Void
Experiencer
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I think Chuk is maybe getting a bit too much flak over this because he was simply responding to me. Granted, Chuk can handle his own defense, but still, I'm far more skeptical than he probably is. And I'll try to answer these questions a little.
The question of "What would convince me, if everything can be faked?" is a hard one to answer, obviously. Clearly if I saw an actual landing with aliens stepping out, in person, I'd have a hard time explaining that away and would likely believe it in the absence of hallucinogenic drugs. But since they probably won't land where I can see them, I'd say that a "mass" sighting that is broadcast LIVE on multiple networks and multiple thousands of streamers at the very same time, showing what appears to be an alien craft with alien beings coming out of it, and the Emergency Alert System broadcasting nationwide that there is a national emergency would go a long way towards making me believe.
You might say that this is extraordinary proof, but given that so many people purposely "troll" for attention, even before trolling was a term, I don't think I'm being unfair. Thousands of people go on shows like Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, etc. to confess about things that make them look like complete idiots, and even when they know that is how they will look, they still do it because they get to be on TV. Maybe you and I would never do something that retarded, but millions of people would. So it is hard for me to put my belief in any random person that I've never met giving an eyewitness account, because I don't know if they are one of those attention seekers, or simply mistaken, or actually saw what they say they saw. And that simply mistaken part covers the vast majority of people that aren't actively attention-seeking. People can't give reliable accounts of witnessing the exact same incident that doesn't involve extraordinary events.
So then we get to "video evidence" which should weed out most of the trolls or mistaken people, right? Chuk addressed much of that already, and I won't go over it all again, but again to summarize my thoughts, when confronted by an unknown situation, my first thought is to think of all the things it could be and begin eliminating them. Unfortunately, tons of people jump right to the least believable or likely choice instead of the most likely. Many people WANT to believe. To be honest, I WANT there to be aliens as well, although I realize that meeting them might literally be the last thing any of us ever do. But if there is always some way to explain it away as "possible", then why is that a bad thing? Why is it bad to be skeptical of literally the most extraordinary claims someone could ever make, short of perhaps Baby Jesus returning? Like I said, people want to believe. I have about a dozen women on my Facebook feed right now that I thought were fairly rational people in high school, who now believe that Essential Oils cure everything, or that vaccines are bad for you, or that anything GMO is causing cancer, etc. Those are claims that can easily be researched, and they still believe them completely because some Foodbabe cunt said so, or their multi-level-marketing crook told them they can win a Mercedes if they only sell more, etc. So of course people will easily believe the flimsiest evidence in terms of aliens, bigfoot, etc. There are people that give photographic "proof" of metallic fibers growing from their bodies, and thousands of people believe them despite the fact that no doctor backs them up. And then when one doctor does, for whatever reason, they cling to that like a drowning man. Hell, two girls I work with insist that humans are too stupid to create things like microwaves and computers, and that the only logical explanation is that aliens have been giving us technological help. Why would I ever believe anything they claim to have witnessed? They are predisposed to believe extraordinary claims over reasonable claims. Sure, that is anecdotal evidence, but it isn't crazy to think there are more like them.
Which brings me to the "credible" people making claims that they have seen things or were part of secret projects. Sure, maybe they are telling the truth. But again, people think they are telling the truth all the time, and they aren't. Other people blatantly lie for attention/fame. And other people are truly messed up and see things that are not there. To me, it is more likely to be one of those things than that they are finally "shining a light on the truth" and that aliens and/or their technology is being hidden by practically every world government. I don't think that's a bad position for someone to take, but maybe that's one of those glass half-full/half-empty things. And maybe I am overly dismissive of the half-full people, so I'll admit to that. But just because someone is in an important position or has an important job, that doesn't mean they are any more or less credible than someone else. Hell, our politicians are some of the least credible people in existence. Again, it isn't completely unbelievable that someone that is an esteemed scientist or military officer or any other "respected" position is maybe more likely to believe extraordinary claims or attach extraordinary conclusions to debatable events or evidence. Again, there are plenty of people in all walks of life that believe things most of us do not. Without even jumping to something like Climate Change, plenty of scientists disagree with other scientists about things that should be based on evidence. We should have had cold fusion decades ago if scientists were always trustworthy in what they said.
Anyway, I'm repeating myself. Sorry about that. My TL;DR point being, I don't think it is wrong to be skeptical and require extraordinary proof when the subject is something that is, quite possibly, one of the most earth-shattering subjects in existence if true. This isn't making a claim that someone stole your car. This is making a claim that fucking ALIENS are real. So I'm going to need more than reasonable doubt, so to speak.
