A New Meme: We All Know UFO Really Means Aliens From Outer Space
R. Lee
January 08, 2007
Of course, it doesn’t. But the chronic skeptic has a new meme out there.And that’s the statement, said in a factual and somber manner, that “everyone knows UFO means extraterrestrials.”
I’ve been noticing this trend the past year or so in Chronic Skeptic World.(If you plan to visit, don’t go alone, and don’t take the bait. It’s often good bait; tempting and looks delicious. Don’t do it. I beg you.) Over there, in their world, they have come up with a new tactic: to state, as if it’s a fact “everyone” knows, that UFO really means little green men from space.
Perpetuating this lie gives them room to justify calling people who incorporate the idea ET exists -- either could, or does -- is a “kook.” If you’re a kook, then people get to call you an idiot, since you are, since you “believe” in UFOs.
Which everyone knows, means aliens.
This is another tactic: using the word “believe.” As in “So and so believes in UFOs” which means you’re a kook.
Pointing out that one can’t “believe” in a UFO, any more than one “believes” in a toaster, gets you nowhere. You might get a response like:“We know what toasters look like, and that they exist. We don’t know what UFOs look like.”
Really. They say that. Honest.
That’s a bit beside the point though. The point is, UFO means Unidentified Flying Object, and if we see something up there we can’t identify , it’s a UFO. “Belief” doesn't come into it.
Are we to not discuss the odd, unusual, or strange things we see up there? Is that the idea?
Or are we to avoid the use of the word ‘UFO?’ Well then, what do we use?
Some chronic skeptics,(Fortean writer Colin Bennett’s term) and a goodly amount of UFO-ologist (no, chronic
skeptics are not UFO-ologists. It's impossible. You just can’t) suggest we use the term UAP; Unidentified Ariel Phenomena. All that does is give a new name for the same thing. And ignores the question: what if what you saw was not a “phenomena” so much as an actual
thing? A craft, a machine, a solid object. That’s no “aerial phenomena” that’s a bona fide UFO. A true unidentified object.
That UFO could be ours, man made, a classified weapon, tool or technology. It could be someone’s remote controlled toy. It could be a hoax. It could be a mylar balloon, a weather or atmospheric monitoring device.
(Heck it could even be a toaster. Actually, that doesn't make sense; what would a toaster be doing flying around up there? That’s sillier than “believing” extraterrestrials exist.)
And here’s another thing not often brought up by UFOlogists, although it is to some degree; and rarely by the chronic skeptic. These UFOs could be from within, or of, the earth. Entities that have been coexisting here on earth alongside of us for a long time. They’re not from up there at all; but right here.
And pushing that kook envelope even farther, it’s possible these terrestrial beings are somehow inter-dimensional, both solid and vaporous at the same time. That will send the chronic skeptic into a frenzied froth of hysteria.
There is also the mistake of thinking ‘UFO’ is one thing. UFO can be reduced to one, simple thing, once we get to it. When in fact, UFO covers a vast and complex collection of things: from the mundane, like cases of mistaken identity (natural phenomena, airplanes, etc.) to anomalous and unusual weather phenomena (sprites, lenticular clouds, for example.) UFO can apply to man made objects.
UFO can even be applied to extraterrestrials.
None of those things makes one a kook. Or a liar.
Intentionally forcing a new and inaccurate definition onto something in order to distract us from all the potentials of all that is UFO does make one a liar.
And a bit of a kook. After all, to stay stuck in a conservative 1950s Project Blue Book (government study on UFOs:1952 - 1969) mentality that ignores the progress we’ve made concerning physics, consciousness, and technology is, well,
kooky.
I’ve been noticing this trend the past year or so in Chronic Skeptic World.(If you plan to visit, don’t go alone, and don’t take the bait. It’s often good bait; tempting and looks delicious. Don’t do it. I beg you.) Over there, in their world, they have come up with a new tactic: to state, as if it’s a fact “everyone” knows, that UFO really means little green men from space.
Perpetuating this lie gives them room to justify calling people who incorporate the idea ET exists -- either could, or does -- is a “kook.” If you’re a kook, then people get to call you an idiot, since you are, since you “believe” in UFOs.
Which everyone knows, means aliens.
This is another tactic: using the word “believe.” As in “So and so believes in UFOs” which means you’re a kook.
Pointing out that one can’t “believe” in a UFO, any more than one “believes” in a toaster, gets you nowhere. You might get a response like:“We know what toasters look like, and that they exist. We don’t know what UFOs look like.”
Really. They say that. Honest.
That’s a bit beside the point though. The point is, UFO means Unidentified Flying Object, and if we see something up there we can’t identify , it’s a UFO. “Belief” doesn't come into it.
Are we to not discuss the odd, unusual, or strange things we see up there? Is that the idea?
Or are we to avoid the use of the word ‘UFO?’ Well then, what do we use?
Some chronic skeptics,(Fortean writer Colin Bennett’s term) and a goodly amount of UFO-ologist (no, chronic
skeptics are not UFO-ologists. It's impossible. You just can’t) suggest we use the term UAP; Unidentified Ariel Phenomena. All that does is give a new name for the same thing. And ignores the question: what if what you saw was not a “phenomena” so much as an actual
thing? A craft, a machine, a solid object. That’s no “aerial phenomena” that’s a bona fide UFO. A true unidentified object.
That UFO could be ours, man made, a classified weapon, tool or technology. It could be someone’s remote controlled toy. It could be a hoax. It could be a mylar balloon, a weather or atmospheric monitoring device.
(Heck it could even be a toaster. Actually, that doesn't make sense; what would a toaster be doing flying around up there? That’s sillier than “believing” extraterrestrials exist.)
And here’s another thing not often brought up by UFOlogists, although it is to some degree; and rarely by the chronic skeptic. These UFOs could be from within, or of, the earth. Entities that have been coexisting here on earth alongside of us for a long time. They’re not from up there at all; but right here.
And pushing that kook envelope even farther, it’s possible these terrestrial beings are somehow inter-dimensional, both solid and vaporous at the same time. That will send the chronic skeptic into a frenzied froth of hysteria.
There is also the mistake of thinking ‘UFO’ is one thing. UFO can be reduced to one, simple thing, once we get to it. When in fact, UFO covers a vast and complex collection of things: from the mundane, like cases of mistaken identity (natural phenomena, airplanes, etc.) to anomalous and unusual weather phenomena (sprites, lenticular clouds, for example.) UFO can apply to man made objects.
UFO can even be applied to extraterrestrials.
None of those things makes one a kook. Or a liar.
Intentionally forcing a new and inaccurate definition onto something in order to distract us from all the potentials of all that is UFO does make one a liar.
And a bit of a kook. After all, to stay stuck in a conservative 1950s Project Blue Book (government study on UFOs:1952 - 1969) mentality that ignores the progress we’ve made concerning physics, consciousness, and technology is, well,
kooky.
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