Why do they Do It?

 

This is kind of a follow-up to this recent article, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2025/07/3iatlas-new-info.html. One of the questions often asked of me by skeptics is: "Why do you think these conspiracy theories are true when thousands of people would have to collude in order to make them work?" My answer is twofold; firstly there's a limit on numbers, which is often why they don't always work, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2016/11/conspiracy-theories-mathematically.html. However, I myself am sometimes dismayed at how high that threshold is in the instances where conspiracy theories are proven true; with the grooming gangs for example, or the hospital MRSA scandal. We've seen that the people involved employ all kinds of weird psychological fire escapes to avoid blame. "I was just doing my job!" "We'd all heard rumours, but..." etc. At the end of the day we are a social species with herding instincts and none of want to be, to quote the Japanese maxim, the nail that stands out above the rest because that's always the first one to get hammered. And for astronomers who do stand out, there are always some giant mallets ready to whack them. Prof. Avi Loeb has been attacked by somebody online who calls himself "Professor Dave" who may or may not be a real professor; but even if he is that doesn't stop him being an ignorant troll. His forty-five minute video is almost devoid of rational argument and replaces it with a tirade of mindless rhetoric, interspersed with rhetoric from "proper" scientists. Just reading the description box content is enough for you to guess what the video is like: "Avi Loeb is a Harvard astronomer turned pseudoscience-peddling fraud. Since 2017 he's been spewing horseshit about how everything is aliens when it definitely isn't, just to sell a bunch of books to credulous laypeople. Predictably, when the scientific community politely pushes back on his bullshit, he throws a toddler tantrum." Do those sound like the words of a rational person? Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nYXIeZh_bw. (Dave's judgement of Ashton Forbes is just as bad, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2024/05/mh370-portal.html.) Amazingly, skeptics will watch this and claim it "comprehensively discredits" whoever the subject of the post is. Dave castigates Avi for writing two books... as if it now a crime to write books! The reason Avi has become so respected by the general public is because we are genuinely interested in the subject matter, the prospect of life beyond our home planet. This is why his books have been so popular, not because they contain lies.

Dave also abuses Avi over an irrelevant subject, the conflict in the Holy Land, calling him a "Zionist!" Unlike most people, I don't take a partisan stance over this issue; I feel sorry for everybody on both sides caught up in this war, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2023/10/israel-war-livestream.html. What is a fact though is that on October the 7th 2023 hundreds of innocent Israelis were brutally murdered and hundreds more taken captive; some are still prisoners. As a fellow Israeli, how do you expect Avi to feel about that? If his words are so awful, what kind of sentiments do you think it is appropriate for him to express in this situation? "Professor Dave" is not the only social media small town science pundit to harangue Avi Loeb. Do you now understand why so many of Avi's colleagues just keep their heads down and nod along with the prevailing viewpoint? They don't want that kind of aggravation. If the generally accepted consensus is aliens don't exist then they don't exist and 3I/ATLAS is still a comet, even if it's a bunch of bananas. It takes a special kind of person with a lot of courage to resist conformity. It's a pity we humans are so often our own worst enemy. Who needs government agencies to keep secrets when we are so bloody eager to keep our own wayward elements in line? It reminds me of when David Icke said "We have 'out-sheeped' the sheep. We have dispensed with the sheepdog. We police each other!" Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVww2MrsHuQ. I can only hope Avi's principled stance acts as a good example for others. Here's his blog: https://avi-loeb.medium.com. Avi Loeb is not alone; there is another pioneer at large, Dr Beatriz Villarroel. She and her team have made a discovery on a similar game changing scale which I'll say more about another time; but here's an introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvv7kwtxQZ8. No doubt "Professor Dave" and his fellow internet bullies are preparing a character assassination for her too.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2025/07/interstellar-object-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html.