Pentagon officially declassifies leaked UFO videos but many amid pandemic lockdown couldn’t care less
The Pentagon has reportedly declassified three previously leaked top-secret U.S. Navy videos that show “unexplained aerial phenomena” in an effort “to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real or whether or not there is more to the videos”.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon said, “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified’.”
“The Department of Defense has authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,” they said, adding, “After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena.”
ABC News reported that in April 2019, the Navy acknowledged that the release of the videos had prompted the development of new guidelines for how pilots should report sightings of “unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft.”
On Twitter, this news meant one thing: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and that means aliens. UFO began trending on the social media website. Pro-gamer Jordan Kaplan wrote, “So UFOs are confirmed now... 2020 is wild. I wanna see some footage of aliens next month.”
According to YouTuber Daniel Keem, better known as Keemstar, “PLEASE @realDonaldTrump give us the UFO Info!!!!!!!!!! WE NEED IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Journalist David Leavitt had a similar request, albeit a much more toned-down one, “Can someone please ask about the UFOs?”
Republican Party member DeAnna Lorraine, on the other hand, found UFOs an opportune excuse to bash mail-in votes, a stance that the party has taken for some time now. Mail-in votes could be an important part of the democratic process later this year, should the lockdowns in light of the coronavirus pandemic continue. She wrote, “The Pentagon just confirmed the existence of UFOs. Watch, once coronavirus ends they're going to say we need mail-in votes because we can't leave the house due to aliens. It just gets crazier by the day.”
That 2020 has been an unpredictable year is not news. The Pentagon admitting some objects caught on tape as being unidentifiable adds to it. Keeping in line with that thought, YouTuber Froste summed it up: “Honestly at this point in 2020, I don’t think anyone cares about videos of real Alien UFOs. Wake me up when the aliens realize we’re not worthy of their knowledge or help and blow us up.”
This emotion was resonated in hundreds of tweets where people just virtually shrugged at the possibility of UFOs. With a pandemic stopping life as we know it, suggestions of injecting disinfectants (even if sarcastic), and a generally Kafkaesque mood in the air, why would anyone care for UFOs and aliens right now? ‘Silicon Valley’ actor Kumail Nanjiani wrote about the immunity humans have now developed towards the absurd: “US Navy: There are UFO’s. Us: Sounds nice here’s some banana bread I made."