Actual, legit Fortean lore regarding this is that the phenomena knows when it's being observed and photographed, and can manipulate time and space such that it doesn't show up on digital photos.
this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Tbh, I think the big problem here is that a lot of ground-based sightings happen at night, likely due to a combination of
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Weird shit stands out more in the dark, but also
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It's just flat out harder to identify stuff in the dark.
Well, guess what doesn't work as well in the dark? Cameras. As a rule of thumb, cameras almost always work better with more light than less light. It's already difficult to get high quality pictures of stuff in the dark (depending on your camera, settings, lens, etc), now make it a very bright thing that's potentially moving quick and at a significant distance, and any attempt to take a picture is cooked, especially with something like a cell phone camera. So, whether what you're taking a picture of is the mother ship, Aurora, or a DJI drone, it all just kind of turns into a few bright pixels against a dark background. Then, you inevitably get the ends of the bell curve arguing whether it was an extra bright seagull or whether they could literally see the aliens waving at them in those two pixels, which is the death of any serious conversation about the presented evidence.
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If I were The Aliens, I would've stopped coming here somewhere around 2013-2014. And I don't say this with any kind of undertone, I just feel we haven't developed in significant ways over the past decade. They most certainly haven't presented any social interest, so it's a study. They'd only need vertical slices every half century to a century or so.
My guess is that the Earth is a petting zoo for some aliens. The adult aliens could come here to see how weird and stupid we are, while their children would give us some bitcoins to see if we do anything funny. What if some conspiracy theories, like the flat earth nonsense was a prank pulled by one of the visiting aliens?
Now, now, let's give ourselves fair share of the credit, we're dumb enough to come up with Flat Earth on our own, tyvm!:)))
Starting the anti-vaccine conspiracy would have been too cruel. I think any young punk would be grounded for a century for pulling that off.
Instead, I’m pretty sure humans are the only species capable of such self destructive behavior and aliens can only gasp in horror as we throw ourselves into the fire.
Also, climate change denial … oh, that’s just next level stupidity. No need to bring the doomlaser here. This species will be done sooner or even sooner. Maybe try planting a smarter species here next time around?
Surely, if something/someone intentionally caused our existence, they must be pulling out clumps of hair at this point (or equivalent gestures).
Although... well, this is purely speculative and quite a bit philosophical, but I guess it all comes down to how they'd manage fear and greed. I initially wanted to say that viciousness seems to be a facile trait for sentience, but I only have us as a sample, so...
I genuinely don't even know what to think anymore. My sense of scale and value has been completely shattered by our contemporary debasement with Fascism and burning the planet and everything in between and around, not in a million years could I have believed humanity in general could be so stupid as to do the same horrid shit all over again, and especially not after our forerunners' fervency in purging the very concept of Fascism. Hell, maybe it was just Marketing...
I mean, how can anyone consider a governing system so unabashedly inimical to life as a feasible way of doing things?! I... I just don't understand it. I don't know if I'm too stupid, or too naïve, or cloistered, or whatever the fuck else, but I just cannot process the idea of anything which looks like me behaving in such a horrid manner. I can grasp that capacity for violence, because I have it, too, but to use it in such a manner? No. That's where my system hangs.
Maybe humans are an experiment to see what happens if you combine infinite greed and selfishness in the same species. Sounds like a recipe for a total disaster, but it could be interesting to watch how the whole thing implodes at some point.
My morbid tendencies are fascinated by the idea, but I, myself, can't help but feel like staring at an incoming tsunami crest.
Ever read Roadside Picnic?
Sounds like I should look into that.
It's my favourite take on a first contact story. I think you'd appreciate it.
That depends on your description of development. Socially, economically, etc we have reverted and are doing the same things that failed 100 years ago. But there have been breakthroughs elsewhere.
Cas9 gene editing through CRISPR has opened a ton of incredibly valuable medical options around that time. The same with mRNA vaccination breakthroughs leading into the COVID era.
These are noteworthy and relevant breakthroughs, yes, but I don't see us doing anything dramatic with this technology in less than a decade, maybe two. And that's just for something like regrowing teeth, way longer timeline for anything fancier. We're still just basically optimising old tech right now. New battery designs incoming, solar panel tech is getting better (slowly), we are moving, yes. But it's like watching people paint the living room at this point, and I assume long-distance space travel still isn't "cheap" for them, even with their fancy manoeuvering.
