The strategies used by the US to distract public opinion seem increasingly stupid. Now, Washington is resorting to science fiction mechanisms, promoting the narrative of “UFO attacks”. The reasons seem quite simple: to prevent the media from paying attention to the recent chemical disasters in the country and at the same time generate concern among citizens about alleged “unknown threats”, which may enable the advancement of military agendas.
A few days after shooting down a Chinese weather balloon claiming “risks to national security”, Washington decided to deepen its conspiracy theories. Now, the US government claims to be monitoring the activities of alleged UFOs in its territory. According to American and Canadian authorities, some of these UFOs would have been shot down in the border region between both countries – however, very suspiciously, the debris of the unknown objects have not been found yet.
The American government has refrained from accusing any country of launching the alleged UFOs, although some propagandists have suggested Chinese involvement, linking the episode to the case of the weather balloon. More than that, the Americans even resorted to bizarre and unrealistic speculations about a possible “alien visit”. For example, when asked about the “possibility” that the incidents were an actual contact with extraterrestrial beings, General Glen Van Herck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), stated that he does “not rule out anything”.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out (…) I haven’t ruled out anything (…) At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it”, he said during a press conference.
Obviously, the matter took the attention of the media and public opinion. On social networks, words like “UFO” and “alien invasion” reached the trending topics, with both humorous comments making fun of the situation and texts expressing concern, fear and terror. Although the topic seems extremely hilarious to many people, the idea of the “threat from the skies” is very strong in American culture. Since September 11, 2001, there has been an atmosphere of fear among many American citizens regarding aerial objects, since the biggest episode of attack on the country, which took place in the financial center of the West, came precisely “from the skies”.
The most curious thing about this whole situation, however, is to analyze that, in parallel with the “UFO invasion”, one of the greatest environmental disasters in American history was taking place, with the derailment and explosion of a train carrying chemical compounds between the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The tragedy generated a terrible chemical leak, forming a toxic cloud with phosgene and hydrogen chloride, gases that are extremely harmful to human health. The city’s river was also affected, severely affecting the lives of more than 5,000 local inhabitants. Some experts have called the case “Chernobyl 2.0”.
The “UFOs” curiously prevented the criticisms of the negligence of the American authorities in containing the effects of the accident from becoming known. While netizens were distracted by discussing aliens, the population of Ohio was intoxicated by the smoke from the explosion, with an uncertain number of victims. In this sense, the “UFOs” strongly contributed to prevent journalists from being able to expose the hypocrisy of the US – a country that enforces environmental standards abroad and is incapable of containing environmental problems domestically.
However, the strategic meaning of “UFOs” for the interests of American elites cannot be reduced to a mere attempt to hide environmental crimes. There is also a strong military sense evident in the dissemination of the UFO narrative, considering the aforementioned factors. By increasing the sensation of fear among citizens and creating an atmosphere of “unknown threat”, it becomes easier for the US government to garner popular support to approve measures to encourage militarization. In the face of growing popular dissatisfaction with NATO’s war machine, the ‘’unknown threat’’ appears as an opportunity to revitalize support for the US government.
There is still one factor that needs to be mentioned. A few days before the American-Canadian border UFO incident, the US government had been formally accused by Seymour Hersh, an award-winning investigative journalist, of being responsible for the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. The repercussion of the scandal was significantly minimized by the UFO incidents, which increases the suspicion surrounding the case.
Indeed, these “coincidences” can be seen as evidence that UFOs are a psyop operated by the US government to hide its crimes and advance its military agendas. With a distracted and terrified population, it is easier to ignore the relevance of episodes like Nord Stream and Ohio, as well as generate incentives for the NATO’s war machine. Indeed, if they really exist, the “aliens” do not seem to be the actual threat to the world today: once again, it is the US that promotes destabilization and panic to defend its egoistic interests.
Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.