Argument from authority

A recent example of this? "Fifty-one TOP 'Intelligence Officials' confirm that the Hunter Biden laptop is nothing more than the product of a Russian disinformation campaign"

Fifty-one "TOP MEN" say the laptop is bogus, therefor, the laptop is bogus. That is a prime example of the logical fallacy known as an Argument from Authority or an Appeal to Authority, and now we're seeing this same tactic used with UFOs- oh, excuse me- UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon).

Yet another tactic of the con artists- "Don't call it 'Global Warming; call it "Climate Change."

When a term gets baggage, keep pushing the idea and just change the label.

UFOs reported by nearly a fifth of academics: 'Cautiously willing to engage in more research'

quote:

A new survey indicates that UFOs have been reported by almost a fifth of academics.

Among the 1,460 academics who were surveyed, 19% of respondents said they or someone they knew had witnessed an unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) — an observation in the sky that cannot be explained.

The findings reveal that some of the "brightest minds are interested in uncovering the mysteries of our skies," with 37% saying they have a degree of interest in conducting research into UAP, as SWNS, the British news agency, reported of the survey.

The survey was taken by 1,460 academics from 133 U.S. universities across 14 academic disciplines in 2022.

So, these over-educated and shockingly really-not-so-smart people (proven more and more all the time) are willing to "research" UFOs err UAPs, meaning they should get government grants and research funding to fiddle around and not find jack shit.

I lived through the late 1960s and 1970s UFO craze nonsense, and now this crap is coming around again. Oh, but Para, we have video of these things now. What we have is video of terrestrial objects, created by governments with deep pockets- ours and others. The Chinese come immediately to mind. But, that's not what they're really talking about when the subject of UFOs come up. They're thinking we're being probed err investigated by little green men: LGM (Hey I get to make up my own terms, too.)

There's nothing- NOTHING out there but us. We're one tiny little rocky planet, third stone from the sun as Hendrix might say- one little blue ball in an incomprehensibly vast universe, and we are so conceited, so full of ourselves while at the same time being so dimwitted, that we think we're interesting or that there's anyone anywhere even near us to even be interested.

It is to laugh

No one is visiting us. No one is observing us. We are all alone in our neighborhood and I don't mean just our solar system. Don't mistake what I'm saying. If you crunch the numbers- the estimated numbers of stars in the Universe, there is most assuredly life out there, and some of it is intelligent, but even without the incomprehensible distances involved, there is the time scale. Alien civilizations existed in the past and will exist in the future, and may or may not exist right now and be in a position to visit us.

It's ridiculous, the concept people seem to have of alien visitations- they never make themselves known, and they seem to be able to travel hundreds of thousands of light years, but they can't stick the landing. They manage to travel distances humans are not capable of comprehending, and then they crash. Roswell. Tunguska.

We're panicky monkeys with car keys and we think we're the center of the Universe. It's embarrassing- that people actually believe we're being visited by aliens who just like to joyride in the country and pick up bumpkins to anally probe.

And then, they split.

Embarrassing

Terrestrial phenomenon, boys and girls- that's all we're seeing, but hey, that puts us one up on how this stuff was when I was a kid, because back in the craze of the 1960s and 70s, there was not even gravity-defying Chinese drones or hyper-sonic spy craft- it was just a bunch of naive people caught up in the "space race". I saw it. I was part of it.

So, if Professor Never-Actually-Accomplished-Anything wants to apply for a government grant and continue his illustrious, empty career, be my guest, but don't try to tell me that I should now take this silly shit seriously because "hundreds of really smart people" think it's worth "studying". The government that's going to cut you a check is the same government piloting or controlling some of these nifty whiz-crafts that you think are from a galaxy far, far away.

I've found now days that most if not all "academics" are simply kids who got to stay in college for that extra degree or two, simply because their parents were willing to fund them as they attended yet even more college. So they can avoid having to work for a living for as long as possible.

This is more true in the liberal arts graduate schools than the engineering or medical disciplines.

quote:

There's nothing- NOTHING out there but us.

Even if life managed to evolve to the point of actual light speed travel (I do not believe we will ever achieve relativistic speed) the vast distances that separate individual star systems is so incredibly vast that even AT light speed, it would take ridiculously long journeys to get to our little backwater solar system. And that’s considering that the “aliens” have a way to determine we even exist; remember this illustration? It represents how far our influence has reached with radio wave transmissions have reached moving basically at light speed. A 200 light year sphere of distance, or in other words, 100 light years in any given direction. The Milky Way could be teeming with life and we would all largely be unaware of each other’s existence.



And what do the “aliens” do upon arrival after decades or centuries of incredibly dangerous mind numbing travel? Flit around willy-nilly, probe a few anal cavities, but otherwise completely avoid contact with the human race? Hogwash.

The reason to perpetuate this absurdity is to bilk the system for grants of cash that could be best used to improve our living conditions.

I think eventually faster than light speed will be obtainable.

In a short time, we have gone from horse and buggy to space travel.

Some scientists thought we would all die at the speed of trains for lack of ability to breathe.

What if some race has already figured it out?

What if they just think of us as a game preserve? Leave the primitive savages alone.

Not losing any sleep about it.

Not likely to happen in my lifetime.

quote:

So, these over-educated and shockingly really-not-so-smart people (proven more and more all the time) are willing to "research" UFOs err UAPs, meaning they should get government grants and research funding to fiddle around and not find jack shit.