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or they decide to enslave humans.
Honestly, I don't think anyone in their right mind would risk it! We're certifiably insane when in large masses, we'd ruin their civilisation if they'd get us all.
We'd deffo see Bezos/Musk/Zuck/etc. becoming the Breens of our timeline, and we already hate'em!
Edit: plus, why bother? It's enough to cause a Pandemic, we're aces at making things worse by ourselves! Planet cleans itself up, move in, adapt existing infrastructure, no risk of random nukes... sounds like a good deal to me!
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Or they took it as an opportunity to advance our technology enough to entertain us and stunt our growth. It's like giving monkeys an endless supply of bananas, why would the monkeys do anything else any more? They got all the bananas and there's nothing more to do for them.
It's an easy way to get rid of competition or an emerging civilization in the galactic neighborhood. Just throw us a bone and we'll gnaw on it for a few thousand years.
They'd need to come back and plant something else, because the side-effect of shortening attention spans has also increased the frequency at which we require new flavours of brainrot. I think this method of doing things is somewhat ineffectual.
Honestly, if I were to guess how someone would stunt us, is to "help" us improve our industry before we even grasp its implications. It essentially created Baron-Gods (and we sure do like triangles and shit!) while ensuring that we'll choke ourselves out.
I'm not sure there was ever the possibility of a really convincing UFO video. I'd be skeptical of something extremely realistic even if we were still in the days before convincing traditional effects. It's just too high a bar - it's much easier to believe that a video was staged, even to an unbelievable level, than it is to believe that it depicts actual beings from another planet. I think that's why the UFO community hangs their hat so much on Disclosure these days. They must realize that only confirmation from a trusted authority could be real confirmation.
They must realize that only confirmation from a trusted authority could be real confirmation.
This is a neat observation because it's ironic on it's face. UFO people actively work to discredit institutions and authority. But you're right, they are desperate for confirmation from the Pentagon, the Vatican, even something on official DMV letterhead would be a blockbuster event in UFO/conspiracy spaces.
What authority do you trust today?
What authority do you trust
William Shatner
You clearly underestimate the stupidity and lack of logic employed by conspiracy theorists.
Well, I mean convincing to the public at large. Yeah I know I guy, otherwise perfectly smart, that is convinced that aliens are real based on the cheesiest, most obviously faked videos from back in the 80s or whatever.
The new benchmark is the pentagon releasing the videos, with radar, and infrared, as well as testimonies to congress from people who are skeptical themselves.
Seriously though, what the actual fuck are those UAP videos... It's fucking wild.
Lens flares, but in IR they look different.
(Fixed typo)
So i looked into the lens flare thing and I'm not so convinced.
Here's the kicker:
The thing jammed radar.
Multiple pilots VISUALLY saw it.
It was confirmed to have descended 80,000 feet in less than a second, by both radar and a shipborne Aegis system, which prompted the pilots to take to the skies and check it out.
The videos we see aren't the most important pieces of evidence, it's supporting evidence.
Lens flare cannot explain the radar and aegis verification, and subsequent jamming, the visual confirmation, or the physics breaking performance characteristics.
The thing went from hovering stationary, to beyond the speed of sound without creating a sonic boom.
Anything made of meat would be liquefied by the inertia.
There was no visual propulsion, or heat signatures from it.
So, I reiterate, what the fuck is it?
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Why aren't you wearing your flair?
I mean, people thought the pandemic we had going for years and the vaccines that controlled it were hoaxes. That the moon landings never happened and that Earth is flat. You are assuming the bar to close that window is way higher than it actually is.
FWIW, sensible people would be more than capable of identifying that situation correctly. Mostly because one has to assume that an alien visit would be more diplomatic engagement and less playing peek-a-boo with an interstellar vehicle for no discernible reason.
Aliens have been pranking us for millions of years
The good news: if we heard tomorrow that astronomers had discovered an exoplanet with life, it would now sound plausible.
I feel like basic camouflage wouldn't be difficult for a UFO. With more advanced camouflage, there's no way we would know.
You're right.
Your face.
Your mom.
And my axe!
I thought I left reddit :,(