this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023

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192

CIA planning docs show when they overthrew the Guatemalan president in 1954, they plotted planting "flying saucer" stories to distract the media. (media.mas.to)

submitted 2 years ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/genzedong@lemmygrad.ml

40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Another declassified study shows the Air Force misled the public in the 1950s about UFOs to conceal the CIA's spy plane testing.

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[–] CPCsStrongestWumao@lemmygrad.ml 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

When the US was doing a terrible job at keeping COVID under control, we got UFO stories. When the Norfolk-Southern, East-Palestine OH thing was going down, we got UFO stories. Just a couple days ago, Earth hit its highest average global temperature in recorded history, and now we're hearing of them again.

The only people who are stupid enough to not see through this are also the people stupid enough to believe in aliens

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Indeed, and I'm perfectly convinced there are aliens in this vast universe of ours, I just think it's absurd to believe that aliens who mastered interstellar travel have nothing better to do than to zip around here.

[–] lckdscl@whiskers.bim.boats 27 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

They also happen to only visit Amerika too. Aliens, for all I care, is a purely epistemological uncertainty. I stay agnostic on whether or not they are out there. What is absurd is that while all these devices we have pointing up at the sky to see and hear things from all the spectrums detected no UFOs, yet the aliens are just there hovering above Amerika. I would expect extraterrestrial life studies to come from some meticulously put-together study from scientists (who are very good at pattern recognition and also statistical reasoning). The simplest explanation here is that they're just a distraction deployed en-masse.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 30 points 2 years ago

Yeah exactly, if there were actual aliens visiting us then we'd expect to have a consistent amount of sightings around the world.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Earth's civilisations are so backwards rn, too. If aliens did manage to get here, they would be far more advanced. It would be like walking to the shop and stopping to talk to an ants nest.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Entire civilization on Earth exist for mere 10000 years or so, of which we are barely noticable on really short range for 200. People just can't imagine how space is stupidly mindboggingly huge and how much time is needed for anything to happen there.

For example: Probe like Voyager would need more time than our entire civilization existed to reach even the closest star. 8 times more time.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Exactly. Imagine developing space travel and then coming across a species that still largely thinks it can achieve anything by leaving all the great development projects to random individuals – 150 years after the discovery of dialectical and historical materialism. Not exactly a mark of distinction.

Then consider that if aliens manage to get here, the native species believes that they won't have the technology or resources to find out a little about them before they make themselves visible. If aliens do arrive, they'll know everything about us before they show their 'faces' and they'll be stopping off at Beijing first.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Also imagine paranoid theories like "dark forest" are being peddled with no reason at all, but much reception.

And by a Chinese writer of all people.

[–] Jonathan12345@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well the concept was in a single science fiction series, it's just been cultified by people on the internet. Not really much he could do there.

[–] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wouldn’t blame Cixin Liu. People forget that sci-fi is often about the present day and that his use of the dark forest in his novels is not necessarily and endorsement of the theory as a solution to the Fermi paradox.

I also feel like, in the series, the dark forest is a reasonable stand in for capitalism, especially considering the obvious references to colonialism and imperialism. The final book even suggests the universe will cease to be livable unless sacrifices are made in the interests of cooperation.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It can be understood like that, but if that was his intention, it fell flat on face, judging from the reception.

I blame him for popularisation of that theory which was so fringe it didn't even had a name previously.

[–] Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not sure what you mean. Elaborate, please?

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Dark Forest hypothesis is the most paranoid and pessimistic explanation of Fermi's Paradox. It got huge traction worldwide after it was the topic of otherwise excellent book by Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin.

[–] Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Right, I knew this stuff. But what did you mean by

by a Chinese writer of all people.

Should Chinese authors "peddle" more optimistic baseless theories instead or what?

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yes, i would expect them write more in line of socialist sci-fi tradition instead of typical american doomer settings. Sci-fi genre is utterly oversaturated with darkness already.

[–] Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago

It's mind blowing to consider that humans on Earth might be the first of our kind in the universe. That one day there might be a universe teaming with intelligent life, but it might be long past the age of humans.

[–] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 36 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Weird. I've been seeing a ton of "alien" news this week. Wonder what's actually happening

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

What could happening right now that they would want to cover up so ferociously? And north american MSM is barely covering the UFO thing for what it is.

[–] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago

That's what I'm saying! I think we're gonna find out here pretty soon.

[–] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A whistleblower testified in front of congress.

[–] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No I know, I mean what is the cute congressional political theater actually covering

[+] XTornado@lemmy.ml -12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nothing? Like I could understand this working back then.... But now?

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

... But now?

Are you saying that Americans have become too smart to not be distracted with stories like this?

[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

No, I am saying that there plenty of sources of news and we are not getting the news from a single sources even if ones focus on this, others don't. In the past there wasn't much else to check, so big news would take most of a paper or slot of time on the tv news.

But now with internet the pages or slot times are not limited, and there is plenty of other sources or sources from other countries that in the past were not available, so other important stuff isn't hidden because this.

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 years ago

I think you are giving both the average American and the American media landscape too much credit.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago

News sources may be more dispersed nowadays but the bourgeoisie still overwhelmingly controls distribution.

Much of the rest of the world, for example, disagrees with the NATO narrative about Ukraine. Yet you will be hard pressed (no pun intended) to find a westerner who thinks the situation is more nuanced than 'Russia land grab'. Why aren't Anglo-Europeans exposed to those counter narratives?

[–] zer0@thelemmy.club 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

We can only speculate as our governments act secretly on people's back. It's probably part of the spreading up conspiracies campaign we have seen over the past years aimed at making everyone who disagree with authorities looks like a fool. The ufo stuff may be a psyop to redirect attention from war planes/drones/satellites weapons and everything related to it for example lunch sites or retrieval of broken equipment that falls around

[–] WhatWouldKarlDo@lemmygrad.ml 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wanted to read the original source of this, and went down a rabbit hole. this doc here details the lies that they would tell the American people. There's another one where they openly talk about telling the media what to say. And a follow up here and here. Also a nice review of a conservative radio host doing what he was told.

But I think that the cherry on top is this telegram with instructions for local media. One of the talking points that they want them to talk about are communist attacks on the free press. You can't make that shit up.

I never did find the original document (there are a LOT of telegrams to go through), and I'm tired of reading about these scumbags. It's all there in black and white, plain as day. Why do the liberals keep on believing what these assholes have to say?

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Wow nice work digging this up, truly incredible stuff.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Does the last sentence meant the 96% of the UFO sightings are explainable by the USAF?

[–] DankZedong@lemmygrad.ml 23 points 2 years ago

There's this map going around somewhere about where people report UFO sightings and it is no joke mainly in the US or other Western countries, with often advanced militaries. You can bet that UFO sightings are 100% related to (secret) air force incidents.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 years ago

Seems so. Plus (it's not in the screenshot):

By 2024 that number would fall again, to 2% of all hot air balloons.

[–] Shinhoshi@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 2 years ago

Shouldn't we call them IFO (identified flying objects) then?

[–] shibby@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago

Don’t forget the birth of sextuplets!

[–] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 2 years ago

Oh no! Quick! Someone alert Giammattei! He's in danger!

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Might need to keep an eye on Ecuador, then.

[–] Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 years ago

They've been doing UFO stories nonstop and it's just getting more and more blatant that they're hiding something.

[–] juchebot88@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I know it's code language, but paragraph 3B reads like a review of some Vegas show.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

lol totally

[–] juchebot88@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 years ago

This is some weird downvoting.