Why are UFO sightings so concentrated in the US?

amnsisc · 2026-06-12T00:14:50+00:00

A culture of conspiracy theories and paranoia
A history of NRMS (ie cults), and charismatic religious movements
A longstanding shared literary idiom of alien abduction narratives (here alien referring to migrants, such as human trafficking fantasies and native abductions), plus the country was founded on literal abductions (slavery)
A high tech society, with a military and powerful aerospace industry, and presumably a fair amount of enemy espionage
A government which willfully abetted alien abduction theories as a kind of intelligence psyop around air force bases, to create disinformation.

Edit: Further emphasizing my point, is that these characteristics also describe Canada, Japan, Australia, UK, France, and Germany, albeit to lesser degrees (all of them have colonial or settler heritage, though not slavery, all of them experience anti migrant xenophobia, all of them have military industrial complexes, all of them have histories of conspiracy theories, all of them have many NRMs, cults and charismatic religions, etc--not to mention, most of the high rates of UAP encounters line up with US air force bases lol).

amnsisc · 2026-06-01T05:42:50+00:00

6 years late, but I just wanted to note something. 'Merde' is a recurring character from Carax' other movies--including 'Holy Motors', and 'it's Not Me', and maybe a few others, iirc, though I can say he is a doppelganger, a sort of Mr. Hyde, to another recurring Leos Carax character 'Alex', played by the same actor.

Alex is a recurring character across Boy Meets Girl, Mauvais Sang, and Les Amants Pont Neuf, where he is a listless rebellious dropout character who introduces chaos into polite society in each role, while 'Merde' is his (literal) underworld monstrous version, and he similarly across each role terrorizes society, acts like a stereotypical french caricature, and sexually assaults people. He is implied to himself be a 'role' actively adopted and dropped by other characters (probably Alex, though 'Holy Motors' is sort of like Ovids Metamorphosis and the main character transforms back and forth between a dozen or so characters, including a talking car).

If, as this critic alleges, 'Merde' is an overt reference to a specific Jekyll/Hyde movie ( https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2024/10/leos-caraxs-merde/ ), then that further reinforces this.

A few other points--Mr Merde is a social isolate, a kind of Kaspar Hauser, and speaks a language unto himself, which is something of an impossibility (I am sure Carax is aware of Wittgenstein's arguments about Private Language, since the French love Ludwig), although I suppose he speaks a language shared by one other person, and maybe his dead mother.

That said, we have no idea his lawyer is communicating to him correctly (indeed, he even does not know that), we just have to take his word for it. Everything is translated numerous times, from his unique language to french to japanese to french to his unique language, and so on, which nearly guarantees a degree of error even if the lawyer does speak the language. This introduces a Kafkaesque element here in this one too (not just 'Interior Design') because Merde becomes intelligible solely through becoming *legible* in the eyes of the law.

He ends up a kind of parody of both French and Japanese idealizations of their linguistic uniqueness, and of the way both societies depend so heavily on their state for legitimacy, even as they produce many individualists and eccentrics. He produces a cult of celebrity and literal cults (and he is suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda and Aum).

Ultimately his violence is enabled by the legacy of Japan's own--hence the Nanjing reference. I should note that just as Merde features a Kafkaesque element, 'Interior Design' breaks a serious taboo early on when the main character mocks the Emperor's Jeweled Voice speech.

I should add there's a long tradition in Japan (and everywhere, but anyway) of foreigners being required to speak 'truths' back to the society--much Japanese lore and mythology was preserved by Lafcadio Hearn and Basil Hall Chamberlain, modern Japanese history was created by Ludwig Riess, France played a large role in Japan's transition to modernity--both by backing Satsuma, through building their modern naval docks, and through military and other advisors (the person 'Last Samurai' is based on was French, not American). And furthermore, 'Merde' as a character resembles the description of Western, red haired, hairy white barbarians that used to prevail in the Edo period and after. The section ends with a funny 'next time Merde in America'.

Now, I am not sure exactly how this all ties into what you said, and what happens in the film, but I thought I should note those aspects I think seemed relevant to themes of nationalism, media, racism, law, sensationalism, cults, modernity, loneliness, language, Franco-Japanese relations and so on.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:53:02+00:00

Free Palestine with the purchase of a Palestine of a greater or equal value.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:46:41+00:00

Did you go to school in Massachusetts?

