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UFOs and Aliens
Contrary to popular belief, Neil deGrasse Tyson did not debunk ‘alien believers’ in his interview with former CIA director John Brennan. In Tyson’s defense, I find that this was one of his most reasonable discussions, that came with the least amount of humorous dismissal, and allowed for the possibility it could be aliens. His questions and skepticism is reasonable. It’s reasonable to try and respond to likelihoods with probabilities, as long probabilities change with the collection of data. Saying most people aren’t doing hard math or science is reasonable, but they are crunching numbers and it’s unreasonable to say people are crazy because their answer set doesn’t align with the designated experts. In the history of Academia, people with PhDs have said ‘it’s aliens.’ Are they crazy folks, too?
Please note, I am not picking on folks with mental health. I have experienced mental health problems. I work with people struggling with real issues. Crazy, in the context of this discussion, is the euphemistic colloquialism society uses to disparage and discount’s someone’s conclusions. When this is used, even a person who has earned credibility can be completely dismissed and all of their life’s work eradicated because they held a view contrary to person in authority. Everyone knows this happens. You can be right and your books still thrown into a fire. Even though academics has supposedly grown out of this, it still happens.
Science is peculiarly resistant to change, even though science is about growth…
