this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 33 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Obama clarified his comments on Instagram:

I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!

What's crazy is that Trump would never say anything even half as intelligent as that.

[–] itisileclerk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Maybe because he is not half as intelligent as Obama nor has he received half the parenting.

[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

The ET aliens aren't real, but the ancient human seed aliens and woo aliens are.

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 67 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (11 children)

I’ve said it before, but Trump as president basically rules out the existence of aliens on Earth. That fat fuck could not keep his mouth shut if he knew about aliens.

I have been rewatching the x-files, and the most fantastical part of the show is the idea that the FBI could orchestrate an alien conspiracy. Kash Patel couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, let alone hide aliens from the world.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

“Mr President, there are aliens…”

“Yes, I know, that’s why we’re building the fence. It’s going to be fhe best, tallest fence anyone’s seen in the history of fences. And Mexico is going to pay for it!”

“… sigh…”

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago

It would be really funny if this was Obama messing with Trump. "Why has nobody told ME! What else does Obama know that I don't?". I can easily imagine Trump being unnerved by this

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That fat fuck could not keep his mouth shut if he knew about aliens.

We're assuming that if the conspiracy has any truth to it, that it's something that the government broadly has a unified front on and are willing to share and report data with each other and report it upwards.

I think the last several years should have taught us that it's more than plausible with the size, scale and complexity of the US government, intelligence agencies, the thousands of huge subcontractors and other "grey" organizations, that some agencies or entities could have knowledge of things that the rest do not.

I don't have an opinion on "aliens" or if there's a crashed saucer cover-up, there's been too much disinformation and BS for me to have a take one way or another, but I firmly believe they are hiding shit that no sane person would share with the president if they wanted to keep it secret, not everyone is like the average American and most people with years of training and professionalism would look at Trump and know at first glance he's an impotent clown and a con-man, most people in highest levels of defense and government broadly are just waiting for him to pass.

[–] YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I never bought into the"Gov't is hiding aliens" as in spaceships and little green men per se. I figure there's some highly secret advanced intelligence gathering that won't see the light of day for another 30 or 40 years that has caught stuff that can't be explained yet.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Then there's the time when trump showed pictures to confirm intel at a press conference and it basically confirmed that the US had spy satellites that had highly advanced resolution cameras. So if the US said "Hey, we detected this, but we don't know wtf it is.", every intelligence agency would immediately ask themselves: how did the US detect that, how do we protect ourselves from it, and can we also do that.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Lets also not forget that since we've allowed capital to infiltrate the very foundations of intelligence and military, we now have several thousand competing companies and contractors each with their own agendas, their own secret testing programs, their own proprietary tech they won't dare let other companies get wind of, and so on. The US's relationship with secret tech didn't start and end with Skunkworks, that's just what got the most attention back in the day. So when the US government says "We saw a thing we can't explain" and are 100% honest when they say it, that still doesn't mean it's not a US government product being tested, it's just that they don't know about it yet.

I also fully believe as our sensory extensions expand, as we send up more satellites, install more cameras all over the place, create more observation systems, we're absolutely going to see more and more things we can't explain, and likely will never be able to explain, because the universe is fucking crazy.

Our fixation that things we can't explain must be ghosts or aliens from other planets says more about our limited capacities and biases than anything.

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

I’m more concerned about the pedofiles in government

[–] grue@lemmy.world 114 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (26 children)

It is statistically impossible for life to exist on exactly one planet in the universe. Earth just isn't that fucking special!


Edit:

A statistical impossibility is a probability that is so low as to not be worthy of mentioning. Sometimes it is quoted as 10^−50^ although the cutoff is inherently arbitrary. Although not truly impossible the probability is low enough so as to not bear mention in a rational, reasonable argument.

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2049714/can-something-be-statistically-impossible#2049722

If I'm wrong about the definition, at least I'm not wrong alone.

[–] lauha@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Life is certain to exist, but multicellular life is less likely and intelligent multicellular who reaches for the stars is even less likely

[–] grue@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Who said anything about multicellularity, intelligence, or space travel?

