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The article is claiming that many people on the internet did not seem astonished once hearing news about alien existence being a serious possibility.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/ufo-hearing-online-reactions-twitter-tiktok-rcna96664

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by Novice (640 points)
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My understanding of this situation make it a complex one to look at, and there could be several reasons behind that. For one though, it is clearly a misunderstanding that the Government said that aliens were real, in fact the Defense Department specifically is cited in the article to have said aliens are not necessarily real just due to UAPs (UFOs) existing. It is clear, however, that this was not a very widely discussed topic or hearing. I believe that the reason that this news wasn't more widely reacted to is because in an age of online media, claims such as this about aliens have lost their wonder without easily accessible and understandable evidence. These claims have long been made, and hold less and less weight the more baseless attempts to claim aliens are real and have been discovered are made. At the bottom of this paragraph will be an article from 2022 linked discussing this issue. Digital media is also read with more caution now than ever with the abundance of misinformation, and people are less likely to immediately believe even the most alarming headlines than ever. I also will link an article discussing this.

https://www.space.com/ufos-101-hype-uproar-disinformation-mystery

https://news.gallup.com/poll/651977/americans-trust-media-remains-trend-low.aspx

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by Apprentice (1.7k points)
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I love how into detail you got about this claim and how clear you were to explain the situation regarding peoples general feelings towards alien existence. You also did good at explaining the information and discussions that you found about how Americans intake media. Maybe next time link the defense department source that talks about aliens being real to make this answer a little stronger.

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