Man Overboard
UFO Skeptic Eric Weinstein Comes Around
As reality intrudes, the cultural commentator and mathematician apologizes to the UFO community. Can pal Sam Harris be far behind?
While we wait to learn who did or didn’t call Sam Harris about UFOs to help prepare the public for disclosure, one of the cultural commentator’s fellow so-called ‘Dark Web’ colleagues and friends, Eric Weinstein, appears to have had a Damascus-style conversion.
On Twitter this weekend, the mathematician, podcaster and managing director of Thiel Capital, basically wrote what amounted to an apology to the UFO community for his skepticism on the topic and treatment of them. The best ufologists, he said, “deserve not only rehabilitation in the minds of the public, but some official recognition that you are to be listened to in the future.”
Weinstein was riffing off another comment to which he attached his series of tweets, made by a research scientist who joked that the nine pages of the UAP report released this week “basically looks like an Eric Weinstein post.”
The Harvard-trained mathematician is known for having jokingly coined the term “Dark Web,” a loose coalition of what the New York Times in 2018 termed intellectual “renegades” who have carved out a space for themselves in the podcasting world discussing culture, politics and science in terms that has rendered them unwelcome in “politically correct” circles because they have questioned and criticized what they regard as the “excesses” of the political left, identity politics, etc.
Weinstein may not be a household name, but he occupies a layer of intellectuals and opinion-makers in the United States that wields a considerable audience. He counts Harris, a neuroscientist, as a close friend; each has appeared on the other’s podcast to hash through religion and other topics.
His UFO mea culpa is all the more interesting given that Harris has on three occasions in the last couple of months mentioned being included in high-level talks about the reality of UFOs. The implication being that he, Harris, needs to get on board so he can then help ease the public into what would amount to a historic paradigm shift. The fact that a fellow intellectual in Harris’s orbit has gone even as far as Weinstein does in his statement today is significant.
Here’s what he said on Saturday (exactly as posted across multiple tweets):
Responsible folks share w/ me hoping that if I believe them, they wont have to share under their own name. I shared some of what was shared with me. My market saying is “Early is another name for wrong.” In UFO land “Early is another name for presumed Crazy”. Time to apologize.
To all the UFO people who were getting it right: I blew it. I thought you were bored, easily convinced, read too much sci-fi as kids, were easily taken in. I thought there was no way this could ambiguously exist in a world flooded with sensors. I thought you were not getting it.
I am very late to your party and even having gotten the report mostly right, it has been exceptionally unpleasant to get in front of it by even a few months. I can only imagine how it feels after the many years the US has gaslight you all while knowing you were not wrong.
A lot of UFO people are nutty. But you the careful community that called balls and strikes as best you could with limited information deserve not only rehabilitation in the minds of the public, but some official recognition that you are to be listened to in the future. Thank you.
I believe you now when you say that there is even much more high quality data available but that it has not been released. At a personal level: You were right, I was wrong. Thanks for letting me join you at the ‘last minute’ in the few months before the report. I’ll listen more.
I also wanted to say to the non-ufo community that whatever I got right largely didn’t come from me. It came from patriots, fellow scientists & others who were not taken in the way I was. All I did was a bit of filtering and after market analysis given the gravity of the issue.
A few hours later, he weighed in with these two tweets:
It’s totally irresponsible for any scientist to refuse to investigate UAP after this report with a full and unpruned decision tree at her side. That includes considering the total incompetence of the defense department, *aliens*, spoofing by enemies and UFO political economy.
And US scientists who refuse to take this seriously as per the above tweet are neglecting and/or turning their back on our national and international security responsibilities given this report. That is my belief. Full stop.
Interestingly, self-described UFO “debunker” Mick West chimed in with a question and comment of his own:
“This is not the biggest story. It’s still the exact same story as before. Unidentified things, mostly airborne clutter and atmospheric phenomena. Possible foreign spy platforms. Some hints of advanced tech, but limited data, maybe in error. No aliens.”
Relax, Mick. Your time will come.
Trail of the Saucers is edited by writer/producer Bryce Zabel and published by Stellar Productions. Zabel co-hosts the popular new podcast Need to Know with Coulthart and Zabel that can be found on all major platforms.
