"It's a very typical UFO sighting. Carter said it changed color and, in the physical report, described it as being about the size of the moon. And he saw it with about twenty-five other people"
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“Very typical” is doing sly work here: Schultz drains the mystique out of a UFO story by classifying it like a routine customer complaint. The line has the cool, backstage tone of an actor describing a familiar scene beat - not wonder, but a catalogue of expected props. Color-change? Check. “Size of the moon”? Check. Multiple witnesses? Check. By stacking these details, he signals a cultural script as much as an event, implying that UFO accounts often arrive preformatted, with stock descriptors that make them feel credible while also sounding suspiciously interchangeable.
The Carter reference is the real pressure point. Jimmy Carter isn’t just “a guy who saw something,” he’s a president and a public moralist - a witness with institutional gravity. Schultz leans into that by quoting the “physical report,” invoking bureaucracy as a strange ally of the paranormal. Paperwork becomes a credibility engine: if it’s documented, it must be more than bar talk. Yet the choice of details also hints at how unreliable perception can be. “About the size of the moon” isn’t measurement; it’s metaphor, the human brain grabbing the nearest big, familiar object in the sky to communicate awe.
The “twenty-five other people” tag functions like crowd noise in a sitcom: social proof meant to shut down skepticism. Schultz’s subtext is sharper: mass witnessing doesn’t automatically equal clarity. Groups can confirm each other’s impressions, amplify uncertainty, and still produce a “typical” story - comforting in its familiarity, unnerving in what it suggests about how belief spreads.
The Carter reference is the real pressure point. Jimmy Carter isn’t just “a guy who saw something,” he’s a president and a public moralist - a witness with institutional gravity. Schultz leans into that by quoting the “physical report,” invoking bureaucracy as a strange ally of the paranormal. Paperwork becomes a credibility engine: if it’s documented, it must be more than bar talk. Yet the choice of details also hints at how unreliable perception can be. “About the size of the moon” isn’t measurement; it’s metaphor, the human brain grabbing the nearest big, familiar object in the sky to communicate awe.
The “twenty-five other people” tag functions like crowd noise in a sitcom: social proof meant to shut down skepticism. Schultz’s subtext is sharper: mass witnessing doesn’t automatically equal clarity. Groups can confirm each other’s impressions, amplify uncertainty, and still produce a “typical” story - comforting in its familiarity, unnerving in what it suggests about how belief spreads.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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