Richard Dolan: Critical Thinking About UFOs in the Social Media Age: Facts Still Matter (More Than Ever)

[Bill Ryan]

This excellent article by Richard Dolan was published in October, 2010.

• https://richarddolanpress.com/critical-thinking

~~~

Critical Thinking About UFOs in the Social Media Age:
Facts Still Matter (More Than Ever)

Among the “UFO crowd” these days, it’s the trend to disparage the collection and investigation of UFO reports themselves. We live in the age of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, smart phones, and instant information. Why, then, bother to interview witness after witness to ask the same old tired questions just to prove they saw something unusual: “if you held out your fingers at arm’s length, how large would the object have been?”

Besides, we already know UFOs are real, right? So why bother meticulously going over old news? Let’s move on to more interesting issues, like the ET agenda, figuring out the cover-up, or the coming New World Order.

In fact, I do spend a good portion of my time on those very issues. But there is a danger in forgetting the importance of the nuts and bolts, so to speak, of the field.

The recent spate of interest in Project Blue Beam has got me thinking about this. The Blue Beam meme, which had percolated at a low level for over a decade, morphed in the last week into a viral campaign that basically scared the living **** out of quite a few people.

Spreading fear has become so easy. After all, we have Facebook, that addictive purveyor of friendships, online games, and rumors of all stripes. Any and all claims can be copied and pasted and posted and commented and liked to our collective heart’s content. If it’s not a fast enough blast, there’s always Tweeting.

In the ramp-up to Blue Beam’s supposed arrival, we were treated to a barrage of YouTube links (mostly via Facebook), which featured one particular person warning us to be prepared for the Great Event. No need to go into details and bring more unwarranted attention to these people. They are always around, always willing and able to invent all manner of claims – and there are always people willing to believe what they say.

Say anything you want, don’t worry about supporting your statements with facts or actual research, and then spew out your message. It’s curious and a bit disturbing, that these people believe they actually are doing real research. In truth, most of them have no idea what real research is. Research is hard, it is specific, it takes time.

Research is not “I heard this from a friend of mine who heard this from a scientist in Russia.” Research is not “it’s obvious — look it up, I’ve given you all the facts.” Research is not “it’s on the sites of Alex Jones and David Icke.”

Talk is cheap. Literally, it’s free. It costs nothing, nothing at all, to make a claim. My dad, a retired police officer, has always framed the issue with the forthright statement that “money talks, bull**** walks.”

It’s true. If you have something to say, back it up. Really back it up. Otherwise, please take a walk.

The problem is that wild, unsupported claims can and do spread so much more easily today than they could twenty years ago. Today, claims and videos and even conversations can go viral. Not everyone believes these things, but over the past week, several people personally expressed their own fears to me that, just maybe, there really might be a major event that would disrupt and wreck everything in their lives. Maybe, they wondered, that all these rumors had some truth in them.

Now, we do live in dangerous, tumultuous times. I happen to think that there are great challenges and difficulties ahead for us. Of course, we must keep in mind that this has always been the lot of humanity, and we have faced many catastrophes in our history. In order to be ready for any future difficulties, we need genuine information, not rumor. We need to be able to discern actual facts from groundless claims and general grandstanding.

For any of these rumors, any of these endless series of predictions that clog our pages and cloud our cognition, we all have several solutions at our disposal.

The most important thing is to remember to ask some basic questions: What is the source of the claim? What is the nature of the evidence? Is it possible to fake the evidence? Does the purveyor of the information appear to have a particular axe to grind — a particular viewpoint to promote? What is the structure of the argument? How strong is the logic? Are there any missing pieces to the argument? Are there any unstated assumptions that might be affecting the person’s viewpoint? Is there a prior history of such a claim being made? Are there any refutations out there, and if so how strong are the refutations?

We all have the ability to ask these questions. As we ask them, again and again, we become better at answering them.

Especially because this is not only the Age of Facebook, but the Age of YouTube, traditional investigation has shown itself to be not some vestige of long ago days, but more important than ever. None of us can be everywhere all the time, and not even the web can give us instant answers to many of the questions we will ask. For it’s one thing to post a video to YouTube. Anyone can do that with full anonymity. Many people are reasonably capable at creating fake UFO videos; a few are really good at it.

On October 13th, the day of the Blue Beam non-event, we learned that the people of downtown Manhattan were treated to a UFO display. It even made the local news and appears to have been very interesting. Some people claimed that the objects high in the sky were balloons, one person said it was a group of parasails, others wondered if they were real UFOs, and a few immediately claimed this was part of Blue Beam (to which I would say, if THAT was the Blue Beam event, then we have little to worry about).

Then, we find that a local elementary school apologized and said the display were escaped balloons from their teacher’s engagement party.

If you want to know how many UFO reports there are every year, a good place to start is the National UFO Reporting Center. For the Year 2009, a total of 4,767 reports were posted, which translates to more than 13 per day. This year, statistics are available through the end of August (2,749 so far), giving the slightly lower rate of about 11 per day. Of course, most of these are never thoroughly investigated.

