Alien conspiracy theories and the Galactic Federation

 Out of all the turmoil of last week, with a president trying to encourage seditionists in his bid to overturn the election, and with Covid deaths rates accelerating to over 3,000 per day in the US alone while Americans remain indifferent and choose to fight political battles instead, there was this astonishing report. I was very inclined to view it as "clickbait", and so, I didn't click on it at all. These are outlandish stories that have a certain prurient aspect, and because of this, they incite curiosity and motivate people to click on them. This one regards aliens.

Now, I have been a science fiction reader all my life. I read this genre of literature, but also, read books by scientists (or science writers) who consider the possibility of alien existence. I would love to believe in this, but I do not want to kowtow to conspiracy theorists. I find that these theorists tend to foster a climate of faith (in their own secret knowledge) rather than transparency and editorial scrutiny.

Apparently, last Tuesday, Dec. 8 (when I was administering my Zoom final exam for one of my classes), this breathless news was published. It claims that an Israeli security expert believes that Trump was about to reveal the existence of aliens.

Now, Trump is a proven lier. He has lied continually throughout his office, and I am not talking about overstating claims or misrepresentations, I am talking about outright lies. I would not believe anything that he says, a less credible person I could not imagine. But the fact that an Israeli security chief was involved, whatever his ulterior motives for making this claim may be, does give one reason to pause.

I think that all it leads is to encouraging another conspiracy theory gambit to inspire fear or sceptitude of government authorities. These conspiracy theories always seem to have a right-wing agenda, such as the one beloved by conservatives that posits a secret organization to impose a world government. There is also the conspiracy theory named "Q", about a supposed high level organization that is involved in widespread pedofilia. There is always a right-wing agenda that involves attacking and smearing government agencies in order to promote authoritarian governments that are socially-conservative. They would love nothing more than to install Putin here in the USA.

So, I will leave it at that. I was not going to publish it, but I am curious as to the agenda behind such a claim. But to speculate would be to give in to the conspiracy theory.