Point is, Obama's answer was vacuously true, and the only answer a non-idiot could reasonably could have given.

...Okay, I admit he could have quoted Contact for extra style points:

"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."

But aside from that, the answer he gave was the only one he could reasonably have given.

[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

Arthur C. Clarke

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

Okay wait, listen to yourself. You expected Obama to give a reasonable answer, and of course he did. Gosh, wasn't that nice? You might agree or disagree with his choices and priorities, but even his worst policies had SOME sort of reason behind them. And were stated in complete grammatical sentences that stayed in topic.

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[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Yah, but it's also statistically more likely that we have missed crossing paths with them or even seeing their signs by millions of light years, as well as millions of years of history.

Entire empires could have risen to galactic power and ruled vast portions of the galaxy and finally splintered, evolved or gone extinct in just the million years before humans invented stone tools. Or some thousands of years during the Devonian period or something. Or the nearest planet with life is still just boneless fish and will need a hundred million more years to develop radio.

We're not only a microscopic dot in space, we're also a microscopic dot in time. And our ability to even look out into space and detect anything is a tiny shaving of time off that dot.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You mean an entire empire could have existed a long time ago in a galaxy far far away?

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

If the universe is infinite in size, then statistically there are an infinite number of empires in far away galaxies. Not sure about the FTL drives though.

[–] SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As far as the history of the universe is concerned we are actually super early on in its lifespan. So in some ways it's actually more likely that we will be one of the early civilizations that perish before the others show up.

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[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Earth is special. More special than most of the other planets that exist. But it's not the only special one.

[–] Karjalan@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

More special than ones we've detected, but our detection methods have a very biased available dataset.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (4 children)

If we presume a functionally infinite universe sure life pretty much has to exist in multiple spots. That's a big presumption by itself though.

After that, is said civilization on some dinosaur shit? Are they so far beyond us we look like cavemen in comparison? Are they looking around the universe and just missed us? Do we want them to find us? Historically humanity finds less advanced groups and kills, enslaves, or just robs them blind. No reason to think the alien conquistadors would be better then the Spanish ones.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Nobody expects the Glorgon inquisition.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

However, in the universe's life of billions of years, many civilizations may have risen and fallen, just not at the same time. Maybe life is such a rare confluence of events, that it only springs up occasionally, and never at the same time.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Again, who said anything about "civilization?" Even just on Earth, life has existed for 4 billion years. That's 4 billion of the 14 billion years the universe as a whole has existed, or 28% of the time, which I wouldn't call "rare" at all!

Life on Earth started damn near immediately (in geologic terms) as soon as the crust cooled enough to not ~~set it on fire~~ cook its proteins (it wouldn't have caught fire because the atmosphere didn't have oxygen yet). Does that sound "rare" to you?

[–] Klear@quokk.au 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Life on Earth started damn near immediately (in geologic terms) as soon as the crust cooled enough to not set it on fire cook its proteins (it wouldn’t have caught fire because the atmosphere didn’t have oxygen yet). Does that sound “rare” to you?

Sounds well done to me.

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[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

You're substituting "statistically impossible" for "emotionally impossible."

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[–] dhork@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It's quite simple. If the US had evidence that aliens existed, do you think Donald Trump would gave kept it a secret? He would make a big show of insisting to be the guy who they talk to when they say "Take me to your leader", and he wouldn't be able to resist telling us all about it.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 9 points 2 days ago

It’s also possible they never told him. I can imagine more secretive and/or shady government agencies only provide info on a need-to-know basis even to the executive level.

[–] WesternInfidels@feddit.online 9 points 3 days ago

You could get him to keep the secret forever: "Mr. President, it's my duty to inform you that space aliens are real. But they only want to talk to Obama."

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don't know about aliens or whatnot, but I don't believe for a moment that people with actual secrets and important information, along with years or decades of intelligence experience and training, would look at Donald Fucking Trump and say "Damn, it's too bad I have to share this highly-secret information with this guy, but I guess I have to."