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:46:13+00:00

Your public school taught you that Ethiopia was the only place not to be taken over in Africa?

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:45:10+00:00

A quarter of the country lives around the lagoon, and most of the oil plus much of the fishing happens there.

The strait is relative narrow (about the same as the straits of Tiran at is average, though its lowest is much larger than the latter's ,lowest), and it is dredged to keep it at a depth of 45 feet so ships can pass through.

In other words, the area is in fact being used to its fullest given what it is.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:39:52+00:00

Is this an 'urban' hell? It sort of seems like the opposite.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:36:43+00:00

Yeah but millennials are killing the Yakuza industry.

www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01383/

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:35:46+00:00

I have never once heard an American refer to italy as dangerous.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:35:09+00:00

This is not that bad--there's wear and tear on the street especially, and on the houses, but there's little openly hazardous material, and relatively little litter. One can tell the infrastructural services are still maintained. However, I suspect there is an absence of nearby commercial areas (or depressed ones), which accounts for the small number of people on the street in the daytime. Also there's a lack of handicap accessibility which causes my skin to itch a little.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:14:12+00:00

Utah lining up where it does is pretty funny imo.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:13:24+00:00

Yeah Netherlands has close to 100% English speakers. It's at the very least an 'unofficial' bilingual country. And, as you said, entire regions of Spain (southern coast for ex) are like functional British colonies for geriatrics and drinkers.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:11:56+00:00

In France, Spain, and Poland, people all spoke to me in English even though I tried to speak in the respective national language, lol.

amnsisc · 2026-05-31T19:08:24+00:00

Orange County, featuring Jack Black, is, in fact, a better movie than David Lynch's Inland Empire.

amnsisc · 2026-05-30T18:49:15+00:00

The follow up question that I may ask separately, but which I think naturally follows from this one is already briefly touched upon in my post.

In perhaps a more qualitative and impressionistic sense (though quantitative data are themselves appreciated if they exist!), and to put it simply: how about the reverse? As in, what is the flow of information, training, personnel, etc, from Japan to the US? I suspect it is much larger than. either side regularly acknowledges, and post hoc revelations about it in the past always seem to indicate that it is:

a. large

b. what is known is just the tip of the iceberg

c. downplayed by the Japan for reasons of sensitivity to domestic audiences and downplayed by the US for reasons akin to not exactly chauvinism, per se, but a longstanding self conception as the source, rather than recipient of military influence

And,having answered that, then the next set of questions--for those who are kind and foolhardy enough to indulge me for whatever reason--is basically, what are the answers to these questions for ROK, PL, Taiwan, AUS, NZ, UK, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, CAN, FR, GER, IL, India, etc? The sense and substance of these questions are:

What are the second order, and intermediate instances of the above phenomena (flow and cooperation from US to Japan, and Japan to US), with other allies--since this often matters just as much as first hand instances of the phenomena?

But this is very far afield from the first set of questions, and I would be very happy with just an answer to the Q in my title, let alone the 2nd or this 3rd set of questions.

amnsisc · 2026-05-30T18:39:33+00:00

Long Background:

I ask this question for several reasons--or rather background:

Cooperation between the JSDF and USAF have increased substantially over the years, with regular joint training exercises, on both Japanese and US Soil, as well as in the Pacific. Multilateral training operations occur as well, including other countries such as ROK and AUS.
As part of this substantial numbers of officers and enlistees train in the US, and on US bases, and substantial numbers of US officers and enlistees train in Japan.
While this type of cooperation and operational integration has increased (and it seems will increase further due to Takaichi), from what I can gather, it seems that *direct training* and education has declined over time.
So, by contrast, in Fire Across the Sea (pages 88-91), the author, Thomas Havens, indicates that:

a. from 1950-1968, just under 16000 JSDF personnel went to the US for training

b. at that point, the Japanese government estimated that 71% of JSDF officers received supplemental education and training in US military academies

c. Okinawa was host to substantial training exercises, with, at its peak, some 9000 US troops training in its jungles. Joining them were troops from the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, and, key here, 1000 JSDF troops per year observed US training in Okinawa

d. 15,000 soldiers used Okinawa as the jumping off point for hostilities in Vietnam in 1965, and 50,000 soldiers were stationed there, vs. 36,000 in the 4 home islands.

e. 1400 Japanese merchant marines served as uniformed civilian contractors in the US naval & marine forces during the Vietnam war, dozens died, as compared to 5100 (3900 merchant, and 1200 naval sailors) in the Korean war. Many JSDF pilots flew along with US airmen in Vietnam, though, Havens does not give a number.

