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I'm always happy to see very reputable sources who report on very serious endeavors by very serious people. These last years have seen a terrible increase in wh

I'm always happy to see very reputable sources who report on very serious endeavors by very serious people. These last years have seen a terrible increase in what people call "post-truth discourse", or more simply "fake news". These terrible things poison our democracy, making people doubt major institutions and look for conspiratorial explanations to the noblest pursuits, such as the quest for science; instead, they see everything as motivated by money transfers and bullshit. This is a big problem with the internet increasing polarization badly. Among this darkness stands a beacon of light. The New York Times, reputed for it infallible thoroughness, providing accurate reporting on all subjects. From the Iraq war to pre-2023 reporting on Sam Bankman-Fried, their flawless track-record shows that they can be trusted to shield truth from independent journalism. >“Two-thirds of the American public believes there is extraterrestrial life, more than the 56 percent that believes in the God of the Bible,” Loeb told me. Dismissing their questions as unworthy of consideration, he argues, is not a good way to earn back the trust of an American public that has become skeptical of science and scientists. I think we should open new university departments that go one step further and study "why do aliens love the USA so much?". Most alien activity, either recorded by the public, the media or the government, happens in the USA. This is a major question that deserves the same level of scrutiny, if not more, than questions such as "do aliens exist".

yyyk 3y ago
>I think we should open new university departments that go one step further and study "why do aliens love the USA so much?" Professor Dave Barry explained the reason sometime ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20131103013600/http://www.ufoera.com/articles/whats-alien-you-by-dave-barry_1190310857.html https://web.archive.org/web/20131103013600/http://www.ufoera...
david-gpu 3y ago
> Most alien activity, either recorded by the public, the media or the government, happens in the USA. This is a major question that deserves the same level of scrutiny, if not more, than questions such as "do aliens exist". Do you read the news in any language other than English? Is it then surprising that all the UFO sightings you hear about are written in English by English speakers? If you actually had any interest in answering the question, which you obviously don't, you would have looked for information in other languages and you would have found plenty.
- woolion 3y ago
  >Do you read the news in any language other than English? That's kind of a weird take... I'm not American at all. I can't speak for all European countries, but in most it's kind of a basic anti-american cliché that they are so dumb that they believe in the grey alien coming with its anal probes. Most of the material about UFOs is directly translated. There's some homegrown UFO, like the French 'Raël' [0], but I believe it's way more fringe in non-English speaking countries. Trying to find data I stumbled upon [1], which would be fairly consistent with the result of a meme propagated through culture. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABl [1] https://www.kaggle.com/code/shikhar96/geographical-distribution-of-sightings https://www.kaggle.com/code/shikhar96/geographical-distribut...
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    There are a ton of cases in Brazil and various other countries in South America. Those of us that mostly consume media in English hear about cases in the US and UK for that very reason. The dataset you pointed at is a perfect example of what I'm saying: NUFORC is an American nonprofit.

yyyk 3y ago

>I think we should open new university departments that go one step further and study "why do aliens love the USA so much?" Professor Dave Barry explained the reason sometime ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20131103013600/http://www.ufoera.com/articles/whats-alien-you-by-dave-barry_1190310857.html https://web.archive.org/web/20131103013600/http://www.ufoera...

david-gpu 3y ago

> Most alien activity, either recorded by the public, the media or the government, happens in the USA. This is a major question that deserves the same level of scrutiny, if not more, than questions such as "do aliens exist". Do you read the news in any language other than English? Is it then surprising that all the UFO sightings you hear about are written in English by English speakers? If you actually had any interest in answering the question, which you obviously don't, you would have looked for information in other languages and you would have found plenty.

woolion 3y ago
>Do you read the news in any language other than English? That's kind of a weird take... I'm not American at all. I can't speak for all European countries, but in most it's kind of a basic anti-american cliché that they are so dumb that they believe in the grey alien coming with its anal probes. Most of the material about UFOs is directly translated. There's some homegrown UFO, like the French 'Raël' [0], but I believe it's way more fringe in non-English speaking countries. Trying to find data I stumbled upon [1], which would be fairly consistent with the result of a meme propagated through culture. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABl [1] https://www.kaggle.com/code/shikhar96/geographical-distribution-of-sightings https://www.kaggle.com/code/shikhar96/geographical-distribut...
- david-gpu 3y ago
  There are a ton of cases in Brazil and various other countries in South America. Those of us that mostly consume media in English hear about cases in the US and UK for that very reason. The dataset you pointed at is a perfect example of what I'm saying: NUFORC is an American nonprofit.