Hell no, this is still the liberal mindset that there are "rules" that governments need to follow. We should know well by now that there are no rules, that the government of the US is built largely on lies and image, compartmentalized knowledge, and that nobody with actual power suffers consequences for breaking whatever rules they were supposed to have.

[–] mayabuttreeks@lemmy.ca 56 points 3 days ago

OK sure "they're real" but said in a tongue-in-cheek manner and no follow-up from the 'journalist', LOL... Right on cue, another nothingburger that will keep the Art-Bell-Coast-to-Coast crowd occupied for another few decades while the billionaire class continues to build their empires.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

RFK jr is one, his worms are controlling his meat suit. several notable non humans: the android zuckerborg with no human emotion, the BEZO that pretends to laugh at inappropiate situations to mimick human emotions, and the elon bot, who is in a constant state of ketamine induced paranoia.

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So that’s why stargate is getting traction again?

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

make sense since BEZOS went into space and came down again.

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[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 days ago
[–] riskable@programming.dev 12 points 2 days ago

If extraterrestrial, sapient alien life has been discovered here on Earth by the US government it was probably uncovered via signals intelligence gathering. Not via any sort of physical interaction or visual observation.

Everyone thinks that to find aliens you need to search the skies, looking for visual evidence or radio patterns. No one bothers to think that a mass surveillance network across the globe would pick it up first—from local sources. Meaning: They're already here and could have been for hundreds of thousands of years (or longer).

There's probably an autonomous alien monitoring station broadcasting information about Earth on the regular. Probably more than one.

Exactly the type of thing that would be investigated by signals intelligence analysts who spend their days trying to figure out, "WTF was that?" Looking at data gathered from all over the world (for spying reasons).

That's why Obama would laugh at the question of, "where are the aliens?" Because he wouldn't know! He'd just know that they're here... Somewhere. Probably just super advanced machines, connected to a quantum-level universe-wide network.

The real question to ask is, "are they enjoying our memes?"

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I watched Pedophile Pam having her Karen-Thon in the House and if there was ever evidence for the conspiracy theory about reptilians, she looks like a textbook case...in some of her tantrums, I thought she might suddenly wriggle out of her snakeskin...

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I think his comment was really just him acknowledging UAPs and referring to them generically as “aliens”. That’s why he’s never “seen” them. He can’t confirm or deny little green men in these weird flying craft so his answer is he believes but he has not actually seen one.

Or he was just being cheeky for a fun clip. 🤷‍♂️

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

That's exactly what someone would say who has knowledge of aliens being kept in area 51

[–] morriscox@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

There's always a first civilization. Maybe that's us.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Does alien life exist somewhere? Yes. Absolutely. It would be impossible for it not to given the size of the universe and the laws of probability.

Is that alien life multicellular? Again. Yes. For the same reason as above. In a functionally infinite universe, the roll of the dice is going to come up at least a few times.

Is that alien life intelligent? Maybe. But in my opinion, probably. Intelligent life arose here after many many stops and starts. It's probably that given enough kicks at the can, multicellular life can evolve intelligence on any planet where it arises if the conditions are right.

Has that intelligent life visited us? No. No intelligent life has ever left their own solar system except possibly in the form or a one-way generation ship.

Life evolves, either biologically or technologically, because of competition for resources. From the most basic amoeba competing for the heat from a steam vent at the bottom of an ocean, to humans competing for oil and minerals, life is about resources gathering.

So what happens when we finally are able to access the resources of the solar system, which are effectively limitless (at least from a human perspective)? Nothing. We stagnate. There's no impetus to go further than that. Scientists may want to. But pure science is a myth. People paying the bills are what drive us forward. and it's reasonable to assume that any life that evolves would do so facing the same pressures.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Intelligent life arose here

Citation needed.

I mean, dolphins are pretty smart, I suppose...

People, though..? Evidence points to a very definite no.

The fact that we call ourselves “wise” is the first hint that we're anything but.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

We had asked every living organism to vote for what the smartest species is, and the vast majority were for humans.

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