Anyone Who Profits Off Of Ufo, Or Alien Topics.

Originally posted by Mr_skepticc
Great post so far everyone; however, If you read back on what I have written my point is this. These guys and others like them are selling this stuff as fact! Isn't that fraud? Shouldn't it be illegal to write about things that you are calling facts, or speak about them - when in fact they are not facts!

Sure we know their frauds, but others who are hard-core believers do just that ,,,Believe! Isn't it kinda a duty to save our fellow brothers who really don't know any better and are being sucked out of their ass-hole into buying this stuff?

edit on 4-4-2012 by Mr_skepticc because: (no reason given)

So maybe we should arrest all the religions leaders,Example- the Catholic Church the Pope, they are all peddling the theory and making Billions of dollars of the existance of God, and has anyone ever seen Him or Her, has anyone any photo evidience or proof of a all mighty Being-NO. look at the $ generated off the marketing of Bibles and equally fictious literature, so I think your argument is valid,

Originally posted by akalepos
I am of the opinion that literary agents would rather publish entertaining lies, than anything that would actually educate the public on any given issue.

It is my opinion, an opinion supported by the amount of research journals sold versus how many books about even a small genre like 'Ufology' are sold, that the public would rather read entertaining lies than be educated on any given issue.

I will continue to put the blame squarely where it is due. The audience that buys the garbage. If their wasn't an audience for this crap, we wouldn't write it. Myself included.

reply to post by Mr_skepticc


Personally, I'd do it in a moment if I could... but I don't have the money to get started.

Not one person is forced to attend these meetings, purchase tickets or anything else.

My opinion, I would rather spend $10 to sit and listen (although I haven't) to UFO stories than to pay $35 to $60 to attend a monster truck rally, or the opera, or a play... lol

Frankly, I believe fact in the search for UFOs and Aliens was lost long ago and most everyone I hear on tv or listen to posts on ATS are little more than historians.

People profit off UFO's? People profit off of anything nowadays, its called the internet. This site if profiting just form you using it

Originally posted by Mr_skepticc
Ok here it is.

Do any of you guys not believe that it's wrong for anyone to profit off the topic of ufos, and aliens?

Not in the least. Making money and telling the truth are not mutually exclusive ideas.

This is not to say I believe UFO researchers are telling the truth, however it is logical fallacy to assume making money invalidates ones argument.

What about the personal level? Never was interested in UFOs or aliens until they came and visited me one night in the mid sixties. Better believe I purchased anything I could find on the subject to try and explain what the hell happened to ME! Personal experiences promulgated more than a little of the production of UFO and alien tales.

I have researched them ever since. I may never get a straight answer, but I feel I am closer to some semblance of an answer than I was. I could write a book of my own experiences. Whether anyone would believe them, well who knows?

I agree with the OP, but I have a compromise.

If authors want to write about aliens & UFOs, that's fine. Just keep those books in their own section at the bookstore, like the religious books. Is it fiction? Non-fiction? Neither. It's self-serving confirmation for those who already believe.

reply to post by Mr_skepticc


Welcome to the club! I've been saying pretty much the same thing as you in your post except that I have not said that the promoters of bs should not profit from their entertainment value. Only those who have reached a certain level, as you have, become aware that popular authors from Friedman to Dolan are in it 'cause they know they will always attract an audience. I have attended lectures, mostly back in the age of UFO "innocence", the 1960s, where while nothing was proved, the lecturer had material that was entertaining. I remember one lecture in NYC where at the end of the lecture as the lecturer ended his talk by saying "And they fly!" (meaning he had just explained how flying saucers flew, the small audience burst into honest applause!). You don't get that kind of enthusiasm anymore. Listening to people such as Friedman and Dolan, and a dozen others, can make you fall asleep as happens in churches. The droning. The boring details about cases that happened "eons" ago.

