Over the past month drone hysteria has well and truly hit America, with a UFO/drone flap occurring in New Jersey and extending to other locations including Washington D.C. itself. Furthermore, drone sightings have been reported near a number of military bases. Explanations for the sightings have ranged from alien spaceships to Iranian or Chinese drones, and even the US government surreptitiously scanning for a nuclear device in the area.
The thing is, this ‘flap’ appears largely to be a case of a few initial sightings, followed by a lot of people hearing about it on the news/social media and subsequently looking up and thinking nearly any light in the sky is a ‘mystery drone’. As skeptic Mick West has pointed out, pretty much any of the reported sightings that included details of the date, time and location (or sometimes video taken) has now been able to be explained as either a regular manned plane or helicopter, or planet/stars.
There definitely may be a component of adversary nations using drones to spy, or sow social discord/test reactions – this seems obvious from the many drone sightings reported near military bases not just in America, but internationally as well. Although, given Senator Chuck Shumer is now also proposing legislation to keep closer track of drone flights, there may even be a military/intelligence program to create/promote this hysteria so that they can push through laws they think they might need in our new reality of effective drone warfare (as shown in the Ukraine-Russia war).
However, that component would seem like just a tiny percentage of the larger number of misidentifications being made by people not familiar with lights in the sky. As a joint statement from the DHS, FAA, FBI and DoD yesterday noted, their investigation suggests that the sightings “include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones…and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk.”
Which makes recent calls from a number of politicians to shoot the drones down not just moronic, but absurdly dangerous as well. President-elect Donald Trump, commenting on Truth Social about the mystery drones, said “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal stated that “they should be shot down, if necessary, because they’re flying over sensitive areas.” And Congresswoman and one-time QAnon believer Marjorie Taylor Greene has today tweeted this moronic take:
That’s Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting “I’m going to tell you right now that if they try to tell us all to stay inside, stay home, shelter in place “FOR OUR SAFETY” from the drones, there is no way in hell I will comply with that absolute bullshit. Not doing it. No way. I’ll shoot the drones down myself along with every other red blooded freedom loving American.”, appending an American flag emoji at the end just to reinforce what a dipshit she is.
Shooting at drones is illegal. Shooting at manned planes and helicopters is not only illegal, but could also literally kill people. Don’t do it folks. Just because you don’t know what something is, you don’t need to feel threatened and scream “‘Murica!” at it while giving them both barrels.
It all reminds me of the late Bill Hicks riffing on how rednecks turned up to UFO sighting locations with their shotguns.