The point is, if you want to predict a UFO sighting to occur on any day — any day whatsoever — you will be (drumroll please……) correct!

What is needed to investigate these events – as it has always been – are people willing to go to the scene, talk to witnesses, check with aviation authorities, collect evidence, and prepare an analysis. This takes time, always time. Doing it right does not coincide with the demands of instant gratification, and cannot allow one to keep pace with the frenzy of a viral event on the web. But there is no other way to do it right.

Which takes me to my final point on all this. Predictions, I think, have become the bane of not simply UFO culture, but alternative culture in general. Since no one seems to enjoy happy predictions, it’s only the scary ones that ever gain much traction. Again, I am not saying bad things can’t and won’t happen. But we need to keep a rational head when confronting these claims.

So, the next time you are encountering the End of the World:

• Take a slow, deep breath.
• Read or listen carefully – and critically.
• Make sure you are receiving actual evidence.
• Be skeptical.
• Be slow – not fast – to react.

If you are one of those people who just can’t live unless you repost someone else’s crazy talk, THINK carefully about what you are doing. You do not need to be part of the problem. You really don’t.

Finally, remember that we all have the power of reason in these brains of ours. We can choose to use it.

[Gaia]

There are people who approach this topic with an open minded skepticism and rationality, and people who pretend they already know the truth of a very wide-ranging topic and pretend that they're in a position to judge everyone else without actually including any meaningful argument to back up what they say. No need to give name...

Richard Dolan is the complete opposite of that, which is why he has credibility. He doesn't ever make these ridiculous leaps in logic, he doesn't ever say anything without a meaningful argument to back up what he says. He doesn't get involved in in-fighting or popularity contests in "the UFO weirdo crowd", he doesn't have a giant ego like many of the people who show up at those conventions. What I saw, read or heard about Dolan appears to me that the man seems self-serving, he's a good representative of the smart/rational people who know that there's something we're not being told within the official-version of the social narrative given to our civilization. I am a big fan of Dolan but disagree with the secret space program stuff and some of his other wilder speculations.

The one thing I would offer is that at least he admits he is speculating and doesn't represent it as fact.


He's been touring and talking for so long now he is running out of new things to talk about. He seems to be trying to avoid becoming like Stan Friedman, who just seems like a broken record these days with his talks.

There will always be something to disbelieve with any researcher. Considering how much raw data he provides in his books I think he's been a huge help to the UFO research. Yes, he does partially make a living from his books and tours, but that doesn't mean his information is any less valid.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Gaia (here)
He's been touring and talking for so long now he is running out of new things to talk about.

Actually, his new (additional!) interest is False Flags, and he's talking extensively about those at the moment — and writing a book on the subject which will one can safely bet will be meticulously compiled and historically highly detailed.

And increasingly, his UFO presentations have been focused on the geopolitical context. Every time I listen to him, I find I learn something new.

[Gaia]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Gaia (here)
He's been touring and talking for so long now he is running out of new things to talk about.

Actually, his new (additional!) interest is False Flags, and he's talking extensively about those at the moment — and writing a book on the subject which will one can safely bet will be meticulously compiled and historically highly detailed.

And increasingly, his UFO presentations have been focused on the geopolitical context. Every time I listen to him, I find I learn something new.

He'd just have a ton of documentation Bill; he's clearly a very intelligent man. In the field of Ufology, I don't think anyone approaches his use of documentation. It doesn't come up in every one of his speeches or interviews, but if someone questions him on some obscure piece of national intelligence policy from the 60s/70s he can cite multiple historical documents to support his point.

For this, I think he's a serious researcher. I do think about my favorite book from him : Hidden in Plain Sight: Beyond the X-Files. I enjoyed this book. I have read many books on different underground bases and covert projects
but Richard Dolan gives us another insight on the subject! It was pretty eye opening about underground bases and tunnels! I'm always learning from him

[zen deik]

Just waking and preparing for an night of work, tired of trump news, flipped the channel and How the World Ends is on, casually watching while preparing several apocalyptic groups were mentioned and their actions based on their particular beliefs , I thought the U.S. government doesn't know how to battle ideology....if that's possible....just look at Waco and the fiasco Janet Reno headed up . I am a true believer that independent thinking held up to logic based on present moment living is very important to survival and your emotional wellbeing.....

[mojo]

thank you Bill... is there anything else you would add? Your list from the Corey thread is also helpful..

much more important, wider issues, that I'd argue affect us all.
What is research?
What constitutes evidence?
What constitutes valuable testimony?
How does one evaluate and make inferences from data?
What role does the social media have these days in muddying all those waters?
Why does any of this matter?

I would add...why so much infighting or lack of support to other researchers?

[zen deik]

Orsen Wells set the bar too high....lol..just an after thought..

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by mojo (here)
thank you Bill... is there anything else you would add?

This checklist, slightly enlarged on by myself, is also from Richard Dolan: (at 59:00 in this excellent Sept 2011 presentation)

