Why UFO Culture and MAGA Culture Converged
One by one, I’ve noticed many of the main personalities leading our modern UFO mania come out as far right. This is not a political comment; it’s merely an interesting data point in the demographics of conspiracy ideation. We know that conspiratorial thought is spread equally across the political spectrum; and for any given conspiracy theory, we can usually find a sound reason for it to fit where it does demographically.
But belief in alien UFOs did not immediately jump out at me as one that would have a particular political appeal. And then I figured it out.
There are different versions of what “belief in UFOs” means. It can mean anything from “People do sometimes see things they can’t immediately identify” (which is a very mild and reasonable claim) all the way out to “the government is hiding aliens in their secret base and hides this fact from the public” (which is far out at the end of the wackiness spectrum).
I have not seen data on this, but the milder version has (I would bet) no particular demographic affiliation. Conversely, the more severe versions — including all those that cast “the government” as the keeper of a nefarious secret — do, however, all seem to have a far-right anchor.
What could that be?
Well, see what they have in common. A core principle to the really far-out UFO crowd is a sort of Judgment Day mythology that they called “Disclosure,” when they believe the government will admit everything it knows about the aliens, and the enlightened will be set apart from the sheeple. Disclosure is always predicted to be just around the corner. In the meantime, that sacred knowledge is held back and suppressed by deep government entities.
Similarly, a core principle of the alt-right is belief in a mythical “deep state,” a shadow government that actually controls everything. Why do we not openly see Bill Gates and Barack Obama drinking the blood of children? It’s because they do it behind the cloak of the deep state. That we do not see it is proof of its reality.
These are the same thing. If you believe the government is suppressing knowledge of the aliens, then you (by definition) believe in a deep state.
And it really is as simple as that. Expect a better-than-even chance that the farther out someone’s Alien Visitation belief this, they’re part of the MAGA crowd as well.