliens with our iPhones, and enabling baseless, batshit conspiracy theories — we'll get there on our own terms like disclosure was meant to be.

Personally, I'm tired of being treated like an idiot by friends and family just because others can't kick their addiction to conspiracy theory junk food, where the UFO coverup is just one of many excuses to build a following based solely on exploiting our distrust in institutions.

But that's just me.