Stephen King isn’t having a bar of the official government story surrounding the Chinese weather balloon controversy, casting doubt on the whole investigation.
Much like the surprise clown craze of 2016, 2023 has a big balloon craze as supposedly Chinese balloons have been seen across the world. Conspiracy theorists believe they’re potentially surveillance drones, while others think they’re likely just very dull weather balloons.
King doesn’t believe the official military line around this ongoing phenomenon, saying he doesn’t believe they’re unsure about what they shot down. Given the history of cover-ups from the military with “weather balloons” since the 1940s, King might just have a point.
In 1947, the United States saw the most publicized UFO story potentially ever as something crashed in the Roswell desert of New Mexico. Following extensive investigations, the government debunked the UFO as nothing more than a weather balloon, despite some eye-witness testimonies hinting at something greater.
There are plenty of Roswell skeptics out there, with beliefs varying from it being an espionage test to being proof of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, or even Cold War shenanigans. While these apparently Chinese weather balloons are almost definitely not aliens, it does feel a bit like history repeating itself.
In fact, this whole saga feels like something out of a pulpy King horror short story — or a 1950s comic book. What this news story does probably mean is plenty of speculative fiction being written over the years, albeit nowhere near as much as the infamous Roswell incident.