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MUFON, Ventre, and Racism

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Cat 5 Hurricane in a smelly chamber pot. Ventre comes across on Hanger 1 as a clueless "true-believer" who will literally believe any tall tale or ridiculous claim. He represents what I dislike the most in this field: A so-called "expert" that promotes his own warped reality view to indoctrinate the public w/ pop-culture BS. With shallow racist yahoozees such as this, MUFON will continue to slide downhill into oblivion. Shame on Jan "Mr. IBM" Harzan for not taking decisive action and firing Ventre as soon as the post was revealed by Strickler.
 
MUFON has ham-handedly destroyed whatever scraps of credibility they may have had left. What a bunch of morons. I was surprised to learn that Nick Redfern was still associated with them. I'd like to buy him a beer for so eloquently denouncing them in no uncertain terms. Way to go, Nick. I hope any of the good people still there will follow your lead.
 
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It's interesting - lots of things were wrong with MUFON, and the tipping point is Ventre's racist screed? I'm not being sarcastic. It actually is interesting to see when & where the boundary lines get drawn when talking about esoteric topics. UFO discourse is implicitly inflected in terms of gender, ethnicity and culture. Ufology is also uniquely unreflective about those sources of bias. Perhaps because the major preoccupation it has is with proving the validity of its esoteric subject matter, or perhaps because of the demographics of ufologists? I don't know. A lot of outside observers might reject UFO discourse simply because it seems to lack internal validity - for example, its reliance on outdated science, poor reasoning, lack of knowledge of or ability to relate to contemporary society. Insiders might be more receptive to what leaders in the UFO field say just because they are leaders in an area where experiences can seem real but where very little can be known for sure.

I take Harzan's (initial) mealy-mouthed response as a sign of the times, where those who are morally uncompassed and/or lovers of power will run anything up the flagpole in order to see if it someone will salute it. What I'm surprised by is that there's any push back from the UFO community at all. Can I get an #altUFO?
 
John_Ventre_post.jpg
Students of the right will recognize this rhetoric immediately. White supremacists/neo-Nazis/anti-Semites and the so-called alt-right (I'm being redundant) spout this deplorable nonsense regularly on right-wing websites like breitbart.com. The level of thought on display in that comment is abysmally low, and sufficient in itself to conclude that Ventre is incapable of critical thinking. That he's played any significant role in MUFON is a damning indictment of the organization's leadership.
 
So Harzan, after being hammered for over a week on the web and no doubt by the respectable people within his organization, finally borrowed a pair and did what any competent Executive Director or whatever would have done immediately. Pathetic. MUFON has been a joke for years, but now it's also an embarrassing one. Unfortunately, it will no doubt keep producing Salla-grade schlock as long as there are fools out there to buy it.
 
You're right Gene. That bozo Ventre should never have been in any sort of leadership position. The past few MUFON directors have been anywhere from troublingly eccentric to batshit crazy. That's no accident. The whole stinking mess needs to go away.

I read your piece in the newsletter just a while ago, and it's an excellent analysis with a lot of good background information. Unfortunately, the media in general seem too dull or too lazy to figure out that MUFON is little more than a zombie, and treat it like it speaks for "ufology". Even if they know whatever state director they just spoke with also never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like, they probably just figure it's par for the course.
 
Double Nought Spy said:
So Harzan, after being hammered for over a week on the web and no doubt by the respectable people within his organization, finally borrowed a pair and did what any competent Executive Director or whatever would have done immediately. Pathetic. MUFON has been a joke for years, but now it's also an embarrassing one. Unfortunately, it will no doubt keep producing Salla-grade schlock as long as there are fools out there to buy it.
Click to expand...
IF the screen shot on Mike Clelland's site of a follow-up Facebook post by Lon Strickler this past Friday is accurate, Jan "Big Balls" Harzan did not, in fact, "fire" or "dismiss" John Ventre but merely "demoted" him to a "State Treasurer and Conference Coordinator" position within the Pennsylvania MUFON state organization. Again, IF true, what a fucking profile in courage! And I truly thought MUFON could not get any more embarrassing. They don't handle sexual harassment issues within the organization properly, now their ineptitude is made further evident by not handling racism and bigotry issues properly. MUFON executive leadership clearly lacks the moral convictions and strength of character to effectively run a fair and equal workplace. Shame on them.
 
