It has been said that the best way to destroy something is from within. This is the message of the story of the Trojan horse. It is also a familiar, yet well hidden tool, to subvert true investigation and progress in the area of UFOlogy. Let's look at some examples.
In the late 1950's there were approximately 500 or more UFO groups in the US alone. Some were based on the Contactee/Metaphysical views of the topic, some were based on a purely scientific examination of evidence and some a mix of both.
The first and last of those would eventually fade or break up remaining only in one or two lingering odd cults into the 2000's. The Contactee/Metaphysical view had merged with a growing drug culture by the 1970's causing many to drop away from the topic. Others, fell apart due to lack of funding, negative reports created in the wake of the Condon report, ridicule, and other similar reasons.
That leaves two of the major science based groups, NICAP and APRO, alone in the arena by late 1950's and through most of the 1960's. Oddly, these two will collapse due to interior pressures that have led many to suppose they were infiltrated for the purposes of dismantling them. Some released government records appear to support that idea. That Trojan Horse approach. There were tensions of leadership, conflicting views on importance of data, needed goals, and necessary actions. The result was both would fold.
Fast forward to the 1990's and MUFON. MUFON had emerged to occupy the void left in 1969 when Project Blue Book closed. In the decade of the 1990's there were concerns and rumors of infighting and other issues that included loss of records and reclassifications of previously accepted reports. The result many people - as witnessed by comments on bulletin boards, webpages, and in books - expressed a loss of trust in the organization to be objective and dedicated to the truth. Currently, the organization has taken great strides to make sure reports are complete and through and investigated with a gratifying level of scientific yet open-minded professionalism from its volunteer field investigators.
Press that fast forward button again and it is today - now - with a new open attitude unlike anything since 1947. Social media, online videos, podcasts, books, articles, and government hearings make the news and discussion highly accessible.
The result? There is clearly a cadre of debunkers who seem to have a detailed task to troll such sites making negative comments or off hand debunking without examining the evidence or exploring the topic. There are people who post videos of objects that appear to be designed to merely confuse the issue through fake cgi generated images, obvious misinterpretations of sky objects any sixth grader SHOULD be able to identify, or who hold a blanket acceptance anything they see or view on a video. The presence of these in any four pages or comment blocks appears to be abnormally high. Plus, the presence of "gotcha" trolls, ugly commentors, debunkers and the like seem abnormally high.
They are all unwilling to offer solid evidence or even to discuss their assaults. When pressed they often - turtle like - slink their heads back into their invisible online shells.
It is obvious from history that a successful tool to manipulate the topic of unknowns was the planting of individuals inside groups to cause disruption and bring about the destruction of the goals of the organization. The field should be alert to the potential for that to be happening again, take measures to guard against in-fighting, to insure that open discussion is encouraged, and that all is done in an open and science-based manner to insure the best results.
Project Blue Book set the template: dazzle with science, dismiss with ridicule, and infiltrate to weaken.
It is time to be aware of the pattern and arrange the discussion in such a manner that we strive for the highest standards and hold one another there.
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