New deathbed testimony from a supposed Area 51 “Senior Scientist” relates his experience with UFO programs, aliens, and government collusion with extraterrestrials. Boyd Bushman, who passed away on Aug. 7, was indeed an engineer for Lockheed-Martin, complete with a patent on a “method for amplifying a magnetic beam” amongst several others. Despite his genuine background in the field, his testimony regarding UFO activity at Area 51 and within the larger US government is transparently flimsy. So while my original intention was to take the clickbait press to task for uncritically repeating the Bushman UFO claims, watching the video makes it clear that these are claims in no need of refutation.

UFO News: 2014 YouTube Documentary Is Obvious Fraud

So does anybody believe in the claims of Boyd Bushman? For that matter, does anyone still subscribe to the extraterrestrial theory of UFO activity? I mean, Whitley Strieber’s own website doesn’t believe it and Whitley basically invented the classic alien abduction scenario. But still, it’s obvious that someone believes it, because the human capacity for credulity is pretty endless.

Oh, here they are:

But while the conspiracy mindset is arguably more rampant than ever in American society—thanks in large part to the Internet’s capacity for uniting what would otherwise be isolated beliefs—UFO and alien theorizing seem to be experiencing a downward trend. It seems that the alien UFO has suffered the same fate as Bigfoot: in an era when everyone carries a camera at all times the lack of convincing photographic evidence becomes more and more evidence of absence (yes, I know the saying, and no, it’s not a fitting refutation).

UFO Sightings - Vestiges of the Past

Dwindling of interest in UFO and alien visitation also reflects larger political insecurities. The golden era of UFO sightings, the 1950’s, is largely seen as a reaction to Soviet-centric paranoia. The alien UFO was a mysterious and foreign invader with inscrutable motives. The alien abduction phenomena of the 70’s and 80’s was a reflection of a society turned inward, combining hippie New Ageism with post-Vietnam powerlessness and soul searching. This kind of mass psychological analysis is notoriously tricky to prove, but I don’t care, it’s just too fun to put everyone in the country on the couch at once.

The current conspiracy obsession is a little more obvious in its attachment to political and societal realities. The enemy is the government, or some dark force animating it, and their aims are total control through whatever horrific means necessary. And while the theories of the 9/11 Truther are just as irrational as those of the UFO chaser, the grounded, falsely-factual appeal makes the sci-fi visions of little green men (literally, in the case of Boyd Bushman’s silly photographs) appear downright quaint.

And that’s why there’s simply not much to be outraged about regarding the current careless mainstreaming of nonsense. In 2014 UFO news no longer has the “substance” of the new mainstream in conspiracy circles. It’s more an entertaining and nostalgic vestige of the past.

CORRECTION: Having found additional Boyd Bushman patents (the article already cited and linked to one of Boyd's patents), the line reading "though I could find no evidence for the “numerous innovative patents” cited in so many stories about Boyd Bushman" has been removed.