Greetings. The UFO subculture. A loosely connected conglomeration of people; all with their own motivations, some grounded and searching for answers, some looking for notoriety and financial gain. One troubling aspect of the subculture is its penchant for abandoning the effort to critically think about the UFO problem and the possibilities it places on the investigative table.
The process of investigation demands a high level of objectivity, a strict adherence to an approach which holds critical thinking above all other courses of action. Is this standard embraced by the masses in the UFO subculture? Most often, it is not, in fact, it is often vilified or made light of. While there are some highly dedicated and professional people involved in exploring and investigating the UFO problem, they are not the majority, not by a long shot. Jack Brewer, Barry Greenwood, David Marler, Kevin Randle, James Clarkson, John Greenewald, among many less well-known researchers, have kept their focus squarely on the problem at hand, and they are all deserving of our full support and accolades. Unfortunately, their measured, data-based voices are drowned out by the noise coming from the months of the celebrities in the UFO arena. Such is the situation as it stands now.
The situation is made all the more problematic by the manner with which the UFO subculture looks at the topic. Far more likely explanations are cast aside, all in favor of far less likely answers, in other words, aliens, aliens, aliens. Logic and common sense are hardly ever part of the thought process, nor is a cautious consideration of what is being offered up for public consumption. When "red flags" are discovered by researchers, those same "red flags" are ignored or overlooked by the masses. If a witness has a criminal record, that is overlooked and cast aside, never to be discussed again. Witness testimonials are often not questioned, and the backgrounds of those telling stories are not scrutinized to any satisfactory extent. When a new story surfaces, or a new "whistleblower" is revealed, UFO people often blindly embrace what is being told to them, seemingly without blinking an eye. No doubts, no questions, no critical thinking. Nothing.
Just today, I posted a quote from the late Charles Hickson on my Facebook blog platform. Mr. Hickson's quote reads as follows: "The head seemed to come directly to the shoulders, no neck, and something resembling a nose came out to a point about two inches long. On each side of the head, about where ears would be, was something similar to the nose. Directly under the nose was a slit resembling a mouth. The arms were something like human arms, but long in proportion to the body; the hands resembled a mitten, there was a thumb attached. The legs remained together and the feet looked something like elephant's feet. The entire body was wrinkled and had a greyish color. There could have been eyes, but the area above the nose was so wrinkled I couldn't tell." Mr. Hickson and the late Calvin Parker, are the gentlemen who testified about their alleged experience during the Pascagoula case of October 11th of 1973. The comments left behind on the post are quite revealing and suggest that the UFO subculture is not proficient at examining unknowns in a logical or objective way.
Some of the comments are as follows:
"I watched it on Netflix last night. They absolutely were abducted."
"This ,too me, is one of the best abduction cases there is."
"i watched the documentary ..grown men don't make this crap up!!..it's real & they know it!"
"The documentary on dvd about this is excellent. No hype, fluff or nonsense.'"
"I have no idea what happened to them, but I believe them when they say something did. They are not lying in my opinion."
"They weren't lying about their experience ",.."
All subjective, all based on opinion and void of tangible evidence to corroborate the witness testimonials. UFO people consistently make the subjective decision to believe witnesses, which is not the scientific method, nor is it an example of critical thinking. It is simply opinion, and nothing more. In addition, if a witness is determined to be telling the truth, that does not necessarily mean that an actual alien abduction took place. People are not perfect, and are quite capable of making mistakes and misunderstanding what they may have experienced. Such misidentifications happen all the time. Adding fuel to this counterproductive UFO fire, there is no standard of evidence when it comes to the UFO problem, and that applies to the entire subculture, laypeople and researchers alike.
So the reality is that a large percentage of the UFO subculture have their collective minds made up. It is aliens, even if there is no evidence to support such a untenable position. That is not critical thinking, nor is it logical, but it is typical for human beings. On a personal note, my own positions on the UFO problem are strictly based in opinion, for I have no evidence to prove my positions. Until physical evidence comes to light, the human species' thoughts about the enigma of unidentified flying objects will remain firmly planted in the world of opinion, supposition, and speculation. That is the way it is.
The link to the blog posting in question is available at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/iXcWX3CXdcJAKuS4/?mibextid=oFDknk
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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