Youtube and some of its crazier denizens.

[karadan]

I have a rather keen interest in UFO's. I know, it sounds silly. My friends scoff at me but I just think it is a nice way to get a bit of intrigue after a hard week at work. There are some pretty crazy vids on youtube covering this topic. Now, before you all start thinking I'm weird I need to clarify something..
 
I still don't know what to think about the phenomenon.
 
Stuff like the disclosure project really makes me wonder though. Some of the videos out there are hard to define as simple hoaxes. Anyhow, the rational part of my brain still wants to keep on a level so that I can look at the subject from both angles. Some people, however, seem to take it all verbatim and really believe whole heartedly. Not saying that is a bad thing, but I have noticed some glaring similarities between they way they speak and the way religious people speak.
 
For instance:
 
An ad was made for the sci-fi channel in the 90's which depicted a ufo zooming past a helicopter over New York. I know this because I remember it being aired. Lots of people confirm this in the comments after the vid. The funny thing is, in between the comments of people saying what the vid is and where it came from, is people suggesting that we are all sheep, and that the vid is real. The sci-fi channel explanation is a convenient cover for a legitimate UFO sighting. It has only been 10 years since it was aired but already a newer generation of people who never saw the original advert have now come to their own conclusion. In my opinion, this is scarily similar to how the stories of the bible must have been perpetuated. Maybe some scholar back in the day tried to reason with the people buying his best-seller that it was just his greatest work of fiction. Within 10 years of his death, millions of people world-wide believed everything written in the book like it was actual history.
 
See the ufo vid here:   http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet? ... cHHl_m8ocg
 
Discounting the (probably rather large amount of) people who say stuff like that as a joke, there are a lot who just don't seem open to the possibility that most UFO material has other explanations other than being a 'true' unidentified flying object.
 
I've been called a sheep a lot. This seems to be a term they like using. Apparently, having an opinion about a subject matter differing to their own makes me a sheep. I even had a couple of email conversations with a guy who believed all modern science to be a hoax perpetuated by shadowy nefarious forces to further their own dastardly agenda. Einstein was in on it apparently, as is Stephen Hawking! I really wish I could remember the link he gave me which apparently 'debunks' all of modern science. It was quite a funny read actually. I've even been called a spook working for the government spreading disinformation just because I wouldn't entertain the possibility that 9/11 was one giant conspiracy... I just find it funny that they tell me to 'open my mind' when theirs are closed to all other possibilities.
 
Maybe religious people have more in common with the above then at first seems likely. Maybe the solid unshakable belief in something outlandish gives people a soulful purpose to life. Maybe it is something they can hold onto and call their own by deliberately creating themselves a minority school of thought. Maybe feeling like the odd-one-out gives them the tools they need to feel happy.
 
Personally, I don't believe it to be a healthy way to think. All opinions should be questionable or at least open to question. We should use evidence to support one way or the other, not blind conjecture masquerading as evidence.
 
Either way, there are some seriously unhinged individuals on Youtube. Don't even get me started on the racism...

[Kyuuketsuki]

I have a rather keen interest in UFO's. I know, it sounds silly. My friends scoff at me but I just think it is a nice way to get a bit of intrigue after a hard week at work. There are some pretty crazy vids on youtube covering this topic. Now, before you all start thinking I'm weird I need to clarify something..

My view is that given that all UFO evidence is essentially non validatable in an empirical sense (given what can be done with film techniques these days and that the vast majority of UFO "evidence" is anecdotal, film or photograph) the rationalist will assume there is no case for UFO unless validatable evidence is produced.

If that means I'm a sheep then ... baaaaaa

Kyu