~~~

Critical Thinking

• Who's the author? Is there any identifiable agenda? Have they been reliable, or unreliable, in the past?

• Is the message trying to elicit action from you? If so, what kind?

• Is the information confirmable by outside investigation? Or is it from unverifiable 'inside sources'?

• Can you find an earlier version of the reported facts, themes or images? When did they first appear? From whom?
  (Use Google’s date-range search, and/or reverse image search, to assist with this. Many ‘new’ reports are recycled from many years ago)

• Are there alternative ways of interpreting the same information? What do skeptics say about the claim?
  (You don’t have to agree with the skeptics, but it can be very valuable to know what they say)

• Is the information ‘sensational’ or ‘incredible’? Then be skeptical. It’s probably not true in the manner as presented… especially if it’s not verifiable by outside sources.

• Don’t jump to immediate conclusions. Take your time.

[Kryztian]

While I totally agree with Richard Dolan's conclusions about taking a deep breath, researching, citing sources, etc. I would also add that "being skeptical" is a two way street: one also needs to be skeptical of some of the efforts to quickly debunk some of these paranormal events and conspiratorial ideas.

For instance, the UFO sighting Richard Dolan mentions from October 10, 2010 is far from a closed case in my book. The explanation offered by the NY Post is as logical as the weather ballon and swamp gas explanation in other sightings:

There were numerous objects (20 or 30) all within close proximity to each other shown on many nightly news shows that night (but clearly, not so close that they were tied together). The balloons were seen over the Chelsea neighborhood for several hours and remained relatively stationery. So here is the logical flow of their explanation:

Balloons were released from a Mt. Vernon, NY school and they drifted 12 miles to the Chelsea section and instead of dispersing, they all stayed in the same relative area (within about a thousand feet of each other). They drifted in the 5 to 10 mile per hour winds in roughly 2 hours, and then they continued to remain stationery and all in the same vicinity for several hours. Although these objects couldn't be distinguished by the naked eye as any type of definable object (e.g. "balloons") during the day, they were visible to the naked eye as glowing light objects at night, even in the city night where almost not stars are visible

While we need not panic and run around like Henny Penny when we get the first reports of these stories, I think it is also important that we don't close the book too quickly on some of these issues, or assume that the explanation of the most hysterical person is the only explanation out there.

