By Cory Gaines | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Maintaining a healthy skepticism can be a challenge.
So many things these days are there to monetize your attention, and all too often the people generating the eye-catching content on social media (and sometimes in regular media) are none too picky about grabbing you without exaggerating or, sadly, making things up.
If you don’t want to be fooled or led around by the nose, you’re wise to keep your wits about you. Watch for wild claims and remember that big claims need big evidence. Take a second before reacting, open a new browser window, and then search for something you just read. Go and read the primary source material for things people insist are true.
There is a balance here, however. “Healthy” skepticism, in my mind, cuts both ways. It is balanced, no outright rejecting things out of hand, and not outright believing. It is reserving judgement until you learn more. Healthy skepticism is saying “I’m not sure yet”.
I was thinking about that earlier this week when reading about the drones sniffing around the East Coast. Apparently, there have been sightings up and down the coast and for weeks now. It’s raised enough of a stink that by now the Feds have begun to get involved (at least openly).
Out here on the Eastern Plains, we had our own rash of drone sightings. Back in 2019-20 a series of reports/rumors started to filter in from places in Northeastern Colorado and Southwest Nebraska about drones out and about, flying in groups and often at night (just like some of the sightings on the East Coast). These drones didn’t garner as much national attention — corn fields being overflown is not as juicy a story as population centers or military bases being overflown — but the Feds and local law enforcement got involved out here, too.
After a couple months or so, the fuss blew over. People stopped reporting drones and, without anything solid to hold up at a press conference, the state and federal authorities eventually moved on. If there was any follow up, any further pursuit of the matter, I’m unaware of it. The feeling many had was that the local and federal authorities walked off saying “nothing to see here”.
But the earlier sightings out here and the new ones on the East Coast still leave us with the question of what’s going on. Right now, and for both, I don’t think anyone really has a good answer. Having more than a few years under my belt, my intuition tells me it’s a variety of things: actual drones, imagined drones, copycats, pranks like with crop circles, etc.
More to the point, however, is not just what they are, but how we (as people and as a society) respond to them.
Immediately jumping to the conclusion that we’re being invaded (either from another country or … perhaps another planet?) is just as bad as dismissing it and walking off. On the one hand we risk overreacting, on the other we risk ignoring something that we might well be better prepared for next time.
What if the drone flights out here on the Eastern Plains were a group of people who thought it the merriest of fun to stir up locals and get news coverage? Dismissing what happened here, not fully investigating it and running it to ground, could result in their being emboldened. It could result in a wholly different group of people along the East Coast being inspired to follow suit.
I hope that the national coverage of the drone flights along the East Coast means more attention paid to the matter and thus more resources and will to seek answers. We should have better, a more complete and definitive answer than the “nothing to see here” from the Eastern Plains. I also hope that another appearance of drones gives those of us (like myself) a reminder to walk the fine line between reflexive disbelief and reflexive belief.
Follow more of Cory Gaines’ work at the Colorado Accountability Project.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.