Nothing new has happened in UFOlogy in decades but the popular "celebrities" are reaching new, young minds and that's where the money is. Us old fogeys can do without them and be satisfied we can chew the fat in forums such as this one in the comfort of our homes without paying anyone for the same ol' info.

As long as there are believers who are willing to pay, there will always be someone to take their money for little in return.

People who are researchers also make money out of it. that does not mean they are spreading lies. But either way there are such people too. Those who die around talking too much, I don't see how they're doing it.The answer is: they don't and those who know the real deal don't make books and don't talk.

And the ones with books are simply speculators they cannot know as much as people who've been into secret projects.

Originally posted by Furbs

Originally posted by akalepos
I am of the opinion that literary agents would rather publish entertaining lies, than anything that would actually educate the public on any given issue.

It is my opinion, an opinion supported by the amount of research journals sold versus how many books about even a small genre like 'Ufology' are sold, that the public would rather read entertaining lies than be educated on any given issue.

I will continue to put the blame squarely where it is due. The audience that buys the garbage. If their wasn't an audience for this crap, we wouldn't write it. Myself included.

I can't argue with you much here.

I have just noticed that the agents these days are more interested in whatever can entertain readers rather than engage with the ideas of the free flow of information these days. More interested in soft women's porn than something that might contribute to the current discussions that are important in our little current world. Also people with recognizable names can draw sales no matter how specious the info in the writing is.

It's just the way it is. To me they are simply moral/ethical cowards.

I'm not trying to create any insult here. It is simply the way I see things based on experience.

Originally posted by akalepos

Originally posted by Furbs

Originally posted by akalepos
I am of the opinion that literary agents would rather publish entertaining lies, than anything that would actually educate the public on any given issue.

It is my opinion, an opinion supported by the amount of research journals sold versus how many books about even a small genre like 'Ufology' are sold, that the public would rather read entertaining lies than be educated on any given issue.

I will continue to put the blame squarely where it is due. The audience that buys the garbage. If their wasn't an audience for this crap, we wouldn't write it. Myself included.

I can't argue with you much here.

I have just noticed that the agents these days are more interested in whatever can entertain readers rather than engage with the ideas of the free flow of information these days. More interested in soft women's porn than something that might contribute to the current discussions that are important in our little current world. Also people with recognizable names can draw sales no matter how specious the info in the writing is.

It's just the way it is. To me they are simply moral/ethical cowards.

I'm not trying to create any insult here. It is simply the way I see things based on experience.

Agents are interested in the same thing agents have always been interested in. Money. Morals and Ethics play into it, but why are the people writing books that they claim to be fact at fault for the ignorance of the population?

Scientific Methodology is the equalizer. Anyone can say anything they want to about anything, that is the great thing about speech. We can literally say anything we can conceptualize. Some people have more flowery verbiage and can drone on and on for nearing on what appears to be well beyond the usual conclusion of simple prose. Others do not. If those that do not are employing the scientific method, they may be right, but they aren't selling books, while those that sound good will continue to sell books with no real value. Once in a while we get someone like Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson who are both very scientifically educated and extremely good writers.

It is up to the reader to be able to use the Scientific Method (which is so simple a caveman could do it) to deduce what is real from what isn't.

If more people did that, we wouldn't be able to sell our admittedly horrible hoax-books. But we can, and we do. I am actually writing my third hoax book on why 2012 didn't happen the way everyone thought it would. I am hoping for a release date of January 5th. We shall see if interest wanes after the biggest dud prophecy in recent history comes to pass, but my sincere belief is that I will sell more books from this printing than all of the rest of my other books combined.

(Forgive me, Dr. Sagan, for bringing you up in a post where I continue to discuss being a pseudoscientific whore.)

Agents are interested in the same thing agents have always been interested in. Money. Morals and Ethics play into it, but why are the people writing books that they claim to be fact at fault for the ignorance of the population?

I think it is an integrity issue. If it isn't fact, but blame the readers for their own naivety, how does that make the author any better than a pimp or a con man?


