Thread by @DouthatNYT

Both this @dandrezner piece on UFOs and the puckish IR paper he quotes have applicability beyond the UFO question:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…

In particular the point (from the paper) that “considerable work goes into ignoring UFOs, constituting them as objects only of ridicule and scorn” describes how modern secular discourse deals with a lot of features of reality that do not fit its immanent-materialist frame.

It shouldn't take DoD evidence to recognize that UFO encounters are obviously real in the sense of "not simply fabricated, and corresponding to some actual thing-that-exists," even if that actual thing is not necessarily (and imho probably isn't) extraterrestrial life.

Likewise w/many experiences coded as "paranormal" + "supernatural." There's a wide realm of experiences secular discourse "constitutes" as ludicrous or silly or made-up, even though if you spend time reading or have the experience yourself, they're obviously none of those.

As w/ UFOs + ET, they might not be what they appear to be: Possession might not be devils, near-death experiences might not be the afterlife, etc. But they are dramatic human experiences that are ignored/under-covered/dismissed in elite discourse bc they challenge immanent frame.

Here's an old column of mine on these features of existence:
nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opi…

And here's my column on the continuities between the UFO literature and the older literature of faerie:
nytimes.com/2017/12/23/opi…