UFOs over Washington? Social media erupts in alien hysteria – The Tribune

Unexplained lights over the US Capitol building this week have set off a flurry of fear, speculation, memes and old-fashioned alien hysteria amongst social media users. The “alien invasion” frenzy was fuelled by a photo snapped by Dennis Diggins, a US Air Force veteran and tour guide, showing four bright lights hovering ominously above the Capitol’s Statue of Freedom. Naturally, this has invited an implosion of UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) speculations from Netizens.

pic.twitter.com/lrfAbzUXSB

— Moz Morry The Hexican 🦘🇦🇺 🥝🇳🇿 (@MorryCrypto) November 29, 2024

While likening the incident to 1952 sightings in DC, others engaged with alien theories. “I want aliens to be real,” pleaded one X user, while another quipped, “The aliens came to see how political circus is made live and direct.”

However, not everyone was buying the extra-terrestrial hype.

“The lights at the US Capitol building have been causing ‘UFO sightings’ in the camera lens for decades & decades,” John Greenewald, Jr, a researcher and ufologist, said on X. “(Just lens flares, but interesting someone is passing them around, again, and more so interesting people are buying it. New photo, same lens flare ‘phenomenon’),” he added.

The lights at the U.S. Capitol building have been causing “UFO sightings” in the camera lens for decades & decades.

(Just lens flares, but interesting someone is passing them around, again, and more so interesting people are buying it. New photo, same lens flare ‘phenomenon’.) pic.twitter.com/WGrTS543mY

— John Greenewald, Jr. (@blackvaultcom) November 27, 2024

“Probably helicopters! I have seen several objects idling in the same spot in the sky at night, close to the airline flight path in Tampa, FL, for weeks! Turns out they are helicopters!” another user posted.

The sighting comes shortly after recent Congressional hearings on UFOs, where whistle-blowers discussed alleged secret alien retrieval programs and government intimidation efforts. However, the Pentagon maintains there’s no concrete evidence of extra-terrestrial spacecraft.