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[-] Maddie@sh.itjust.works 182 points 2 years ago

Lol no one would've told Trump any of that even after he was elected

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 91 points 2 years ago

They probably gave him documents on it, but he's borderline illiterate so he wouldn't have touched them.

[-] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 39 points 2 years ago

That’s why he still had classified documents after he left office. He couldn’t figure out what the big red letters “Top Secret” meant.

[-] BeanGoblin 23 points 2 years ago

He probably got it confused with "Pop Secret" and thought he stole the national popcorn reserve.

[-] dditty@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago

If the documents didn't say his name in the first couple of sentences, he wouldn't read them.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 53 points 2 years ago

Yeah I'd be pretty sure the team around him would have been very careful about what information they gave him.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 38 points 2 years ago

They went through all this in Independence Day. "Plausible deniability."

[-] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

In order to learn anything about it, Trump would have had to have been curious about it, and since the subject is Area 51 and not Donald Trump you can be certain that it didn't cross his mind even once.

[-] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 93 points 2 years ago

"Why the hell wasn't I told about this place?"

"Two words Mr. President, 'plausible deniability.'"

[-] Thrickles@lemm.ee 23 points 2 years ago

First thing I thought of too. Love that movie.

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[-] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 85 points 2 years ago

Area 51 is real. Don't know if there's any aliens there, but I'm betting not.

[-] tjarod11@lemmy.world 57 points 2 years ago

The Roswell Incident was declassified as well. It was a weather balloon with a microphone attachment that was meant to listen to a certain layer of the atmosphere where nukes are loudest. I don't have the link as I'm on mobile.

I don't think the government would deny any extraterrestrial claims by the news during the cold war because it would scare the commies shitless if they thought the United States had alien technology.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

The US government has been caught spreading alien conspiracy theories. They were the ones supplying Paul Bennewitz with his bogus info to muddy the waters on the stealth craft they were working on at the time.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

If I remember the story correctly the balloon was, as you said, to detect nuke detonations. When it crashed the government lied because they didn't want anyone to know what they were up to.

That method of detection wasn't very effective anyway, we figured out much more reliable means of detecting nuclear explosions right on the ground using resonance, but it was pretty obvious the government was lying, so of course peoples imaginations went wild with conspiracies and the ufo thing was born.

It was (and still is) a great thing for the US government, it deflects from what's really going on and keeps the idiots busy chasing bullshit, and the enemies guessing as to what kind of tech they may really have. Toss them a bone once in awhile to keep the frenzy going and you have a reliable means of obfuscation for little to no effort.

[-] Tamo@programming.dev 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Roswell was actually multiple incidents remembered incorrectly iirc

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7droUsVVRsNC3hCXQvd5ph?si=qRPRLKaaQWywq95fubt63Q

Good pod on the topic

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[-] s_s@lemm.ee 77 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Bros, this is really easy: The US Air Force was developing all sorts of secret stuff during the Cold War, to keep it secret from, you know, the Russians.

When a secret spy balloon crashed in a public place in Roswell, the Air Force didn't answer any direct questions and when someone asked if it could be aliens, their reply was, "it can be whatever you want!"

Part 2: Everyone forgot all about the whole event for 30 years, because it was completely unremarkable. Then, after the Watergate scandal, everyone was super suspicious of the government, because one conspiracy had just turned out to be true. And one guy got on the radio and was like, "yeah well the government even has aliens, remember Roswell?" And nobody did, so then they retold the story in the most suspicious way possible and he sold a ton of books.

And that's where aliens come from.

[-] bratosch@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago

And that's where aliens come from.

When a mommy alien and a daddy alien love each other,

[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And if we're being really honest, the government probably doesn't mind the alien conspiracy theories at all because by having a fake reason to hate the government you're distracted from the real reasons to hate them. People that focus on the fact that the government might be withholding information about aliens from them have a higher chance of forgetting about the government withholding things like healthcare, food security, student debt relief, public transportation, consumer rights, survivable minimum wages, etc etc.

