Following the recent UFO hearing, I have been paying close attention to public reactions and mainstream discourse to question if existential worries feed into one another.
Conspiracies and Misinformation
In this digital age, there are certainly some scary, extreme conspiracies out there. Certain individuals are influenced by communities, such as QAnon, promoting conspiracy theories about global events, like Covid-19, claiming them to be government distractions. These theories can take many forms, and result from an increasingly online society.
Twitter is rampant with those conspiring both in favour and against recent news about potential extraterrestrials. A search for “UFO hearings” brings up numerous videos of unidentified objects, skylights, and suspicions of hidden information.
I predict that NASA and DoD (the Pentagon) will continue to play dumb for the foreseeable future and refuse to acknowledge the evidence for ET visitations (of which they have tons!).
They will keep denying it until ETs make it impossible to do so:https://t.co/M4iwUl4Rjo— Ned Nikolov, Ph.D. (@NikolovScience) August 13, 2023
Much panic seems to stem from a lack of trust in governments to properly inform the public on important issues. As a result, people may be more inclined to delve into online discourse. As a result, the likelihood to come across a variety of radical opinions increases.
Existential panic
The hearing may have caused existential anxieties comparable to that produced by the climate crisis. It’s unclear whether those who worry about the effects of climate change are also concerned about the possibility of extraterrestrials. Regardless, both topics raise a kind of existential worry that may or may not feed into one another. With an increasing number of online platforms for discourse, widespread panic is very likely to increase no matter what the topic at hand is.
I believe that if the government prioritized the well-being of citizens and the environment, it would ease our worries. The surge of information in online environments often elicits a sense of panic as a direct response. It is fair to assume that people will act according to their environment especially when these environments fill your head with many creative reasons to panic.
Not-so existential panic
Aside from the occasional article that I’ve fallen across regarding the recent hearing, few have expressed interest in the hearing. Updates on alien life have not been taken seriously in comparison to issues like financial struggles, the environment, and housing crises. Amongst younger generations, this is especially evident. Platforms such as TikTok with a predominantly younger demographic appear to be making fun of the situation. There’s discourse that there are more important things on earth to focus on (such as the anxieties mentioned above). Those who are politically active online and left leaning appear to be using the hearing as an opportunity to highlight the global issues politicians should really be focusing on.
I think it’s fair to say that newer, more arbitrary worries deflect from mainstream concerns rather than adding to them.
Eleri Rice
