UFOs, High Strangeness, and the Excluded Middle w/ Red Pill Junkie

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On this edition of Parallax Views, J.G. Michael welcomes Miguel Romero, better known as Red Pill Junkie, for a Halloween-season conversation about UFOs, high strangeness, and the strange territory between belief and skepticism. Drawing on the work of researchers like Jacques Vallée and Greg Bishop, Romero advocates for what’s known as the “excluded middle,” an approach that resists both the assumption that UFOs must be extraterrestrial spacecraft and the reflexive dismissal of the phenomenon as hoaxes or delusion.

What if the UFO phenomenon is less straightforward than either camp would have us believe? We explore the idea that UFO encounters can function as a kind of Rorschach test, reflecting the psychology, cultural assumptions, and technological expectations of the people who experience them. From the airship sightings of the 1890s to the flying saucer imagery of the postwar era, we discuss how the phenomenon appears to change alongside the prevailing zeitgeist. Romero also considers the more unsettling cases of high strangeness, including reports of violent encounters in Brazil, and whether these experiences might have a cultural, psychological, or even metaphysical dimension.

The conversation turns to the work of Jacques Vallée, the possibility of human manipulation and government disinformation, and the dangers of treating UFOs as a conventional extraterrestrial visitation problem. We discuss the strange history of figures like Richard Doty, the exploitation of ufologists by intelligence operatives, and the recurring tendency for people who distrust official institutions to nevertheless place their faith in government insiders who promise the long-awaited truth.

Romero is also sharply critical of the modern disclosure movement, questioning the growing involvement of defense contractors, Silicon Valley interests, and corporate money in a field that once thrived on the margins. Does the demand for official disclosure ultimately empower the public, or does it make the government the final authority on what is real? We also examine ufology’s enduring carnival atmosphere, from Jaime Maussan’s infamous Roswell slides presentation to the continuing controversy surrounding the so-called Nazca mummie