The question of "What would convince me, if everything can be faked?" is a hard one to answer, obviously. Clearly if I saw an actual landing with aliens stepping out, in person, I'd have a hard time explaining that away and would likely believe it in the absence of hallucinogenic drugs. But since they probably won't land where I can see them, I'd say that a "mass" sighting that is broadcast LIVE on multiple networks and multiple thousands of streamers at the very same time, showing what appears to be an alien craft with alien beings coming out of it, and the Emergency Alert System broadcasting nationwide that there is a national emergency would go a long way towards making me believe.
You might say that this is extraordinary proof, but given that so many people purposely "troll" for attention, even before trolling was a term, I don't think I'm being unfair. Thousands of people go on shows like Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, etc. to confess about things that make them look like complete idiots, and even when they know that is how they will look, they still do it because they get to be on TV. Maybe you and I would never do something that retarded, but millions of people would. So it is hard for me to put my belief in any random person that I've never met giving an eyewitness account, because I don't know if they are one of those attention seekers, or simply mistaken, or actually saw what they say they saw. And that simply mistaken part covers the vast majority of people that aren't actively attention-seeking. People can't give reliable accounts of witnessing the exact same incident that doesn't involve extraordinary events.
So then we get to "video evidence" which should weed out most of the trolls or mistaken people, right? Chuk addressed much of that already, and I won't go over it all again, but again to summarize my thoughts, when confronted by an unknown situation, my first thought is to think of all the things it could be and begin eliminating them. Unfortunately, tons of people jump right to the least believable or likely choice instead of the most likely. Many people WANT to believe. To be honest, I WANT there to be aliens as well, although I realize that meeting them might literally be the last thing any of us ever do. But if there is always some way to explain it away as "possible", then why is that a bad thing? Why is it bad to be skeptical of literally the most extraordinary claims someone could ever make, short of perhaps Baby Jesus returning? Like I said, people want to believe. I have about a dozen women on my Facebook feed right now that I thought were fairly rational people in high school, who now believe that Essential Oils cure everything, or that vaccines are bad for you, or that anything GMO is causing cancer, etc. Those are claims that can easily be researched, and they still believe them completely because some Foodbabe cunt said so, or their multi-level-marketing crook told them they can win a Mercedes if they only sell more, etc. So of course people will easily believe the flimsiest evidence in terms of aliens, bigfoot, etc. There are people that give photographic "proof" of metallic fibers growing from their bodies, and thousands of people believe them despite the fact that no doctor backs them up. And then when one doctor does, for whatever reason, they cling to that like a drowning man. Hell, two girls I work with insist that humans are too stupid to create things like microwaves and computers, and that the only logical explanation is that aliens have been giving us technological help. Why would I ever believe anything they claim to have witnessed? They are predisposed to believe extraordinary claims over reasonable claims. Sure, that is anecdotal evidence, but it isn't crazy to think there are more like them.
Which brings me to the "credible" people making claims that they have seen things or were part of secret projects. Sure, maybe they are telling the truth. But again, people think they are telling the truth all the time, and they aren't. Other people blatantly lie for attention/fame. And other people are truly messed up and see things that are not there. To me, it is more likely to be one of those things than that they are finally "shining a light on the truth" and that aliens and/or their technology is being hidden by practically every world government. I don't think that's a bad position for someone to take, but maybe that's one of those glass half-full/half-empty things. And maybe I am overly dismissive of the half-full people, so I'll admit to that. But just because someone is in an important position or has an important job, that doesn't mean they are any more or less credible than someone else. Hell, our politicians are some of the least credible people in existence. Again, it isn't completely unbelievable that someone that is an esteemed scientist or military officer or any other "respected" position is maybe more likely to believe extraordinary claims or attach extraordinary conclusions to debatable events or evidence. Again, there are plenty of people in all walks of life that believe things most of us do not. Without even jumping to something like Climate Change, plenty of scientists disagree with other scientists about things that should be based on evidence. We should have had cold fusion decades ago if scientists were always trustworthy in what they said.
Anyway, I'm repeating myself. Sorry about that. My TL;DR point being, I don't think it is wrong to be skeptical and require extraordinary proof when the subject is something that is, quite possibly, one of the most earth-shattering subjects in existence if true. This isn't making a claim that someone stole your car. This is making a claim that fucking ALIENS are real. So I'm going to need more than reasonable doubt, so to speak.
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