And while I don't spend any time freaking out about Serge Monast's version of an impending "Project Bluebeam", it would be most unwise not to conclude that people within our national security state haven't devised operations that are somewhat like this already.

[sirjames]

I am reminded of the story about rumors and lies, as it is like going up on the roof and cutting open a pillow full of feathers. Shaking it empty until all of the feathers are carried on the wind, and go everywhere and anywhere.

Now if that was proved to be a lie, each of those individual feathers may not all be recovered: long gone like the internet, once it is out there. Hard to get the genie back in the bottle.

Perhaps it should be called socially responsible media.

[Bubu]

Posted by zen deik (here)
. I am a true believer that independent thinking held up to logic based on present moment living is very important to survival and your emotional wellbeing.....

we could be critically thinking of many things that does not concern us at the moment and in most cases turns out to be useless.

[Raven]

Posted by Gaia (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Gaia (here)
He's been touring and talking for so long now he is running out of new things to talk about.

Actually, his new (additional!) interest is False Flags, and he's talking extensively about those at the moment — and writing a book on the subject which will one can safely bet will be meticulously compiled and historically highly detailed.

And increasingly, his UFO presentations have been focused on the geopolitical context. Every time I listen to him, I find I learn something new.

He'd just have a ton of documentation Bill; he's clearly a very intelligent man. In the field of Ufology, I don't think anyone approaches his use of documentation. It doesn't come up in every one of his speeches or interviews, but if someone questions him on some obscure piece of national intelligence policy from the 60s/70s he can cite multiple historical documents to support his point.

For this, I think he's a serious researcher. I do think about my favorite book from him : Hidden in Plain Sight: Beyond the X-Files. I enjoyed this book. I have read many books on different underground bases and covert projects
but Richard Dolan gives us another insight on the subject! It was pretty eye opening about underground bases and tunnels! I'm always learning from him

Hi Gaia - The book
Hidden in Plain Sight: Beyond the X-Files was actually written by Richard Sauder and the foreward was done by Richard Dolan who published it at Keyhole Publishing

[The Freedom Train]

Posted by mojo (here)
I would add...why so much infighting or lack of support to other researchers?

Egos and psyops.

[Mike]

the alt media has slowly and insidiously become alt *entertainment*. its analogous to the WWE, the fake wrestling we have here in america, which is replete with contrived drama and silly plots and salacious story lines. its owners call it "sports entertainment". even though its clearly fake and scripted, there are a core group of people who actually prefer it to real sport, due to the loaded drama and excessive action. its so loaded with stimuli that cater to the basest levels of people, that i believe it forms something of an addiction (and whats addiction? to me it is often a lazy excuse to indulge a habit instead of doing something intellectually or emotionally challenging and fulfilling). you simultaneously become numb to reality while embracing the action packed, drama-filled fiction. if its not a disease then its certainly a psy op of sorts...

so in one corner we have rich dolan, who represents steady, even, research backed testimony. intellectual. solid. real. but relative to some of the more sexy alt figures/whistleblowers, maybe a little boring? and how could he not be? it aint easy competing with sun sized orbs and bird people and wars on mars and so on and so forth...

what people like corey do is raise the entertainment baseline so far up the ladder that folks like Dolan dont have a chance when it comes to the short attention spans and intellectually lazy researchers we see in the alt media. he's exploited our lazy minds and appealed to our baser instincts, much like fake wrestling does. he asks very little of us; he simply asks us to sit back and be entertained (unlike the intellectually dignified Dolan, who challenges us to actually think!). and when we do this we become numb to reality. indifferent. like regular ol sport, its no longer good enough. we get addicted to the action, the fantasy; we no longer want to be challenged...let alone troubled with facts and reason. not sexy enough.