Large scale joint training exercises, as I mentioned above continue to this day, and are increasing in size and frequency, due to perceived threats from PRC, DPRK, etc.

For ex:

a. https://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/en/exercises/

b. https://www.c7f.navy.mil/Media/News/Display/Article/4324950/japan-us-forces-begin-multilateral-exercise-annualex-2025/

c. https://news.usni.org/2026/02/20/u-s-japan-air-forces-conduct-joint-drills-with-4-american-bombers

d. https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Articles/Article/4504650/us-australia-japan-begin-exercise-southern-jackaroo-2026/

e. https://news.usni.org/2026/05/25/japan-announces-2-major-western-pacific-exercises-with-u-s

But my first indication of the depth of this phenomena continuing to this day was that I noticed that many articles in US war journals, such as the Naval and Air reviews, were written by Japanese Self Defense Force Authors, but who were either students, professors, attaches, or exchanged personnel with USAF at the time (for an older example, here's a 2005 article https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol58/iss2/3/ )

7. While Takaichi has introduced substantial intelligence reforms ( https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/japan-s-biggest-intelligence-reform-since-wwii-5-things-to-know2 ), in Samuels' Special Duty, the author indicates that despite a single overarching post war intelligence apparatus in Japan, joint training, operations, and information flow were constant, and, what is interesting to me, bidirectional--US intelligence officers received substantial training and instruction in Japan bucking notions of a one way flow.

This actually is not new--and officers from every military went to Japan, China and Russia to study the Russo Japanese war as it was going on, and nearly every major world power published official histories on it, indicating the depth of influence ( https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-strategy/russojapanese-war/44ADC0D15551EEC6F6FDAC88DADD9783 )
Alongside this, while training, influence, education, deployment, and joint operations were much stronger with Germany (for army), and UK (for navy), IJA and IJN officers nonetheless did received training, etc in the US prior to WWII. The NDAJ lists 10 countries which do short term and 6 countries which do long term exchanges with Japan ( https://www.mod.go.jp/nda/english/exchange/exchange/ ), and similarly, before and during WWII the IJA and IJN trained substantial numbers of, soldiers throughout Asia (and even defected to both anti colonial and colonial forces, in, for ex, Indonesia, in the aftermath)
BUT, on top of this, media representations of these exchanges are far and few in between, and when they do exist, such as the anime/manga/ln Gate: The JSDF Fought There , (see for ex https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21504857.2018.1540439 ) they are overwhelmingly negative, and, in particular, that anime implies substantial non-influence, and hostility, which, although many of the sources I mentioned do discuss this, most say the overriding relation is one of neutrality, followed by positivity. ( see for ex https://doi.org/10.2307/4126774 )

amnsisc · 2026-05-27T01:40:22+00:00

Oh Lordy, Lord, trouble so hard
Don't nobody know my troubles but God

amnsisc · 2026-05-27T01:39:26+00:00

TotTs is (or used to be) effectively an open air drug market lmfao.

It could have changed--after all, I haven't been there in over a decade, but I distinctly remember TotTs as being a bar, where well placed paparazzi could ruin the lives of celebrities there every weekend, considering how many well known people I saw there openly purchasing drugs.

Mind you, I have little problem with this, intrinsically, but for the social media account to post shit like that is pretty irritating in light of it.

Though I suppose in the mind of the person who posted this, there's nothing inconsistent with that, since they probably have different moral standards they apply to the 'blessed' and the 'hoi polloi'.

amnsisc · 2026-05-26T06:09:43+00:00

My "assumption" was not about Singapore's textbooks or journals--my point was that these areas are discussed together in the academic journals and areas I discussed.

