Yep. I recall on the X-Files, Fox Mulder’s poster, “I want to believe”. Fuck yeah, I want to believe. I’ve been a science fiction fan my whole life, having actual aliens around would be cool as fuck.
The problem is, wanting to believe isn’t enough. I need some actual evidence. Show me that and I’ll be the biggest UFO Fan Geek you could imagine.
Now I’m picturing some native of the Moon, ranting about how he has an intact “alien vehicle”, and it’s the Lunar Rover.
The Martians are also (slowly) building up a collection of alien ground vehicles.
My hospital chart(official document) in fact states I have ‘alien’ implants on my person.
(A dialysis port, a CGM, a insulin pump, a DBS device and a spanking new tummy valve)
Becken of Nine.
That’s me, alright. 
Well, come on! He did name his band Foo Fighters! The evidence is in plain sight!
Oh, wait a minute… Wrong Dave.
The Guardian article basically makes the argument that the guy seems to be in full earnest and that he’s putting himself on the line, legally, by taking it to Congress and the Inspector General, but also that people who know the guy are vouching that he’s a very honest, upstanding person.
Not to say that it’s impossible that we’ve got alien ship pieces falling the planet, but I’d have to vote that there’s a significant difference between “honest” and “correct”.
I might honestly and with all the best intentions state that the guy who robbed my store had black hair. But, when we go to the camera footage and in there it’s a blond guy…then it’s a blond guy.
Personal predictions:
I have no doubt he’s making money off this story. It’s not a very good story, so he’s probably made a few thousand so far yet he sees himself doing better than that repeatedly in the future. If it turns lucky for him they’ll make a movie and he can make almost twice what he’s made so far before ending up at nutbag convention where no one wants his autograph.
Years ago I had a .mil barracks roommate who in one of our frequent BS sessions was talking along similar lines. Roswell (for example) wasn’t a “weather balloon”, but a genuine crashed alien spacecraft was recovered. Powerful radar at nearby White Sands interfered with the navigation system, causing the crash. Some of the components found were then sent off to different military agencies for inspection, as well as major corporations, and reverse engineering if possible. One of the results was said to be the Transistor, from Bell Labs.
Naturally I took the countering view, pointing out that was all BS, and Bell Labs had a team of researchers working on primitive semiconductors for years before the breakthrough. I didn’t realize where my roommate was getting his stories. Other purported technology that resulted were night vision devices.
This was right at the time a retired Army colonel, Philip Corso, had released his book on the Roswell, New Mexico thing. I recently read this book (it is available for free online, if you dig around). I must admit, it does make for a good story. And try as I might, Corso doesn’t come off as a complete nut-bar as I would have suspected. He served with distinction in WW2 and went on to work at least briefly at the Eisenhower White House. He claims to have seen alien bodies, among other things.
I only bring all this up to note what’s old is new again, and to ponder why anyone would do this, then or now.
One reason of course, is money. Write a sensational book, and profit. But it does seem a little odd. It isn’t that I believe the claims in the Corso book - nor whatever this latest “whistleblower” is claiming - just that it seems strange they would put so much emphasis on elaborate stories, hoaxes, and lying. A third alternative is they are only partly telling the truth, to try and cover up something else entirely.
The most likely explanation is they were the sort of kid with a vivid imagination who got a reputation as a BSer. And just kept it up. Eventually they persuade themselves they are right, begin to believe their own BS, then turn themselves into a not really self aware BS generating feedback loop.
IMO this is pretty much where all the traditional CT starters and a good fraction of CT believers came from. Now that CTing is a big business there’s lots more people in it merely for money, treating it as just another form of fiction writing / publication. A highly profitable form.
One of the shows I watch for its amusement value is William Shatner’s The UnXplained. Last week’s episode was on UFO Hotspots; in addition to the Phoenix lights it talked about the supposed plethora of UFO sightings around Washington DC and specifically the White House, Someone made the observation that obviously the aliens are trying to make contact with one of the seats of Western Civilization. They must be terribly bad at it, though, as after all their attempts nobody is aware of it. That, or the US government is incredibly successful at keeping their attempts a secret.
Grusch hasn’t said that he’s seen anything. He’s testified that he was told these things by people he won’t name. So he could be being totally honest about people telling him those things and he may sincerely believe them. Regardless, we’re basically being asked to accept the word of anonymous sources.
Is The Debrief respectable? I’d never even heard of it before this.
More like: a person I read online, who I consider respectable but whose identify I’ve forgotten, linked to the Debrief in the days before this story hit the MSM, and though I’d never heard of it before either, I figured whoever-that-person-was considered it at least more respectable than, say, the Weekly World News.
I meant this thread to be light-hearted, but if needed, I withdraw any claim of the Debrief being respectable. I really don’t know.
I’m sure you are right. He is not lying, but that doesn’t mean he is right. Grusch has spoken to people who have been very convincing, and he believes them. Unfortunately, it is all hearsay, and it seems entirely likely we won’t ever find the truth behind these stories. It has all happened so many times before.
It is possible that Grusch is that peculiar combination of being very trustworthy in his presentation of what he believes, and extremely gullible in believing other people.
WTF is going on with this? Is this some kind of Republican psyop to distract their base from what’s happening with Trump? Marco Rubio claims to have gotten first hand accounts that match what Grusch is claiming.
In general, Rubio is a reasonable guy. Whether he’s being so here, or not, I couldn’t say. But I do note that so-far, no one has asked any questions like, “How have you identified that it’s alien? Do the people who performed that analysis agree with your view of the matter?”
It is not. It’s run by people who explicitly say they are on the fringes of science, and the interview article is written by the same two ufologist zealots that wrote the New York Times Pentagon UAP article, Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal. Kean was Budd Hopkins’s girlfriend; Blumenthal is in the middle of writing a John Mack biography. All four are/were associated with Robert Bigelow.
This current news cycle comes entirely from The Usual Suspects of the ufo grift circuit.