Too many old reports have become mythologized, Roswell being the #1 cake-taker on that subject. The reality of it, whatever that may be, is almost secondary to the multi generation story.
In that
Bright Insight JFK Assassination thread I was pointing out something similar. There are 'subject matter experts' out there that weigh in on all sorts of things and I ask myself what their motivation might be. In that NJ hoax case the motive of the people who spoke about this was harmless - they were ordinary people being presented with something unusual and maybe got a little ooogly appearing on TV. I would be too, anybody would be. But there are those who have motives to say what they are saying, reasons to play into the mythology that are less than altruistic whether its to make money, sell media, get attention, get laid, whatever.
In the JFK orbit there are those who promote conspiracy theory who fit better in that latter category and one of the things they harp upon is the impossibility of the shots being from a single shooter, hence the need for conspiracy. The amount of material on this topic from so many sources is mind boggling and you could spend a lifetime reading about it forming your own opinion -
very much like UFOs. Boredom one day on a business trip led me to the School Book Depository and I saw the whole thing live and in person, stood in the next window over from the one Oswald used and peered down into the street below. I guarantee you that if
@Rick Hunter and
@Dejan Corovic and I could just pop over there for five minutes with our transporter beams they would say something like 'oh. yes I see' Yet the mythology would have you believe you need to be Carlos Hathcock to make the shot. I wonder how many people argued this point for how long online and likely continue to do so? I bet there have been and are a bunch, and yet actually having a first hand look would erase a lot of that in an hour.
When I first joined AE I posted about witnessing the Hudson Valley Wave. Saw the huge craft myself at the time and yes it was quite startling, yet at the time I recognized it as several small ultralights. That's what it was - they deliberately did it with bright lights and formations and scared the crap out of a lot of people but it wasn't long before we all caught on. That hoax + Phil Imbrogno + the introduction in the early 80s of a large base for heavy military transport aircraft = Hudson Valley Wave. The story that gets tacked on about the Indian Point nuclear power station and security guards actually
shooting at one of the huge UFOs is also something nobody around here believes for an instant. I've been there, right next to the containments several times on service calls and find all that hard to believe. Yet the myth is very different and far more widely accepted. As I said "The reality of it, whatever that may be, is almost secondary to the multi generation story".
Things like that are what reinforce my skepticism and of course, I understand that extraterrestrial contact is quite possible and maybe probable but there is so much else, so much baggage that goes along with
all this that I need to filter it all heavily and like panning for gold you have to throw away a lot of crap before you get to something good.