I recently did a deep dive on the ufo community, its entire structure is built on stories that reinforce each other yet have no evidence. I think when weaponized against reason, they are very dangerous. now I'm having trouble thinking of a story that doesn't have these same flaws. religion comes to mind as well. especially if the story is trying to expose some truth about reality. data and cold logic is the only cure against this massive adversary. stories are ubiquitous, data and reason are not.

Science is also more like this than people like to admit. For example, things like big bang theory and the theory of evolution have little true evidence to back them up.

I started reading Karl Popper's An Open Society and It's Enemies and I've also listened to the Philosophize This podcasts and read the Stanford Encyclopedia about it, but I'm not an expert. This seems to be the essence of the philosophy though. An open society is based on scientific rationality and a willingness to change our minds based on evidence. I like that viewpoint. It's why I am attracted to the Cypherpunk ethos; but the enemies of an open society want magical thinking and they want to be on the winning team. Unfortunately, that seems to be the norm. It's the same impulse that makes Kansas City Royal fans die hard Kansas City Royal fans. It's not based on rationality, but rather identity. Fans are not persuaded to abandon ship based on poor performance of the baseball players on thier favorite team. They identify with the team in good times and bad. They say "We are the best" no matter what the actual performance of the players are. Stories are the mechanism in which this information is transmited, but I guess I also just told a story too.🤣

Data without a story is very difficult to understand. Look at your facts and data and tell me honestly that there isn't a story behind it that doesn't bias you toward interpreting it in a certain way. This is why the same data can always be misinterpreted. I don't believe anyone is impervious to this.

Stories can be used to uplift, empower and convince people to take responsibility and accountability for their own successes. They can be used for good too.

UFO's are a subject that I try to carefully "ringfence" away from the modern era of Chemtrail/Qanon/5G etc menagerie of disinformation, because I consider the former fundamentally different from the latter. UFO's are not a "science" story... At least not yet. UFO's are a *government* story. The evidence I would present is the multiple independent government witnesses who have testified under oath of unethical and illegal concealment of NHI by rogue elements in the DoD and IC. Claims that, in the case of David Grusch at least, were made under oath to Congress and were deemed by the IC IG as "credible and urgent." The point is not Neil deGrasse Tyson scoffing about faster than light travel. It's, what precisely does the government know about this that they're not telling? Let's figure that out and we'll get to the "alien" parts later.