Hey everybody, I’m back. I’ve had a good summer because ChatGPT hasn’t taken my job (yet). Now, let’s dive into something that I found interesting over the break.

So, we’ve all heard about the aliens. I mean, “nonhuman biologics” that have supposedly been found by our government. Initially, I thought that this was just the ramblings of some disgruntled government employee, but there were actually three former military and intelligence officials that testified before Congress. 

Among other things, they claimed that, for decades, the government has been collecting crashed UFOs (I’m not calling them UAPs) to reverse-engineer and that the aforementioned “nonhuman biologics” have been recovered by our government. Obviously, the Pentagon has denied these claims, but I think it would be super badass if our military could look like the Covenant from Halo.

Given this shocking revelation of extraterrestrial visitation and the continued lack of government transparency, how do we react? With memes, of course! The whole thing was reminiscent of the “Raid Area 51” trend back in 2019. As always, the Internet did not disappoint, and I had a pretty good laugh at a lot of what was posted.

However, there was another reaction: extreme apathy, also expressed through memes. I first assumed that this was just another “Gen Z being difficult” moment, but then I started looking at why this apathy was being felt. Between the collective shrugs were people drawing attention to inflation, climate change, student loan debt, and plenty of other issues currently affecting Americans. 

“Are aliens going to fix inflation, cancel student debt, end worker exploitation, pay any of these bills, turn the temp down on this planet; and all around bring happiness to me and my friends miserable lives?” one user on X (Seriously, Elon?) wrote.

I think it’s pretty fair to say that we as a nation have gone through quite a bit in the past seven years. 

Between arguably the most tumultuous presidential election in history, the first pandemic in a century, another crazy election with an attempted coup at the end, record inflation, student loan debt and witnessing geriatric leadership, we’ve all got better things to worry about than some little green men (this post sums it up pretty well).

I don’t want to be yet another writer who thinks he’s being sly by complaining about “late-stage capitalism,” but we gotta do something, man. If the existence of aliens doesn’t phase us anymore, then we have serious problems. 

We all know what needs to be done- age limits on Congress, fix inflation, alleviate student loan debt- but whether anything will ever get done is a whole other story (maybe another article). 

The American people know what matters, and it sure as hell isn’t aliens.

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