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I used to be one. Took me two years to find out it's nothing but grifters exploiting the mentally ill
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this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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What do the grifters have to gain that way, though? Maybe it's just mentally ill people all the way down.
Book deals and podcast spots I think are the big two.
All those UFO conventions and meetups probably have registrations that cost money. And there’s merch booths. I’m sure some of their clubs have membership fees too.
People also just like commanding attention and having influence and perceived power within a community
It doesn’t have to be like monetarily profitable.
We see in all subcultures there are simply people who enjoy exercising control and power. It’s their distorted source of social gratification
Money, duh. You build up a following, repost some obviously fake CGI crap, at the end of the video plug your donation links like subscribe bell, and they eat it up. Mentally unwell people have a tenuous grasp on reality and more often than not believe whatever they want. Tell them what they already want to hear and your pockets can be easily lined. Also see religious cults and Bigfooters.
For a real example take oldie but goodie secureteam10. The guys been reposting fake footage for a decade. They've been in multiple controversies and proven to have created fake evidence for some of their own videos.
Yet despite the channels history and sketchyness, they still get hundreds of thousands of views a week. Because the UFO truther types simply do not care about real authenticity they just want a confirmation bias circle jerk. Read the comments in some of secureteam10s videos and you'll understand the exact lack of sanity or intelligence in these communities.
Good documentary on them:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GRkwXphhv1E&pp=ygUSc2VjdXJldGVhbTEwIGRyYW1h