Since Area 51 has been cloaked in secrecy for many years, it makes fitting that the alleged alien secrets kept there would receive a revamp in the era of social media.
Area 51 memes have taken over the internet as a result of a hoax Facebook event encouraging participants to seize control of the secure military facility and discover the supposedly aliens housed there. 1.5 million people have already registered for the event, which is titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” which is scheduled for September 20.
People have mentioned sighting Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) at the military base in southern Nevada as early as the 1950s.
The Reno Evening Gazette reported on June 17, 1959, under the headline “More Flying Objects Seen In Clark Sky,” that Sgt. Wayne Anderson of the local sheriff’s office was one of many locals who had seen what the paper described as an object that was “bright green in colour and descending towards the earth at a speed too great to be an aeroplane.”
The CIA claims that covert flight testing has been taking place in the region since the military started using U-2 CIA spy planes for testing in 1955, around the time reports of UFO sightings began to surface. Despite this information, the irrational theories that have long surrounded the mysterious site have not been dispelled.
The history of Area 51 is explained here, along with the motivation for the desire of more than a million individuals to “see them aliens.”
Describe Area 51.
Area 51 is a high-security open training range for the U.S. Air Force in southern Nevada; nonetheless, the location is still very classified. Area 51 is formally known as the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake.
The CIA’s Lockheed U-2 plane reconnaissance programme, which involved the covert development and testing of spy planes used to gather intelligence, was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request made in 2005 by Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the George Washington University National Security Archive. It wasn’t until August 2013 that the public learned that Area 51 had actually existed.
The request compelled the CIA to release information about the U-2 and A-12 OXCART programmes’ pasts as well as Area 51, the military installation where the planes were built and tested.
According to Richelson, who passed away in 2017, “there certainly was — as you would expect — no discussion of little green men here,” he said in 2013. The U-2’s history is presented here. The debate of U-2 flights and UFO sightings is the sole area where the two topics cross, with some sightings being caused by the presence of these high-flying aircraft.
According to Malcolm Byrne, the National Security Archive’s deputy director and director of research, Richelson effectively indirectly answered the mystery surrounding Area 51. I don’t believe Richelson was deliberately targeting Area 51; rather, as is sometimes the case in these situations, information is disclosed that may be of interest to others.
What “raid” is being proposed?
Jackson Barns, who claims to have developed the hoax event, describes his sarcastic plan to infiltrate Area 51 in a post that has been posted to the Facebook event page. It incorporates Monster energy drinks, ‘Kyles’ (the online slang term for white guys and boys who are irrationally angry and punch plasterboard), and Naruto-running, a Japanese anime show-inspired sport.
Barns adds, “Then the Rock Throwers will throw pebbles at the inevitable resistance (we don’t want to hurt them, we just want to annoy them enough to not shoot the kyles as often),” before making it clear that he does not support this plan being carried out in its entirety. “Hello US government, this is a joke and I don’t really intend to carry out this plan,” the joke continued. I merely thought it would be amusing and garner me some online thumbs-ups.
In total, 1.5 million people from all over the world have registered to participate in the “raid,” and the incident has generated a massively popular meme. A new music video for the smash song “Old Town Road” by rapper Lil Nas X involves cowboys breaking into Area 51.
How has the administration reacted to the raid?
According to a representative for the U.S. Air Force, they are aware of the plans to “raid” Area 51 and vehemently oppose them.
An Air Force spokeswoman told NPR and other media outlets in a statement on Monday that “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.”
“[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces,” said Laura McAndrews, an Air Force spokesperson, to The Washington Post. “The United States Air Force is always prepared to defend America and its resources.”
When TIME contacted the Air Force for comment, they did not react right away.
Why have Area 51 and conspiracy theories become such hot topics?
When Sgt. Anderson reported seeing a U.F.O. in 1959, the Reno Evening Gazette (now the Reno Gazette-Journal) also noted that the Nellis Air Force Base, which is located about 130 miles south of Area 51, had previously received two reports of U.F.O. sightings in the previous three weeks.
The reports of a U.F.O. crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 were followed by the Roswell Army Air Field’s later denial that it was a weather balloon. In 1947, the Air Force started a project that would later become known as Project Blue Book to look into reports of UFO encounters. Over 12,000 accusations had been looked into by the Air Force by the time Project Blue Book came to an end in 1969.
In the meantime, reports of UFO sightings in the southern Nevada region persisted, which in retrospect were likely sightings of the top-secret surveillance planes that were being built. However, since then, fantasies have run wild.
Additionally, pop culture has absorbed references to Area 51, which can be seen in the films Independence Day and Paul.
Additionally, episodes of The Twilight Zone and The X-Files as well as the less well-known straight-to-video movie Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders were influenced by it.
