So UFO aficionados are basically fringe theorists that claim that Earth has been visited by non-human intelligent beings for years/decades/centuries/millennia. You turn on some channels, they have things like "Ancient Aliens"- claims they helped build the pyramids, or perhaps visited the Mayans, Aztecs, and any number of ancient cultures. In the 1940s, right after the invention of the nuclear bomb, you started having sightings in the Los Alamos area, including the infamous Roswell, New Mexico sighting in 1947 which allegedly involved a downed spacecraft with aliens that were retrieved. There's Area 51 which, according to some in the UFO community, houses alien technology. There's claims of Lockheed Martin being involved in reverse engineering of non-human technology. There are supposed sightings of all sorts of objects including: orbs, triangles, cubes with orbs inside, flying saucers, disks, obolid shapes, and now "drones". There are all sorts of theories and supposed "levels" of encounters.. 1st (witness the UFO), 2nd (see physical evidence of it on the ground), 3rd (actual encounter with an ET). You have agencies that pursued it (mainly to debunk it) in the 50s and 60s like Project Bluebook from the US Air Force (which was decommissioned by 1970), you have scientists that were skeptics that worked for Project Bluebook that became the leading researchers in UFOs like J. Allen Hynek (who made a cameo in the film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind). You had alien crazes after the Moon landing, in the 70s and 80s with various movies like Close Encounters, in the 90s you had X Files.. It died down for about 20 years, but is back with a vengeance. Now we have theories, based on supposed ex-government official testimony that there are crafts that are intermodal in that they can fly from the air into the water and back out again. So now there are theories of fringe theories in the UFO community about underground bases, of ships or probes that are produced and mimic various forms, etc. Now, the ET are not considered ET perhaps but NHI (non-human intelligence) that also inhabit our planet in some way alongside us, and have been all along.

Why is the fascination with UFOs back? Mainly it was caused by the recent couple years of US Congressional hearings that allowed "whistleblowers" to declare that the Pentagon has been tracking UFOs (now called "UAPs" or "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena") for years, and that they have hundreds of tapes of high resolution footage of them. Not only this, they claim that these programs have retrieved downed craft, and have attempted reverse engineering of them. They claim that it is hidden from the public, that it is "misallocated" funds (I guess meaning, not put where they were intended), and that evidence exists of all this. The caveat being that every time they were pressed for details of the first-hand evidence, the people claiming this would say that they signed top level non-disclosure agreements and that it is classified. Thus, their role as "whistleblower" seems to be pretty tepid. At this point, the validity seems to be primarily on the strength in the numbers of people that testify and the strength in character and credibility of the witnesses.

So, all that being said, what are the layers of epistemological truth that are involved here? Let me give some considerations...

1) The very fact that the US Congress is having hearings from ex-military personnel seems strange to me. A couple decades ago, if that was stated, I would have thought you were joking. Nowadays, however, with Trump being elected (twice!) and "fake" news, and all facts being considered as suspect, social media, and the "democratization" of information, everything is up for grabs in the media environment, thus most people now will just shrug their shoulders at the idea that a major country's legislative body has spent time listening to ex-military officials from the executive branch give testimony about programs that have found real UFOs, NHI, retrieval and reverse engineering programs. I think that is significant, but I am not sure if it is significant in the indifference that this is taken by the everyday person, or that the information itself being so otherworldly and "out there" is taken so seriously by US Congress. Either the general attitude is right, (show me the proof, this is more white noise in our oversaturated shock environment) or the Congressional hearing is trying to say something (there is some level of validity to the claim).

2) US Congress has authorized a new agency under the Department of Defense called AARO: https://www.aaro.mil/About/Mission-Vision/ . This agency is specifically designed to investigate UAP. The first director, Sean Fitzpatrick seemed much more close-lipped and dismissive of the claims made by those in the hearings about the secret government programs. This led the UFO community to shout bullshit, and that he is covering it up. He stepped down and was replaced by Jon Kosloski who is still tight-lipped but apparently more willing to say that they are seeing things that cannot be explained. He has also indicated that he cannot so much as "part his hair" without the Pentagon approving, according to one interviewer. The press has also asked him about UAP after an AARO hearing in the Senate.

"During a briefing with reporters, Jon Kosloski, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, admitted that the U.S. government is stumped by several “true anomalies.” According to Kosloski, “There are interesting [UFO] cases that I, with my physics and engineering background and time in the [intelligence community], I do not understand. And I don’t know anybody else who understands them either.” — Marik von Rennenkampff - The Hill

So with that we have various undertones, truths, half truths, and lies to wade through. I see this akin evaluating the validity of the source, the validity of the evidence, and the validity of the context.

Context: For the validity of context, I do think it is a significant that government agencies are holding any hearings at all about UAP. It would seem if there was no "there" there, it would be a major waste of taxpayer money and time. However, the counterargument is that the Congress members themselves are fringe cooks willing to entertain sensationalist bullshit. With the rise of Trump, QAnon, conspiracy theories, mistrust of government, and social media, I can see that... However, I this does seem to cross party lines, and otherwise "normal" politicians seem quite interested in this. Again, perhaps motivations would be for publicity or diversion.

From all this, Chuck Schumer has proposed a bill in the Senate for accountability and transparency surrounding UAPs, so top officials in Congress are taking this seriously.

Another theory could be that this is a major disinformation campaign by the Pentagon to throw off the public from actual activities related to things such as drone technology.. and that we are perhaps seeing played out now in various military installations, like in New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Washington, UK, Germany, and many other regions. This would presumably want the public to think of outlandish things whilst it plays around with some cool tech in "plain sight".

Evidence: The evidence is quite shabby at this point. There are a few videos like the "tic tac" video of UAPs caught on camera by Air Force pilots, ones that seem to whiz around at great speeds and go under water and out again. Some of these may have already been explained away, some not. The problem is the real "evidence" has only been alleged and when asked for them directly, the people who claim to know say they cannot say as its classified, and often say they would have to go to a "SKIF" to debrief them (outside of the hearing, with NDAs signed and with the Pentagon's authorization to do so, which probably wasn't given when requested). Supposedly there are high resolution videos, physical remains, and even "biologics".

Sources: The sources have so far been military pilots and ex-intelligence officers. The first one was David Grusch a year ago who "broke open" the case. The latest in mid-November of 2024 was mainly from Luis Elizondo, the ex-director of a department called "AATIP" which preceded AARO as an agency that investigated UAPs, and was originally started with the backing of Senator Harry Reid (an avid UFO enthusiast himself). He said that the evidence is there, and that the people with authorization to say anything are keeping it secret. He is trying to urge them to come forward. He claims also that there is a campaign to keep people like him silent. Here are some videos to better understand these Congressional hearings.

First round of UAP hearings 2023 clips:


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l7P9yXwuU-k

Second round of UAP hearings 2024 clips:




Personally, I have never really cared about the topic, watching the occasional movie or show, but thinking it just fringe theories, akin to religions and out of body experiences, etc. However, what makes me take notice is the context- that it is being taken seriously by a major superpower. That does make me take notice more than I would previously. It is hard to wade through all this, but given the framework I provided of context, evidence, and sources, how should one evaluate claims?