A recent UFO sighting, involving a dramatic crash into Lake Winnipeg in Canada has rejuvenated conspiracy communities hungry for new evidence of either extraterrestrial visitation or high-tech military experimentation. The UFO crash, which garnered attention for the dramatic nature of the military UFO cover-up involved, occurred near Jackhead, Manitoba. With this event standing as one of the most dramatic UFO incidents of the past several months (a video taken over Lima, Peru has also proven popular), one question comes to mind: Where did all the hoaxers go?

Have UFOs Gone Out of Style?

It seems that like any trend, conspiracy theories go in and out of style. At this point, Bigfoot and UFOs, while objects of perpetual interest, have ceased being subjects of legitimate study and investigation. Sure, the UFO phenomenon continues to have its diehard proponents, but the relative paucity of new evidence compared to the incredible proliferation of camera equipment seem to have largely laid to rest mainstream interest in the UFO question.

Let’s take a look at that Canadian UFO crash. It seems there was indeed something in the ice of military interest on Feb. 18. Pictures of military vehicles near Jackhead, Canada abound on Twitter:

However, beyond obvious fakes, no one seems to have any photos of the actual UFO crash site. The nearest is this one:

Passed around as evidence of… something (one conspiracy theorist, desperate to make something of it, overlaid a strange ziggurat structure for comparison), a reverse image search quickly reveals this kind of ice upheaval to be a common byproduct of the long Lake Winnipeg winters. Check it out right here.

UPDATE: Even this single piece of evidence turns out to be baloney. As Jared points out in the credits, the photo is actually a cropped portion of the Lake Winnipeg photo found by a reverse image search.

In other words, with one of the biggest UFO incidents of the year, the evidence collected amounts to pictures of military trucks on a Canadian highway. The official story states that the supposed UFO cover-up was simple military drills. The commanding officer of the 38 Territorial Battalion Group told CBC News, “There’s no aliens, just my friends in the air force who are out there helping us on this exercise… I have the commander of that air force contingent sitting right beside me and, you know, he assures us that that was not a UFO, but that was him.”

Sounds like a pretty convenient story for a UFO cover-up to maintain. Is there any evidence that these drills were scheduled? Why yes, here’s the announcement for Exercise Arctic Bison, which “will provide realistic and challenging scenarios in harsh environments to the ARCG to ensure readiness for events that may arise. The exercise scenario will include response to a major air disaster, support to Ground Search and Rescue, and public relations activities in some communities along the shore of Lake Winnipeg.”

Debunking aside, it’s curious that the UFO community in the days of the Internet and universal camera carrying is reduced to such weak sauce. What happened to all the hoaxers chucking pie tins into the air and taking snapshots?

For now, there are no easy answers. It seems to be a combination of factors, including post-9/11 interest in government-centric conspiracies. It seems that for today’s conspiracy theorists threats are primarily from shady international geopolitics and false flag operations.

Another possibility is that YouTube and the Internet has taken the financial incentive out of UFO hoaxing. The national cottage industry of UFO publications, UFO cults, and UFO conventions are no longer necessary in the age of the r/UFO subreddit. There’s no longer financial incentive to fake a UFO sighting, meaning that the UFO subculture has lost a significant chunk of its hucksters.

Would anybody believe that spending the money on a fake alien autopsy would recoup its investment today?

Roswell UFO Crash – Alien Autopsy Video

YouTube has made it impossible. Left behind are the painfully earnest and those desperate to believe. A recent example of the incredible credulousness this can produce was the reaction to this tweet from outgoing Obama advisor John Podesta:

Listed after a bunch of legitimate policy achievements, Podesta’s tweet was clearly tongue-in-cheek (though he has previously stated interest in declassifying what can be declassified), but has already become scripture in the UFO community.

It will be interesting to see if the UFO phenomenon ever rebounds, or if the UFO is destined to go the way of angelic sightings and witch terrors.