[fnordsensei]

At the same time, the supposedly rational opponents to this does everyone a disservice by judging all of it based on the loudest fraction of people. And then we can’t have scientific inquiry into anything, because baby/bathwater.

[dennis_jeeves2]

Agreed, mainstream 'scientific' establishment scientific inquiry is a sham. It's a modern form of religion.

[chipdart]

> At the same time, the supposedly rational opponents to this does everyone a disservice by judging all of it based on the loudest fraction of people.

Not really. The UFO community is synonymous with gullible crackpots and conspiracy loons. If the community wants to be take seriously, they themselves need to sort themselves out before they can expect to be taken seriously.

It's the boy that cried alien.

[david-gpu]

> If the community wants to be take seriously, they themselves need to sort themselves out

How do you propose we collectively do that? Appointing a UFO Pope and excommunicating the heretics?

Yes, there are folks out there who see any dot in the sky doing anything they are vaguely unfamiliar with and jump to the conclusion that it must be a bona fide alien spaceship. However, this doesn't mean the UFO community is uniformly like that. Nor is the available evidence limited to bright dots in the sky, either.

There will never be "scientific" evidence without scientists willing and funded to obtain it. And if we label every person with an interest on the subject as a "gullible crackpot and a conspiracy loon" then how likely is it that we will fund their research, and how unbiased are we to listen to the results of that research unless it fits exactly within the boundaries of our preconceived ideas of what is even possible.

I don't have the answers to the UFO hypothesis. Never seen one, never want to see one either. But I appreciate any systematic effort to collect data of the objects in our skies and identify them. If nothing else, we will at least be protecting our airspace from foreign adversaries.

[crispyambulance]

> The UFO community is synonymous with gullible crackpots and conspiracy loons.

It's worse than that. There's definitely a religious element to their beliefs. The UAP hearings last summer suggest that there's "UFO-believers" in leadership positions in the Department of defense. These people are SPENDING GOVERNMENT MONEY on insane fiascos and have been able to get a lot of attention lately.

The AARO report (https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/37...) goes into detail.

The sad thing is that some politicians have latched on to this and are using it to appease their conspiracy-laden constituencies.

[revscat]

> There's definitely a religious element to their beliefs.

Such as? I haven’t seen this attitude you’re claiming to exist.