Not gonna be the 'UFOs are real' voice here but keep in mind whoever collated this data also probably only spoke English. UFOlogy is massively anglophone and so reports in English get saved and shared where there may be lots of reports in other languages that get overlooked or go unrecorded. Also, UFO investigators who collect these firsthand stories do so largely in English and an uncollected story does not exist for the purposes of this analysis.
Compare to ghosts or demonic possession stories, which are also not real, but which are international because people collect ghost stories in every language.
Yeah, that's definitely it. 80% of UFO footage (or really any strange phenomena of that sort) I've seen comes from Latin America - so I'm going to say Latin America being nearly pitch black on this map is evidence of less-than-sufficient research, rather than evidence that there's nothing in the skies.
Plus, different understandings lead to different conclusions. One sci-fi nerd's flying saucer is a Catholic's angel. We see what we expect to see, and report it as such - muddying the waters for research even further than if it was just the language barrier.
UFOs are obviously real, as not every flying object can be successfully identified.
But the mythology of unidentified objects regularly outstrip their reality. So often, we hear about "impossible" maneuvers and extraordinary circumstances all clouded in the unknown. We never get a payoff of the thing actually getting identified as a known quantity.
Demons are a great parallel to the US treatment of UFOs, as they are also Strange, Malignant, and an Ill-Omen used to scare people into compliance with authority.
They are just as real, in so far as strange, malignant forces do exist that can justify the upholding of status quo. But they are also fake, in so far as there are no monsters that crawled up from hell to eat you.
Not gonna be the 'UFOs are real' voice here but keep in mind whoever collated this data also probably only spoke English. UFOlogy is massively anglophone and so reports in English get saved and shared where there may be lots of reports in other languages that get overlooked or go unrecorded. Also, UFO investigators who collect these firsthand stories do so largely in English and an uncollected story does not exist for the purposes of this analysis.
Compare to ghosts or demonic possession stories, which are also not real, but which are international because people collect ghost stories in every language.
True true, I guess no westerners have seen a Tokoloshe for instance, as a reverse example of what you're saying.
Yeah, that's definitely it. 80% of UFO footage (or really any strange phenomena of that sort) I've seen comes from Latin America - so I'm going to say Latin America being nearly pitch black on this map is evidence of less-than-sufficient research, rather than evidence that there's nothing in the skies.
Plus, different understandings lead to different conclusions. One sci-fi nerd's flying saucer is a Catholic's angel. We see what we expect to see, and report it as such - muddying the waters for research even further than if it was just the language barrier.
Yeah, I live near a couple of spots in Mexico where lots of people claim they see lights flying around the hills at night
UFOs are obviously real, as not every flying object can be successfully identified.
But the mythology of unidentified objects regularly outstrip their reality. So often, we hear about "impossible" maneuvers and extraordinary circumstances all clouded in the unknown. We never get a payoff of the thing actually getting identified as a known quantity.
Demons are a great parallel to the US treatment of UFOs, as they are also Strange, Malignant, and an Ill-Omen used to scare people into compliance with authority.
They are just as real, in so far as strange, malignant forces do exist that can justify the upholding of status quo. But they are also fake, in so far as there are no monsters that crawled up from hell to eat you.
I've also heard China has a pretty lively UFO scene but like most things China you don't really hear about it.