so, as facts matter now more than ever, people are - ironically - becoming less n less interested in them. theyve become seduced and hypnotized with the "big story". with most of the topics discussed here, there is that point where science and reason and logic stop - theres simply nowhere else for them to go - and speculation begins. if we're to keep the conversation going without repeating ourselves ad nauseam, we *have* to speculate. but if we dont keep one foot on the ground while we're doing this, speculation will blur into fantasy..because thats what it desperately wants to do. we need balance. balance isnt always sexy, but its essential for intellectual integrity. and thats whats going on now the way i see it....theres a war in the alt media, with one side trying to destroy intellectual integrity and credibility, while the other side is desperately trying to protect it. who will win? stay tuned...

[mgray]

As a young working journalist some umph years ago, a crusty old tabloid editor told me this adage and I have passed it along to many young reporters now.

"Get it first, but first get it right."

Dolan has done that for the last 15 years I have followed him.

[Justplain]

Funny that anyone would find Richard Dolan as self serving, i find him to be the most credible, thorough researcher in the ufo field. Someone that thorough shouldnt be considered self serving.

Regarding Richard's secret space program speculations, i think he has done us all a service by sticking his neck out on this one. I just finished reading the Dave Hodges accounts in the PA 'secret space program' archives, and there is plenty of eye witness accounts confirming the SSP's existence, as astounding as that may seem. Most people disbelieve it, or prefer to get sucked in by Corey Goode/Basiago/captain k and their nose candy, to really give this topic serious consideration.

What is so astounding is that a very high tech space program has been established, for decades, that is illegally funded (via either fraudulently stolen public funds in the nasa or military budgets, or by crime, such as drug running or stock fraud), has tech that includes anti-gravity, teleportation, visibility cloaking, inter-dimensional travel, etc., and has likely enabled humans to not only explore this solar system but parts of the galaxy beyond.

One doesnt need the corey goode fantasies to understand that the SSP's developments are incredible. What is almost equally confounding is that this tech, which could resolve all of humanity's physical needs at this time, is withheld from us by a murderous cabal who seems to want to further enslave humanity with this tech. And they did it with the public's money, to boot.

[Ewan]

Posted by Justplain (here)
Funny that anyone would find Richard Dolan as self serving, i find him to be the most credible, thorough researcher in the ufo field. Someone that thorough shouldnt be considered self serving.

I think the poster, (Gaia), has a different interpretation of what the term self-serving means. In the context of the post it clearly had no negative inflection though I admit it caused me a momentary mental stumble as I read the post.

[Bill Ryan]

A high quality contribution to this topic is the 28 Feb 2017 Coast to Coast AM interview with Jon Rappoport, about 'fake news' — and how to detect it, wherever it is. Recommended.

• http://projectavalon.net/Coast_to_Co...017_Hour_1.mp3
• http://projectavalon.net/Coast_to_Co...017_Hour_2.mp3

My apologies. There'd been a typo in the links. They work now.

[zen deik]

Posted by Bubu (here)

Posted by zen deik (here)
. I am a true believer that independent thinking held up to logic based on present moment living is very important to survival and your emotional wellbeing.....

we could be critically thinking of many things that does not concern us at the moment and in most cases turns out to be useless.

Especially if ADD is a problem....

[Justplain]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
A high quality contribution to this topic is the 28 Feb 2017 Coast to Coast AM interview with Jon Rappoport, about 'fake news' — and how to detect it, wherever it is. Recommended.

• http://projectavalon.net/Coast_to_Co...017_Hour_1.mp3
• http://projectavalon.net/Coast_to_Co...017_Hour_2.mp3

Hi Bill, both of these links return 'server not found', in both chrome and firefox.

My apologies. Typo in the links. They'll work now.