TIME magazine on “viral anger” in American society

Copyright 2017, InterAmerica, Inc.

TIME magazine, for July 10-17, 2017, has a piece [Viral Anger spreads like a disease – and it’s making the country sick] by Susanna Schrobsdorff.

Ms. Schrobsdorff’s article (in The View) delineates the rise in violence and anger in America right now, noting a comment from Brian Levin (director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernadino) “In a very tribalistic society, we run on emotion, which is the currency of social media.”

You may have read somewhere that my pal Nick Redfern almost had to engage in fisticuffs while at the Roswell conferences and celebration a week or so ago; a guy wanted to challenge Nick’s views on the 1947 incident.

And you saw here Michael Loengard and Nick’s vibrant tête-à-tête about Nick’s alternate hypothesis for the alleged Roswell “crash.”

Right now, Nick’s take, here, on 1950’s contactee Angelucci and possible mind control by the government has brought vituperation of a kind that stuns me, as Nick’s view is accepted by almost everyone who is cognizant of what the government did to persons in the 1950s, and not unimaginable regarding Angelucci when one reads his (Angelucci’s) "accounts" of contact by a special kind of ET.

And I keep getting missives from a long-time (30 year) “friend” that is not only viral but vile, about my postings here.

Commentary at my MediaWatch Facebook page about news media often descends into barbed and nasty invective that I have to curb or offset with cautionary warnings, the slings and arrows not directed at me but at persons who try to express views that some find disagreeable.

Ms. Schrobsdorff quotes David Berreby (author of Us and Them): “People are experiencing a shock because they thought they knew who we are. Now they don’t.”

Anger has always been right below the surface in the UFO community, all of us experiencing it one way or another when we stray from orthodox views to heterodox positions.

I have, as you can guess, a few (ha!) persons in ufology who just hate my stances and me. (I’d name them but they aren’t worth the effort). And I was worried that they might try – and some have – to separate my views from the UFO circuit by badgering those that note this blog or my postings here.

(I got an assurance from the Anomalist’s Patrick Huyghe that his coterie would not be so influenced. I thank him, knowing my snarky observations don’t sit well with some.)

At any rate, anger is on the tip of tongues and fists, all over the place, so I’m surprised that people as judicious and sensible as Nick Redfern or even Robbie Graham (whom I’ve disparaged here) have kept their “cool” as us oldies say.

But remember, hate or extreme speech is epidemic and many of us (me included) have got to remain inoculated.

RR

Marginalizing UFO buffs, or attempts to do so

Copyright 2017, InterAmerica, Inc.

It may not be obvious or known to some of you (honest and open-minded) readers here, but some in the UFO community try to keep us blog writers and web-siters from putting in comments or copy from people they don’t like.

This happened with my post about Anthony Bragalia’s new webs-site and I have a troll who tries to keep me from noting such UFO personalities as Kevin Randle and Nick Redfern, or even my collegiate pal from Canada, Bryan Sentes.

And I know that Kevin has received, in the past, attempted pressures, which he ignored, to censor commentary from me at his blog or references by him to this blog.

And I get the feeling, and it’s only a feeling, that one or two people, who hate my guts (and who doesn’t?), suggest to Anomalist “editors” (listers) that they do a disservice by noting my postings at this blog.

(I can’t imagine Patrick Huyghe allowing this to happen, but … )

That people can censure (offer strong and/or critical disapproval) postings and comments by me and by others is okay with me, but censoring (suppressing commentary of any kind) is anathema to me as a former journalist and guy who likes Edward Snowden or Julian Assange (a little bit).

Even Kevin Randle, who has provided much copy about a MUFON leaders racist remarks, doesn’t suggest he be censored, but that the guy’s racist screed, and other barbaric, indiscriminate commentary has consequences. And Kevin’s postings have brought consequences, without expurgating anything or even suggesting any kind of suppression of free speech.

RR

Walter Haut’s Piss-Poor Roswell “Flying Disk” Release

Copyright 2017, InterAmerica, Inc.

I suspect that many of you have never read the original newspaper account of Walter Haut’s lame press release about the alleged flying saucer found near Roswell, only seeing the headline graphic (pictured above), the newspaper sensationalizing the release by using the words “captures” and “Flying Saucer.”

Here is the newspaper account (two links):

From Angelfire:

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/daily_record.html

From UFO Evidence:

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc381.htm

The press release is pretty vague, indicating the thing, found on Mac Brazel’s farm, was an instrument.

That’s it, “the instrument flown to higher headquarters.”

How such a pathetic press release and newspaper account turned into the grandest, most insane UFO story of all time is almost beyond belief, unless we accept the view, often presented by our friend CDA and other UFO buffs, that the myth was created by the Berlitz/Moore book, The Roswell Incident and the subsequent flowering of the tale by various UFO “investigators” i.e., Stanton Friedman, including my pal, Kevin Randle and his, then, buddy, Donald Schmitt, in their book, UFO Crash at Roswell,  et al.

RR