Reports of mysterious drones over New Jersey started on November 18. It wasn’t long before other residents from multiple states claimed to have witnessed similar events. The Department of Homeland Security, FBI, FAA and Defense Department have since received more than 5,000 drone sighting reports in the past few weeks alone. But they say only about two percent of events may warrant further investigation. And although not mentioned on their December 16th joint statementthe sightings have absolutely nothing to do with a conspiracy theory called Project Blue Beam that has resurfaced online.
According to Monday’s press release, an expert analysis of “technical data and tips from concerned citizens” has already led to the vast majority of sightings being attributed to “legal commercial drones, hobby drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned aircraft with fixed wings. , helicopters and stars incorrectly reported as drones.” Authorities added that they have yet to identify “anything abnormal,” and they do not believe the events pose national or public security risks.
The recent wave of allegedly unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles began last year after New Jersey residents reported multiple drones flying over the state. Similar sightings have now been documented almost nightly in New York, Ohio and elsewhere, prompting calls from both sides for an immediate investigation into the matter. Some state politicians and governors have even claimed that the drones could pose a threat to national security, while New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew even went so far as to claim that the machines are controlled by one Iranian ‘mothership’ for the east coast. (They’re not.)
Similar in Netcong NJ pic.twitter.com/h78D4U4kj9
— Joanne Cuomo (@JoanneCuomo) December 16, 2024
If history is any guide, the explanation behind the sudden increase in sightings may be something much more mundane. If 404 Media As explained on December 12, a nearly identical situation occurred across Colorado in the winter of 2019-2020. The events were largely paved to Starlink satellite constellations, low-flying aircraft, hobbyists and, ironically, remotely piloted devices deployed by law enforcement to investigate the original reports.
Aerial observations of ‘mass hysteria’ date back further than the last century UFO panic from the forties and fifties, or even the famous one by Orson Welles War of the Worlds panic during radio broadcasts in 1938. For example, in the late 19th century, thousands of Americans claimed to have seen a huge “cigar-shaped” airship soaring through the sky in what eventually became the “Big airship wave” from 1896-1897. It doesn’t matter that the technological capabilities of that era prevented the existence of something of that magnitude.
Modernity has not reduced the sensitivity of some people to such influences. An internet flooded with misinformation from bad actors and uninformed influencers can only make the situation worse. One prominent right-wing columnist was fired earlier Buzzfeed because there is plagiarism claimed without evidence the US secretly uses experimental drones to locate a missing nuclear weapon or radioactive waste. Joe Rogan meanwhile also recently repeated the theories on his popular podcast.
And then there is Project Blue Beam. Project Blue Beam, first published in 1994 by Canadian conspiracy theorist Serge Monast, falsely claims that an international cabal is planning a mock alien invasion. Once deployed, the evil government of the New World Order will use it to help replace the world’s Abrahamic religions with a totalitarian, New Age belief system. A favorite theory of former InfoWars figurehead Alex Jones: the latest drone sightings prompted at least one prominent Trump ally to reviving the baseless conspiracy claim on social media.
It may be relatively unexciting, but there is no evidence to support the connection between the holiday drone sightings and nuclear cover-ups, staged alien invasions, Iran, or anything else nefarious. If anything, the reports indicate that the public’s continued fear of drones is simply a reflection of a long-standing American tradition of mass panic.