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MUFON means:

the Mutual UFO Network.

It is an NPO:

A nonprofit organization (also known as a non-business entity[1]) is an organization that has been formed by a group of people in order "to pursue a common not-for-profit goal", that is, to pursue the stated goal expressly without the intention of distributing excess revenue (i.e. profit) to members or leaders.[2] A nonprofit organization is often dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a particular point of view.

Here is MUFON's Mission statement:

The stated mission of MUFON is the study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity through investigations, research and education. Along with the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), MUFON is part of the UFO Research Coalition, a collaborative effort by the three main UFO investigative organizations in the US whose goal is to share personnel and other research resources, and to fund and promote the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon.

In other words


"The Scientific Study of UFOs for the Benefit of Humanity"

versus

"ventre's statement" (which I will not repeat).

Let us just say that I don't think that ventres view or definition of "humanity" is the same as mine.
And I believe what he said goes against the very goal of MUFON.

If I am honest I haven't really got a dog in this fight because I have never been a member of MUFON. If I did I would demand a full refund of any fees, the cancellation of any membership or subscription and the complete removal of any information that I had provided them (i.e witness Reports). I would demand this on the basis that they are not fulfilling their obligation to "Humanity"*

However I am not a lawyer so they might be able to wriggle out of it. It would be interesting if a trained legal expert looked into it (the case for a refund based on their behaviour).

I have a feeling because it was posted (as I understand it) on ventre's "personal" facebook, that MUFON can just say it doesn't reflect their views.
But morally I would not want to be associated with an organisation that turned a blind eye or swept such things under the carpet.


So I am going to take ventre's advice and anytime hangar #1 or any other show associated with MUFON comes on TV I will turn it off.
I will also ask people to think about if they should "Cancel their subscriptions" to MUFON itself and any TV or Media that shows or plays MUFON content until such time as a they resolve the issue.

As I said I am not a member so my point of view is not necessarily valid, but I will say that the prospect of me becoming one has been greatly diminished by all of this.


*
humanity
noun
mass noun
1Human beings collectively.

humanity - definition of humanity in English | Oxford Dictionaries
 
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Maybe notify the History Channel about Ventre, asking them not to air that show. Even though it's no longer being produced, no doubt it is run from time to time.
 
And it took a certain POTUS several days to Tweet about a certain hate crime in Portland.

In my ride-sharing travels, I meet lots of people from different walks of life, races, religions. Wonderful people all. In the 1960s, my friends accompanied their African-American brothers and sisters to defend civil rights.

But why is it getting worse? Well, we know the answer to that.
 
First, thanks to all of you who have been so great and respectable over the last few years. I've learned alot.

I saw this in the email blast today, and had to respond.

After a sibling and I had a significant daytime UFO sighting at Red Rock Canyon in 2010, we decided to get video cameras just in case the experience ever happened again. They did, and since then I’ve been sharing some of my daytime UFO/UAP captures on the forums.


I turned to them because I thought they would be a resource of informed, enthusiastic people sincerely researching and discussing this topic.


I had to take an extended break from them, however, because of some of the rude and racist elements became just a bit much.


I am saddened that such a vocal and public member of MUFON actually believes that 12% of the US population, a large percentage of which is in prison or in dire poverty, can somehow successfully spearhead the genocide of anyone….anywhere…at anytime. Ironically, the same night of that Red Rock UFO sighting, I was racially profiled, or, stopped for “walking while black”, and accused of being in the neighborhood with the sole intent of breaking into someone’s place. I had to plead for 20 minutes that I was a veteran, an AF Academy graduate, and was outside smoking because none was allowed in the house I was staying at, and after running my drivers license number, he finally let me go.

I share this to point out that afterwards, more people believed my UFO story than my profiling story. In fact, the typical “it’s a balloon, bird, bug…” video deflection was replaced by “well, you shouldn’t have been outside so late”.


So I’m not surprised this eventually happened, and I would imagine perhaps within MUFON, this guy is not alone in his views.


The insult is that MUFON is supposed to be one of our supposed “leaders” in the field of ufology, and the inherent study of the origins and evolution of mankind that inevitably goes with that. Compare the rant above with various accounts of “earth history” by contactees, and this “leader” of ufology sounds like a dissociated mess who has no business speaking for this organization.


