Re: the specific argument about a coverup being impossible, there have been plenty of people over the years with claims like this. The idea that this guy is talking about what “a friend of a friend” said is also a very ungenerous and inaccurate claim, given Grush’s established credentials.

Otherwise, I agree it’s hard to believe, but I don’t think this guy has actually “debunked” it as he claims in his hashtag. The options are that he’s lying or crazy, and he doesn’t seem crazy, and if he’s lying he’s going to jail. The most plausible explanation for it not being true is that it’s part of some complex psy-op, but that also is a fairly outlandish theory (albeit not as difficult to accept on its face).

I first saw the story pop up in r/UFOs, which isn’t a great start. Granted, the story is well sourced by conspiracy theory standards but still doesn’t quite raise to the standards of “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” I put a mental pin on the story to see how it develops.

Thing about all this, being skeptical is good. Just seems likely that that all these elaborate conspiracy theories are kind of unlikely.

What seems more likely is that sure there are UAPs (the new name for UFOs) and we do not know what all of these things are. The most interesting things have been military footage via multiple sensors which is really fairly recent.

The other thing is just and interesting mental calculation. I personally find it likely that other life forms perhaps complex life forms have existed in the past somewhere in the universe and probably somewhere in the galaxy. Both time and space are big. If other complex life forms have existed then it would not be surprising that there might very well have been technological societies. If there have been technological societies then it would be pretty likely that they would send out probes just like we do. Moreover it is unsurprising that they would send out self-replicating probes which could in principle cover the galaxy and feels like something we will do in the far future. But of course we do not know if any of this has happened, or if it has, is the culture that sent out the probes even around anymore. We just do not have good estimates for many of the constants of the Drake equation, though we are slowing getting better estimates. So good to be skeptical regarding extraterrestrial artifacts of a technological civilization being here on earth. Both answers, either yes or no, are equally unsurprising to me.

Besides, we have more pressing issues. We have to prove we can continue to exist as a technological society ourselves.

The whistleblower is real, the technology from outer space is not