[Image: PickPik]
UFOs are back in the headlines—again—and surprise, surprise, it might not be by accident.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal dropped the first of a two-part exposé suggesting that the Pentagon has been the puppet master behind America’s obsession with flying saucers and alien tech for decades. If you’re picturing shadowy men in suits nudging the public toward little green men while hiding their own dirty secrets—congrats, you’re basically on the right track.
The piece outlines how the Defense Department, at various points, actively manufactured UFO nonsense to keep people distracted.
That’s not internet tinfoil chatter, it comes straight from Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), whose actual job is to investigate UFO sightings, Gizmodo notes. Kirkpatrick told the Journal he’d uncovered evidence that the government “fabricated evidence of alien technology” as a convenient smokescreen for its black-budget weapons programs. In short: “Look, aliens!” while they build something sketchy behind the curtain.
The Journal calls this “a stunning new twist in the story of America’s cultural obsession with UFOs.” And sure, the new details are juicy.
But come on, this isn’t so much a twist as it is a rerun. We’ve heard this tune before, just with different instrumentation. Hell, there was literally a story last year saying the same thing, quoting UFO debunker Mark Pilkington, who’s been arguing since at least 2014 that the government used disinfo operatives to gaslight the entire country into believing in aliens. Welcome to the club, WSJ.
Still, the Journal’s scoop isn’t without some fresh WTF moments. Take this one: Kirkpatrick unearthed a story about a 1967 incident at a nuclear bunker. Sounds dramatic already, doesn’t it? Buckle up. A UFO apparently buzzed the gate, a “glowing reddish-orange oval,” according to former Air Force captain Robert Salas, who was stationed there.
Shortly after the sighting, the facility’s nuclear missiles were suddenly disabled. If you’re wondering whether aliens just saved us from ourselves, hold that thought.
Kirkpatrick’s team followed up and found a less E.T.-phone-home explanation. Turns out, the military had developed a bizarre electromagnetic pulse device to simulate the effects of a nuclear blast—without, you know, blowing anything up. When fired, this thing would glow orange and zap everything in range with a bolt of electromagnetic havoc. In other words, it looked like a sci-fi movie prop and could absolutely fry your gear. Which it probably did.
But wait, there’s more.
Another deliciously strange nugget: Kirkpatrick found that, for years, newly minted commanders of America’s most secretive programs were greeted with a good old-fashioned psychological prank. They’d be shown a photo of a flying saucer and told it was an “antigravity manoeuvring vehicle,” part of a program called Yankee Blue. Then came the punchline: “Never speak of this again.” Many never realised it was a fabrication until, presumably, they were much older and sadder. The defense secretary’s office finally sent out a memo in 2023 ordering the Pentagon to knock it off, but honestly, that ship had already flown off into low Earth orbit.
Officials dubbed it a “hazing ritual,” which is one way to spin it. Another would be: internal psy-op. Was it really just military bros hazing each other with UFO fanfic? Or was this just another layer in the onion of disinformation, a way to keep even insiders guessing what’s real and what’s classified fairy dust? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
If this story is the truth, how do we know it’s not another disinformation dump disguised as a truth bomb? That’s the headache at the heart of the UFO circus. Once the government starts gaslighting itself, we’ve officially gone full Kafka.
Bottom line? You can’t trust a damn word that comes out of an official’s mouth, especially when it comes to UFOs.
And maybe that’s the whole point. Confuse everyone enough, and eventually they’ll just stop trying to figure it out. Which, let’s be honest, is exactly what they’re counting on.
[Source: Gizmodo]