One can’t be lazy in this field, yet most people are. When presented with information past their capacity, they get threatened and shut down, or worse, make stuff up with random associations and go on the attack. Telling someone else’s story FOR them.


Evidence actually exists that several of the Egyptian dynasties were Black, and suddenly a MUFON official…a steward for exo-political study and truth states “Blacks didn’t even have a calendar, a wheel, or a numbering system until the Brits showed up?” Has he never even heard of Napta Playa?


A black man was slaughtered by a white-supremacist in NYC, yet the media focused on the victims drug arrest and marital issues… Is this an example of showing how a white male is incompetent, according to this rant?


But perhaps there is a silver lining to this….although some may see Harzan a bit insensitive in his response, he has a good point….AND he needs to take action to , actually expand and act on it. Now. And in actuality, I'm taking a bit of his advice and at least engaging about the subject in the best way I know how...for healing.


When you start to cross reference the research, much of which has been shared in MUFON addresses, its more and more obvious the evidence points to the possibility that this planet is a former ET colony that has either been stealthily taken over or forgotten it’s identity, or both. More information has come out about the vast diversity of races that seeded this planet. The stories of the Hopi. The stories of the Dogon. The stories of the Celts. Many of the divisions coming to the surface are old wounds needing to be healed now, and so many stories of off-planet influence have yet to be shared.


AND many, if not most of these past accounts have been passed on to contactees. I've dialogued with a member on here about this before...the real interesting and pertinent information lies with the stories from contactees. Why isn’t MUFON sharing this information and making an effort to bridge the divides?


To inform us? To help fill in the gaps of our actual earth history...which will explain much more truth behind the racial histories on this planet? A lot of the contactee archives help to explain what has happened here, how the multitude of races accumulated here, and how we can now bring it together. Why is no one sharing these experiences on the MUFON site? I have never once seen a black speaker on any of MUFONs videotaped forums. Are there really no people of color whatsoever in this field? After reading his rant, there seems to be no mystery why. Perhaps they are not welcome, whatsoever? I doubt that, but this rant makes me wonder.


The discussions of race and the gift of diversity that has been given to this planet are overdue, and the field of UFOlogy and Exopolitics as it applies to Planet Earth will inevitably cross those paths of research, sooner or later. So learn how to speak about it now.


And no, Mr. Harzan. There are way more than “both sides” to planet earth, so this is not just about acknowledging people are divided. Speaking of symptoms is not the same as taking also about the roots and causes of said symptoms. Eschew the right/left division paradigm that has been placed over us, because it forces us to only focus on like 10% of the available information. There are many gradations in between…MUFON should be on the forefront of this thinking.


This puts the impetus on MUFON to share more contactee information and research as it relates to Earth History…now. They may or may not be proven...a trap ufology falls into....but they are part of the puzzle. It’s the next step beyond just accumulating videos and stories of sightings. When disclosure REALLY hits the fan, if MUFON has not made an effort to address this, respectfully, the organization will find itself obsolete and considered a fraud withholding information in the blink of an eye.
 
EricTheRed said:
John_Ventre_post.jpg
Students of the right will recognize this rhetoric immediately. White supremacists/neo-Nazis/anti-Semites and the so-called alt-right (I'm being redundant) spout this deplorable nonsense regularly on right-wing websites like breitbart.com. The level of thought on display in that comment is abysmally low, and sufficient in itself to conclude that Ventre is incapable of critical thinking. That he's played any significant role in MUFON is a damning indictment of the organization's leadership.
Click to expand...

Yike's I think it's ok to take issue with a show like that but he went off the rails in that Facebook post.
 
EricTheRed said:
John_Ventre_post.jpg
Students of the right will recognize this rhetoric immediately. White supremacists/neo-Nazis/anti-Semites and the so-called alt-right (I'm being redundant) spout this deplorable nonsense regularly on right-wing websites like breitbart.com. The level of thought on display in that comment is abysmally low, and sufficient in itself to conclude that Ventre is incapable of critical thinking. That he's played any significant role in MUFON is a damning indictment of the organization's leadership.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what exactly do you think is factually incorrect about his statement in this pic you've posted?
 
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