Vermont Conversation: Garrett Graff on UFOs, conspiracy theories, and the fate of civilization

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Are we alone?

The question of whether human beings on Earth are the only intelligent life forms has long inspired scientists and philosophers. It has also animated generations of conspiracy theorists who believe that the U.S. government has been engaged in a decadeslong coverup about extraterrestrial intelligence and unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.

Bestselling Vermont author and historian Garrett Graff has a new book that attempts to settle long swirling questions and conspiracies. “UFO: TheInside Story of the U.S. Government’s Search for Alien Life Here — and Out There,” traces the origins of UFO conspiracy theories and takes a serious look at what scientists and the government does — and does not — know.

Graff, a Burlington resident, has spent nearly two decades covering politics, technology and national security. He’s the former editor of Politico and a contributor to Wired and CNN. Graff’s previous books include “Watergate: A New History,” which was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist, “The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11,” and “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“The story of the hunt for ‘them’ is mostly actually a story about us,” Graff writes about the search for extraterrestrial life in “UFO.”

Graff conceded that some UFO conspiracies have a basis in fact. “The landscape of UFO history is littered with actual government cover-ups,” he told The Vermont Conversation. “Some cloak of this secrecy is just the government’s own projects” such as drones and new aircraft.

“I don’t really see any meaningful evidence that the government is knowingly covering up that type of conspiracy” about aliens and other life. “The government is actually covering up its own ignorance, that it doesn’t know what these UFOs and UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomenon) actually are.”

Graff connected the vibrant UFO conspiracy movement with current politics. “UFO conspiracies in the ‘80s and ‘90s ended up inspiring the first arrival of the deep state in our political discourse. And from there, there is a much more direct line to our modern politics than I think most people realize. I don’t think you get January 6 without the foundation of these dark UFO conspiracies in the 1990s.”

Graff said that “the rise of the corrupting influence of myths and disinformation” spread by figures such as Alex Jones and Donald Trump is an ominous portent.

“My concern about Donald Trump is that he is really bad for the longevity of human civilization … His reelection is not just a grave threat to American democracy and system of a functioning constitution and three branches of government as we know it.” Graff is concerned about “what he would do to the larger civilizational challenges that we have to confront right now, from climate change, to misinformation, to disinformation, to the rise of AI.”

“We have a lot of questions that we as a species and as a country need to get right right now,” Graff concluded. “And Donald Trump is the wrong answer to all of them.”