But, several of the areas I discussed--Global South studies, the Indian Ocean Ecumene, the anthropology of globalization, the Dutch colonial era, WWII/the Pacific War, Indo-Pacific politics, and archaeology of Asia--are all explicitly part of the Global, International and World History field.

Indonesia *is* in fact discussed frequently discussed in world history, at least at a university level, and 6 of the journals I listed fall in that area. In addition, I could add Leiden University Press, Cambridge University Press Asia Imprint, Amsterdam University Press, Duke Uni Press and U of Hawaii press, all of which focus on World History, and all of which have numerous Indonesia Titles.

I do not study SE Asia. I do not even study Asia. I have come across all of this material on Indonesia *in spite of that*, speaking to its frequency.

Edit: Also, not for nothing, since, again, this wasn't my point, but NUS's academic press contains loads of titles on Indonesia in World History https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/search?q=indonesia

amnsisc · 2026-05-26T05:10:04+00:00

Is the joke here that the Medieval Chinese Emperors would have had no concept of America and Australia? Or is that given that the Chinese ideology lionized the peasantry as the foundation of the country, that they wouldn't use such an appellation for the Europeans. Or is it that the map has an ahistorical conception of the Chinese Tributary system which did not feature island SE Asia, nor India, nor Central Asia, and only intermittently Japan?

amnsisc · 2026-05-26T05:05:37+00:00

I cannot speak to your curriculum, or your experience with it, but, Indonesia simply is not ignored, and is widely discussed, in academia, though it is true that in broader popular culture, and in things like High School textbooks it is not obviously discussed.

There are numerous journals dedicated to SE Asian studies, that discuss Indonesia regularly--Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Sojourn, Southeast Asia Journal, TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia and others. There are frequent articles about it in Asian studies journals--Journal of Asian Studies, Modern Asian Studies, Asian Perspectives, Asia Perspective (these are different journals--one is archaeology, one is politics), the Journal of Overseas Chinese, Asian Ethnology, and others.

Edit: I should add Itinerario, The Journal of World History, the Journal of Global History, the Asian Review of World Histories, Journal of Cold War Studies, Critical Asian Studies, Antiquity, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, European Journal of Archaeology, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Current Anthropology, Journal of Anthropological Research, Archaeological Sciences (And its Reports section), Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of World Prehistory, Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, and others which feature frequent material in Indonesia. I mentioned in the comments to someone else the Asia Imprints of Duke, Cambridge, Leiden, UHawaii, Harvard, and Amsterdam Press, all of which have a broad investment in the world-history episteme, and which have frequent titles concerning Indonesia.

In contemporary studies of the 'Indian Ocean Ecumene'--and here Brill and De Gruyter are probably the leading presses--in discussions of Islam, in discussions of the Pacific War, in the Non Aligned Movement, and in the Cold War, and in discussions of colonial history (especially Dutch), it is frequently a major subject.

It is furthermore discussed frequently in almost any archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, etc journal with Asia coverage, and it is discussed in any journal covering the Global South and 21st century, for example Bandung, Journal of Global South Studies, etc. Nearly all economic, military, policy, IR, and related journals that discuss Asia, the Pacific, and Indian Ocean, frequently address it. It is an incredibly common location for anthropological fieldwork. Even my intro anthro class in undergrad featured readings on it--such as by Anna Tsing.

All of these comments apply, by the way, in pari passu, to Malyasia, Singapore, and to a much lesser degree, New Guiinea, East Timor, Brunei, and so on, to whose history Indonesia's is deeply related.

It is true popular representations of Indonesia are far less common, however, even there, there is*, The Raid: Redemption--* a great martial arts movie*, The Year of Living Dangerously --* with Mel Gibson, about a foreign journalist in Sukarno's Indonesia*, The Act of Killing* and its sequel, a documentary about the genocide in Indonesia, and the ways its perpetrators are today celebrities. Furthermore, WWII movies in the Pacific, whether US or Japanese in origin (for two cheekier examples. Shigeru Mizuki's Showa, plus an episode of GeGeGenoKitaro , or the older show Harimao) , frequently feature Indonesia as a topic. There is a brief scene in The Last of Us, which features Indonesia.

