In a recent podcast appearance, UFO advocate and media personality Lue Elizondo explained his reasoning behind claiming that UFO mysteries have made him "somber." His speculative ideas are straight out of middle twentieth century science fiction, particularly the so-called "zoo hypothesis" that appeared in a number of stories at that time, imagining that Earth was essentially a zoo run by space aliens. This is an outgrowth of Charles Fort's claim that some non-human intelligence essentially operates Earth as a prison or an ant farm to watch us, and it is the basis for the "prison planet" claims of some contemporary ancient astronaut theorists.
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Yesterday, the Pentagon announced the creation of a new group to handle UFO investigations as part of an effort to distance the military from the increasingly unhinged fringe science narratives circling around the subject. The Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence issued a directive creating the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, which will investigate and identify potential aerial threats. According to officials who briefed reporters, the group was created in response to frustration within the intelligence community that the UAP Task Force did too little to explain sightings, letting UFO looneys promote alien speculation that military and intelligence officials do not take seriously.
On Thursday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) submitted a revised version of her amendment to create a UFO office within the Pentagon. The new amendment, SA 4810, is now cosponsored by a bipartisan coalition of senators, including Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). Most of the amendment remains the same, and there is one key provision of the amendment worth highlighting now that the bipartisan legislation seems likely to become law.
A few months ago, NBC's Peacock streaming service gave Demi Lovato a UFO series in which the streamer presented Lovato as a goofy, cuddly conspiracy theorist gawking in wonder at lights in the sky. Gaia TV saw the publicity that Lovato gained and appointed them a brand ambassador, and Lovato began telling their 118 million social media followers to watch hand-picked promoting extreme fringe history ideas, including lizard people conspiracies.
Last week, Avi Loeb appointed Lue Elizondo and Chris Mellon, formerly of To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science and the History Channel, to the advisory board of his Galileo Project, the Harvard-backed organization hunting UFOs. Events this week made it a little clearer why Loeb took the extraordinary step to open his “scientific” search for UFOs to men who have variously claimed to have psychic powers, speculated that UFOs emerge from undersea portals to other dimensions, and endorsed fantasies about the U.S. government recovering dwarf aliens from a 1945 UFO crash site.
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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