Scientific Methodology is the equalizer. Anyone can say anything they want to about anything, that is the great thing about speech. We can literally say anything we can conceptualize. Some people have more flowery verbiage and can drone on and on for nearing on what appears to be well beyond the usual conclusion of simple prose. Others do not. If those that do not are employing the scientific method, they may be right, but they aren't selling books, while those that sound good will continue to sell books with no real value. Once in a while we get someone like Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson who are both very scientifically educated and extremely good writers.

It is up to the reader to be able to use the Scientific Method (which is so simple a caveman could do it pretty doubtful...
) to deduce what is real from what isn't.

So how many people in our culture even know anything about that other than they are familiar with the term? This still sounds like a fox blaming the chickens for getting eaten.


If more people did that, we wouldn't be able to sell our admittedly horrible hoax-books. But we can, and we do. I am actually writing my third hoax book on why 2012 didn't happen the way everyone thought it would. I am hoping for a release date of January 5th. We shall see if interest wanes after the biggest dud prophecy in recent history comes to pass, but my sincere belief is that I will sell more books from this printing than all of the rest of my other books combined.

I agree, but obviously good analytic views that lead to a genuine scrutiny that will blast away the mist of confusion and naivety are no longer taught here. There is no reason why you could not create such a book, but why not label it fiction as it clearly will be? what's wrong with that?

The OP is talking about simple honesty and whether or not someone ought profit from the UFO/Alien phenomena.

I would say that if someone is publishing truthful information, it will either harm or enlighten the curious. IF we are dealing with facts. But anything published which really has the design of sparking the imagination about such things is clearly fictional because of the lack of real evidence, and should be presented as such.

I see nothing wrong with that assertion.

That assertion is not wiggle waggling around in an effort to excuse itself. The onus is on the creator, not the observer as any stage magician can tell you.

Socrates assertion obtains true here:

They believe good things are bad and bad things are good.

reply to post by akalepos


A pimp makes money from selling something that is not his to sell. A con man will sell you something that isn't worth buying. An author will sell you something tangible, a book. The contents of that book can be whatever you want them to be. They can be the absolute truth, even if they haven't a shred of truth in them. I don't care if someone believes what are in my books or not. I write them for money. I write them for my own entertainment. If I wanted to educate, I would write a text and make about 1/100 of the money.

The Scientific Methodology is incredibly simple. That's what makes it an everyman's tool!



Cavemen either followed this path (thought admittedly did not call it such), or they didn't progress as a species.. and seeing as we are still in caves, I see your point.

Labeling my book fiction would be a lie. It might be a hoax, but it is still supposition. Supposition isn't necessarily fiction. It is up to the reader to make her own determination based on what is presented. Educated people will tear my inane ramblings to shreds. The uneducated will eat it and ask for seconds. They are my audience. They are the reason I write. I give them what they want. What is wrong with that?

That is a great bit from the wonderful dialog between Socrates and Meno! Very appropriate. Men sometimes do want what they know to be bad for them. Am I bad for supplying that which is bad? Perhaps. Are men bad for wanting that which is bad for them? Perhaps.

What would man do if that which was bad for him were unavailable? That is the crux of the argument, methinks. However, I don't feel we are going to find out in this instance, as this genie has been out of the bottle for far to long.

Great post. Very thought provoking.

Why shouldn't someone profit from a topic they are passionate about? Don't political reporters do the same? Or foodies? If they aren't bringing anything to the table, maybe. But the authors you cite have all made significant contributions to the cause. And... isn't it the American way???

reply to post by Mr_skepticc

reply to post by Furbs


This would make a good discussion of it's own actually.

I think we are hijacking this poor guy's thread.

Not saying that I would participate. I just happen to have some time today.

But in short, yes both S and A would say that these types of folks aren't worth the attention because they suffer from inverted values.

Take care. I know that you are no dummy. Just another misguided soul... hehe