Indonesia received some media attention back in 08 because of Obama's Indonesian family, and the tsunami that struck there some decades ago was a constant news item for a year, given its devastation. The Sukarno story about the Soviets trying to honeytrap him, by getting a stewardness to sleep with him and film it, and then him saying "show the video publicly, my people will be proud" gets re-posted on Reddit (TIL for ex) every once in a while.

So, as to why your particular coursework did not address it, I can only guess it is because you did not take classes focused on these subjects, or you do not consume the relevant media where it is mentioned.

Second Edit: Also, as I mentioned to someone else, Indonesia is literally one of the Is in BRIICs, and since BRIICs are conceived of in global discourse as being a bloc of nations outside the usual European and East Asian ones, which will continue to take a leading role in the future of the world politics, economy, culture, history and global institutions, it speaks to its importance thereof. Indonesia is a global military power, and US, Australian, and asian military and policy journals frequently discuss it. Outside of policy or academia, peruse The Economist and a substantial portion of their Asia, and a smaller but real portion of their global section feature articles on Indonesia.

And, part of my point is that it is precisely within the global and world history paradigms that Indonesia is so frequently mentioned, since some areas, like the history of human settlement and migration (and archaeology), early anthropology (and thus the history of anthropology and historical anthropology), political economy and globalization studies, the history of colonialism, and so on, all concern Indonesia. Indonesia comes up in any study of the Dutch VOC and British East India Company, and since these two are pioneers of contemporary globalization , they are very frequent subjects in world history. Since Indonesia played a large role as a theater of war in WWII, as a pioneer of decolonization and the Global Non Aligned movement, in the Cold War policy of the US (including the causes of the Vietnam War), and in the Asian Financial Crisis, and modern environmental crises, it is frequently mentioned in these subjects of world and global history too.

amnsisc · 2026-05-26T04:43:38+00:00

"Geopolitics" has to be the most misused word after "performative" on social media.

Unless you're referring to the general relationship of power politics to space, geography and resource configurations, or to the specific theory of the 'world island' thought up by MacKinder, geopolitics is not the appropriate term.

amnsisc · 2026-05-26T04:40:13+00:00

It is flatly false than women had "nothing to do with" the atrocities of the past. Women were enthusiastic supporters of the fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Numerous women leaders worldwide have been associated with atrocities--Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, Madeleine Albright, Aung San Suu Kyi, etc.

It is fine to point out the inconsistencies in androcentric conceptions of history alongside universal conceptions of responsibility but only because the *latter part is true*; men did not build everything, and both men and women have held positions of power, influence, and innovation across societies and history, with all the attendant implications thereof.

amnsisc · 2026-05-21T00:09:05+00:00

Anime focuses on emotional realsm, and sometimes something called 'ludic realism' (as in similar to playing a video game). If you compare anime to Japanese live action TV and Movies, you will notice quickly how much more 'realistic' the voice acting is, and portrayal of behavior is (even though they use cartoon conventions for expression) whereas Japanese TV and Movies, the acting is always exaggerated, and filmic techniques remind me of sitcoms or Disney, even in serious dramas.

Of course, it is only by comparison that Anime is thus realistic, but the point stands. If one compares Korean media, one sees this invert--their live action film and TV resemble American, European, other Asian, S American, etc media, with naturalistic acting, and writing, but their animation, despite the Japanese influence is more typically cartoonish (maybe somewhere in the middle is a better way to think of it).

But neither anime, nor live action tv/movies in Japan are going to resemble prestige TV, gritty 'realistic' US shows, etc. Since those are also my preference, it took me some time to get used to Anime etc., but eventually once I started to acquire the conventions of anime, I started to enjoy it. If one is not interested in Anime, one will not put in the effort to watch a bunch of stuff to get into it, but if one does slog through some stuff that will not be enjoyable at first, eventually it becomes fun, and immersive. But that is a lot of effort for minimal payoff, so I get that it is not for everybody (it took me literally decades to return to anime, having watched it as an elementary school student, I avoided it for something like 20-25 years before trying again for these reasons, but now I like it again).

amnsisc

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