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Comment by Nathanael_M | Hacker News Reader

They're probably just balloons. However, this is someone directly saying that they aren't sure they're just balloons. They're obviously very different from the first balloon.

Things can exist in the technologically fascinating middle ground between completely boring and aluminum foil hat alien invasion. If governments are investing into developing stealth balloons then I guarantee there is fascinating technology that we don't know about that I am excited to know more about. This is an ideal place to discuss it.

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Or it's clickbait.

Journalist: "Can you prove beyond all doubt the moon isn't made of cheese? Have you confirmed it firsthand? Have you stood on the moon and tried to take a bite of it yourself?"

General: "What??? Uh, I haven't been to the moon, so I guess I'd have to answer no."

Journalist: "Moon made of cheese? Senior U.S. general says not ruling out anything yet"

The difference is in how sure the officials are about what they can rule out. That's what's very different here.

'We're not sure what it might be', is very different from the usual 'No comment' that we'd been so accustomed to.

You'd wonder whether that's because of:

A: Misdirection B: Genuine uncertainty C: A new policy with which to address social media

But you know, just the need to shoot something down, disclose that fact publicly, but not reveal exactly what it is (even if it is just a terrestrial source), is pretty freaky.

How about if the headline ends with a question mark, or begins with a click bait phrase like "It could be" or "We may have just witnessed", or says something about what someone is "unable to confirm", and is in any way shape or form related to aliens, we just assume it's a soap opera and let the folks that specialize in that, like cnn or whatever, handle it?

If cnn says something like "Pentagon has officially confirmed aliens are here." or "Pentagon has officially confirmed China has new stealth tech." then we can take a look.

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