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As you may know, my new feature doc The UFO Movie THEY Don’t Want You to See is freshly finished — still warm out of the dryer — and is starting the festival circuit and the distributor road show. It’s my best work yet. It’s a look at the true science behind today’s UFO mania, and regardless of your thoughts on UFOs — you believe they are alien visitors, or you approach them with scientific skepticism — the film will better inform your position. And I worked very hard to make sure it appeals to all segments; it’s not a debunking film designed to preach to the choir, and it’s certainly not the credulous story promotion that all other UFO films are.
The more you work at making a compelling science presentation to truly appeals to general audiences, the less and less relevant the pop-culture caricature of UFOs becomes. No, I was not thinking about any of the shows on the networks. No, I was not thinking about any of the personalities Joe Rogan promotes. No, I was not paying attention to the #ufotwitter hashtag to find out when “disclosure” is currently being predicted. All of that is just silliness.
But it’s silliness that has a huge market share and a massive amount of attention. I understand very well when people tell me “Hey, Brian, you should take on this new claim,” or “Hey, you should reveal how this person is full of it,” or “Hey, you should go on this podcast and debate this guy.” There are a lot of great, smart people out there frustrated by all the UFO bullshit getting all the headlines, and they would love to see some pushback.
But in this case, no. My pushback would be just a part of their show.
UFO crap is popular because it’s sensational. Nobody in the community is bound by facts or science or logic so they claim whatever they want. They comically exaggerate one another’s credentials such that every Afghanistan vet becomes an “intelligence official” and every UFOlogist who was ever in the service can claim “whistleblower” status. They need the Brians pushing back at them so they can continue spouting irrefutable nonsense.
And make no mistake, being a public UFOlogist is not a great career. The number of people who have hit it big by being regulars on Ancient Aliens or the other crap shows can be counted on the fingers of one hand. All the rest of them — the Steven Greers who stamp out repetitive “documentaries” every 9 months, the Bob Lazars who go on every podcast who will take them, the Lue Elizondos who hit up everyone they know for any kind of consulting gig, have to work at it constantly to make any kind of a living. They need the constant attention. They need the relevance conferred by public debates and disputes (note Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently renewing their public personas by picking a fight with public scientist Peter Hotez).
There is nothing I can say or do by participating in their circus that will reduce pop UFOlogy’s footprint in the public conscious. But there is a lot that I can do by stepping back and offering an alternate presentation — I know this, because I’ve made a whole career out of doing just that, with Skeptoid and my other projects. Any time spent engaging with the UFO personalities is time away from making persuasive, and hopefully effective, science communication.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.