Welcome to the mainstream
"Glowing Auras and Black Money” was the front page headline in The New York Times, on December 16th 2017. It was the culmination of a months-long investigation by three journalists that revealed the US Department of Defense had been spending millions investigating UFOs. The findings were significant. But, so too was The New York Times - considered one of the world’s most reputable news sources - covering something that, culturally, had been reserved for conspiracy chatrooms and late night TV (anyone remember Unsolved Mysteries?). UFOs had just dropped anchor in the mainstream.
At the same time, social media was continuing to evolve rapidly, becoming even more central to how people consumed and shared information. Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat were experiencing huge growth and live streaming, video content and mobile-first media were becoming the norm.
What followed that New York Times article was a sequence of events - each one more intriguing than the last and the ripple effect was clear to see. With each development came more attention. Mainstream media sat up and took notice. Longform podcasts began giving it airtime. Social media became a wash with videos and photos. Talking about UFOs was becoming culturally acceptable.
The US House Oversight Committee
Then, in July 2023, things got even weirder. Enter former US Intelligence Officer, Commander David Grusch - a whistleblower who at one time held one of the highest positions in the US Air Force.
Along with two other whistleblowers, he appeared at a landmark US House Oversight Committee hearing on UFOs, to testify under oath and on public record. Grush told the Committee about a long-running government programme tasked with recovering and reverse-engineering non-human technology. He also said that “non-human biologics” (that’s aliens, to you and me) had been recovered from UFO crash sites. The dam had burst.
Multiple US Government Officials began talking about and being quizzed on the topic. Earlier this year, Barack Obama grabbed headlines all over the world when he was asked about aliens in an interview. His response “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them” was later clarified as said in jest - but not before causing a media and social media frenzy.
