If you have been following ufology for 30-40 years like I have, you have probably seen a lot of changes in the field during that time. Now, no one is an expert (especially the talking heads) and few know what happens behind the closed doors of U.S. government or government contractor labs, but I think we have allowed those people to dupe us. Prior to 2017, the federal government was seen with a significant amount of distrust and suspicion by the UFO community. Suddenly, we had some cool new videos, and people started thinking that disclosure was coming; this was rapidly accelerated by later events such as the Friday document drops. Trust in the government in reference to ufology seems to have skyrocketed, this is not a good thing. Before 2017, ufology was dominated by the classic researchers looking at what the phenomenon was: Vallee, Keel, Freidman, and so many others, who were all looking at what the nature of these events were. There was effort expended into looking at what the government or its contractors knew, and there were whistleblowers like Col. Phillip Corso. Still, it felt different, and the government/its agents was treated with suspicion. Now, in 2026, we are saturated with “UAP influencers,” alleged whistle blowers (with no evidence), and other talking heads with seemingly no knowledge of the history of the subject. These talking heads are controlling the narrative and are pushing the UFO community towards something that they want. This is not the natural growth of the topic; this is a controlled narrative that we should not trust. Maybe I am just getting old and maybe I resist change more than I realize. I do not think this is it; I think that something or someone is fundamentally controlling the narrative and sewing divide within ufology. I do not really know that we are fundamentally closer to the truth than we were 25 years ago. Maybe they are almost willing to admit that something is out there, but I do not expect to get the whole truth from them. All I am saying is that we, as a community, should be careful where we place our trust. Thank you for reading my rambling wall of text. Also, in before “the government isn’t a monolith,” which I do understand that argument. Still, I think things are compartmentalized in such a way that the only people who really know the whole truth (if there are any such people) are so few and so removed from regular society (rich and isolated) that we will not be getting anything from those folks. submitted by /u/MedicMalfunction [link] [comments]