It's all about the funding for these folks. More of our tax dollars down the drain.

quote:

There's nothing- NOTHING out there but us. We're one tiny little rocky planet, third stone from the sun as Hendrix might say- one little blue ball in an incomprehensibly vast universe, and we are so conceited, so full of ourselves while at the same time being so dimwitted, that we think we're interesting or that there's anyone anywhere even near us to even be interested.

But I don't know. I honestly have no idea what else is out there. I'm not so conceited as to pretend to know.

But I don't want to waste the money to pretend to find out.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

So, these over-educated and shockingly really-not-so-smart people (proven more and more all the time) are willing to "research" UFOs err UAPs, meaning they should get government grants and research funding to fiddle around and not find jack shit.

It's all about the funding for these folks. More of our tax dollars down the drain.

^^ THIS ^^

Follow the money. They make x dollars for being a professor. They need to bring in y research dollars to keep their cushy job. If their research leads to guest lectures or talk show circuit they personally can make even more money.

Any space faring species that finds us better be peaceful cause otherwise, they’ll eliminate us to keep the stupid from spreading.

quote:

What if some race has already figured it out?

What if they just think of us as a game preserve? Leave the primitive savages alone.

This, we've been anally probed, they found nothing they want, no Tribidium, no Dilithium for crystals, nothing to suck out of the planet for value....

They came 50, 100 or maybe a million years ago, planet wasn't developed, just passed on... We're just a spot in space...

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
But I don't know. I honestly have no idea what else is out there. I'm not so conceited as to pretend to know.

Ha! I love the virtue-signalling of statements such as this.

Let me ask you, chellim- does Mount Rushmore exist?

It's a yes or no question. Nothing but the word "yes" or the word "no"

Yes, I believe it does... although I haven't seen it with my own eyes.

Then, how do you know it exists?

I have to take it on faith, trusting in the reports of people who have seen it.

I also believe that we landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. I sat on my father's lap and watched it on TV, although there are those who say it was staged.

And yet, I and others are "conceited" for knowing things without direct evidence.

You can't even say "Yes, I know Mount Rushmore exists." You have to hedge your bet, and you are saying that there is a measure of doubt within you that Mount Rushmore does exist.

I can say without any doubt whatsoever that Mount Rushmore exists, and I haven't seen it with my own eyes, and I think it's damn silly to express any doubt that it does exist, saying things such as "I believe it exists." I asked you a yes or no question and you hedged it. There's no in-between. Either it does exist, or it does not exist, but you took the middle ground.

I guess the point is that as humans we only know a limited amount about the world around us... and whatever is beyond the world around us. There is also a great amount of faith placed in others, and in God, or the supernatural, which is beyond our understanding.

The word 'conceit' was not necessary to the point I was trying to make. For that, I apologize.

The point is that you don't have to see something directly with your own eyes to know it exists. Furthermore, seeing things with one's own eyes frequently misleads people.

You gather data and filter it through your life experience and the experience of others and then you came to a decision, and it is not necessary to hedge your bet on everything with "I believe". It's OK to say "I know". Otherwise, we would never get anywhere.

And I have no doubt that you know Mount Rushmore exists, in spite of never having seen it directly.


Next?

This brings back some old memories and reflections.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s I had a lot of interest in the idea of UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors. At the time the idea was supported by what seemed to me to be legitimate reports and sources of information. As the mantra said, “Credible people are seeing incredible things.” I won’t try to list and explain everything that seemed to support the idea, but for anyone who isn’t as old as I am, I’ll point out that the Internet wasn’t the beginning of attempts by people to attract attention to themselves and even make money through the dissemination of sensational, misleading information, if not blatant lies. At the time it was still in the era of “men’s magazines,” and one that my father purchased regularly was called True: How could anyone doubt anything published in a magazine with that title?

In short, I simply didn’t know enough about how sensationalism sells, or about astronomy and the other relevant science, or even very much about human nature and humans’ ability to convince themselves of what’s not true. As I grew older and gained more knowledge and experience, however, the reports and other claims supporting the idea of extraterrestrial visitations became less and less credible, and I finally recognized them as being simply unbelievable nonsense. Part of that I credit to the “skeptical” movement and such publications as the magazines Free Inquiry and Skeptic. As a professional investigator I also learned much about self-delusions, the unreliability of human observations and reasoning, and—not least—the willingness of people to lie for their own benefit, including just being able to attract attention to themselves.

Although it is almost certain that intelligent life has arisen countless times throughout the Universe, it’s extremely unlikely that chance made it happen close enough in time and place for us to ever see its existence before we destroy our technological civilization, or before an errant space rock resets life on Earth to some form that’s unlikely to advance to anything close to our level today. As unlikely as that is, however, if we ever do develop the means of confirming that alien intelligent life does exist so close to us, my one enduring hope is that we learn it in my remaining time here. (And no, I don’t expect any such confirmation to be in the form of little green men disembarking on the White House lawn.)

Yes, time and place. No direct evidence required.

I'm sure Research Money doesn't play into this at all.

All that stuff on UFOs in National Enquirer wasn't true?

In The Summa Theologica Saint Thomas Aquinas sought to prove the existence of God.
Did he succeed? Many say so. However, for me, the existence of God is still a matter of faith.
No direct evidence required.

As for the little green men (LGM): I haven't seen them, nor does the credibility of the stories I've heard rise to the level of faith for me. So, I just don't know.

But I do know we are on a screaming path toward debt destruction of our country and paying for "research" on UFOs, err UAPs, is something that should not be compelled or tolerated by citizens.