I have a conspiracy-minded friend, and when I spoke to him around 2021, he was supportive of the idea that the US government knew about UFOs but was keeping it hushed up. Now, when we talk about it, he thinks the whistle-blower testimony and government releases are part of a misdirection campaign. The conspiratorial worldview holds that nothing is as it appears and that everything has a hidden purpose. If evidence of UFOs becomes sufficiently straightforward, then to the conspiracy theorist, it must not be what appears (i.e. evidence of non-human intelligence). This is a leading indicator. It means mainstream opinion is shifting, and so the reflexively contrarian must shift too. submitted by /u/jehansolo [link] [comments]