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

The aliens were using an inflatable probe to monitor Earth's weather conditions.

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[-] Dadifer@lemmy.world 61 points 2 years ago

It was above his security level.

[-] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 20 points 2 years ago

This I can absolutely believe. You really think the entrenched MICC is going to give him access?

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[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Correct, Truman was not allowed to know about the Manhattan project until it was already viable and needed to be known.

[-] diverging@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago

Truman became president on April,12 1945. He was given a full briefing on the Manhattan project on April 24,1945. That doesn't seem like he was being kept in the dark.

[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

It was one of the most important and costly projects of the war, 12 days is a lifetime during a war quite literally. That's also ignoring the fact that the vice president was kept in the dark until after FDR died and Truman took office.

[-] diverging@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

That was the full briefing and Truman had been told about it earlier. And him not being told while he was vice president is irrelevant to information being withheld from a president.

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[-] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

They didn't trust him so they never told him.

[-] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

This. I bet half of his security briefings were just bullshit to make him feel important.

[-] outer_spec 26 points 2 years ago

On the bright side, this also disproves all the Qanon shit

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 31 points 2 years ago

Did it need it?

At least alien life is a statistical near certainty. Intelligence, FTL, and a general willingness to be sneaky assholes about existing, not so much, but it's probably somewhere out there, compared to a prophet that makes 100 predictions and gets 1 right.

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[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 23 points 2 years ago

There never were aliens at Area 51.

It was all just a ruse to cover up even more dark shit.

Think of things banned by the Geneva convention, like biological weapons, torture techniques, war crimes, ...

Making people think it is aliens makes it seem innocent by comparison.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago

torture techniques, war crimes,

Wouldn't that be Guantanamo Bay?

The reason that people belived it was aliens is that people are stupid. Area 51 was a secret but not so much anymore. Now we know it was useful for secret projects like A-12. It's a convenient place to do test flights of secret shit.

[-] OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip 21 points 2 years ago

The same Trump who didn't read intelligence briefings? They probably handed him one on day one that explained aliens and Area 51 are all real and he used it to wipe burger grease off his mouth while he was writing a Tweet with his other hand in all caps.

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[-] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 years ago

Aliens are glad to see you upvoting this meme.

[-] Zendaya@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Didn't Snowden say he checked all the government databases and saw zero proof of aliens

[-] bassomitron@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Snowden didn't have access to every government database, lol. Even if he said he did, he's 100% full of shit, as there's this concept called Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). Extremely top secret info will be locked into SCI programs (although something that is in SCI doesn't necessarily HAVE to be top secret) meaning you do not have access unless you are read into that program. And no, you can't just willynilly hack the entire DoD SCI repository from a single location.

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Presidents don't get that information. It's on a need-to-know proprietary basis only. I was in the Army in military intelligence and there was indeed a portal in our computer system regarding UFOs and aliens but I did not have access to it because it was not part of my job. The closest we've heard of Presidents knowing about aliens is when Bill Clinton pontificated about it on some late-night talk show.

https://youtu.be/lQNevl2BuxM?si=LQTbGL2MyFozchIH?t=5m21s

https://youtu.be/Y4Pr9Zjxja0?si=V_40d2G8iTACzkdc

[-] jomoo99@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Worst comic I ever read

[-] yojimbo@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 years ago

Well - didn't he try? If I am not wrong - the latest string of UFO / UAP reports started during the Trump presidency. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump was the one who asked the Pentagon to "show the people the aliens" - in hopes that it will change the nations focus from his own mental or moral disabilities. And the Pentagon has obliged - and showed people the aliens in all their glory. 👽

The result is that now we know much more about various optical illusions that happen in military binoculars, telescopes and such - than we did ever before.

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[-] drwstr@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

I’ve been saying that since his dumb ass was elected lol

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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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