The essential question is, always, why? Why are they doing it?
Obviously, many people participate in the movement to create chaos and a sense of powerlessness through disinformation (the true aim of propaganda), so people don't know what to believe and quit. The Republican Party engages in a lot of it, I assume tactically - always stay on the offensive, keep the enemy reacting, etc. But what about the others? Are they organized? Are they sort-of lone wolves (or small packs) acting on the ideology they learned online?
And I think it's been highly effective: I think that two decades ago, taking it seriously would have discredited you for life. Now that we've destroyed institutions and values like science, evidence and rationality, and embraced post-truth, it's within the norm, even encouraged.
And almost nobody speaks up for science, evidence, truth. Nobody says it's ridiculous nonsense (for so many reasons); everyone just stands back, reinforcing the sense of chaos and powerlessness. Where are the adults?
Second, this narrative has been simmering for years and is largely an outgrowth of a former program at the DOD’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was heavily influenced by a group of individuals associated with businessman and longtime ufologist Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace. Inopen sources, particularly in records available on DIA’s electronic FOIA Reading Room. After the negative response by SECDEF, Senator Reid then enlisted the help of then senator Joseph Lieberman to request that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set up an SAP for the same purpose. The administrative SAP proposal package was informed by the same individuals who had been associated with AATIP. AARO’s archival research has located the administrative proposal for the DHS SAP, complete with the participants, which has been declassified and is being reviewed for public release.
Finally, the key purveyors of this narrative have known one another for decades. In the early 2000s several members of this small group also participated in a study, erroneously characterized (by the same participants) as having been sponsored by the White House, on the possible societal impact of disclosing the existence of extraterrestrials to the public, with the authenticity of the abovementioned concealed government program taken as its baseline assumption. The think tank in question was a “futures” enterprise that often worked on fringe studies, and many of the individuals involved with the study also worked for Bigelow Aerospace in support of the AATIP program.
Obviously, many people participate in the movement to create chaos and a sense of powerlessness through disinformation (the true aim of propaganda), so people don't know what to believe and quit. The Republican Party engages in a lot of it, I assume tactically - always stay on the offensive, keep the enemy reacting, etc. But what about the others? Are they organized? Are they sort-of lone wolves (or small packs) acting on the ideology they learned online?
And I think it's been highly effective: I think that two decades ago, taking it seriously would have discredited you for life. Now that we've destroyed institutions and values like science, evidence and rationality, and embraced post-truth, it's within the norm, even encouraged.
And almost nobody speaks up for science, evidence, truth. Nobody says it's ridiculous nonsense (for so many reasons); everyone just stands back, reinforcing the sense of chaos and powerlessness. Where are the adults?