Skip wrote:thommg wrote:
I note @virtualastro has 102,000 followers these days and he does seem, well, excitable....
You are too kind, he is a fruit loop
In all seriousness though, it's kind of interesting to see this how these sort of conspiracy theories are born, accelerated by social media, and ultimately will be accepted into the 'dreamland resort' canon. Just have a look at the thread on Above Top Secret and you'll see exactly what I mean. The rumour, fed by the media, taken in by the tin foil hat brigade, jumbled up and distorted in all sorts of ways, mixed up with clear conjecture and myth (for example the poster who hijacked the ATS thread to explain how she saw bright lights and helicopters flying over her house - MUST BE ALIENZ). It all becomes self a reinforcing fiction very fast.
Right now anyone could post any audio recording on youtube, and claim it was the 'noises'. Take some real recordings of sonic booms / pulse jets / something exotic, mix it up with some background noise etc, and post it. Tweet wildly about it, get in the DM, who will lap it up, rinse and repeat.
I can tell you if I worked for the 'powers that be' I'd be well aware of the way this works, and fly a few mysterious supersonic sorties at night, get the nutters all worked up and let the conspiracy theorists go wild - just say nothing, or try and blame it on something that could easily be disproven (how about a fireworks display). Because it's not like anyone's got the budget to have any real black projects, and we gotta scare the ruskies some how
I'm not saying it wasn't a fireworks display, I'm just saying it would be a good way to cause a bit of excitement if that's what you wanted to do.
