What does the derisive tone of so many of the poster's comments represent?
Does the tone arise more from
1. True intellectual unbelief?
2. Anxiety/fear of facing the likely true facts and their implications?
3. Fear of social ridicule if they are seen to allow that such might be real?
4. A lack of ability/willingness to conceive of how they could integrate it all into their world view, cosmology?
5. A distaste for, hostility to anything remotely like sci fi?
6. A generally contrarian personality?
7. An aversion to treating super serious stuff seriously?
8. What?
There’s a lot of give and take here on FR. We have wit, we have wisdom, and even sometimes flame wars. Some posts are made with much forethought and crafting. Many represent a flash of inspiration.
As to the general question of what drives personal viewpoints regarding extraterrestrial biological entities, a lot of folks are influenced by a cultural mythos regarding same, some are inclined to turn the discussion towards topics rooted in mysticism, and others find the subject simply too far removed from the challenges and respites of day to day living.
Those of us who turn our analysis to the ufo phenomena need always be aware of what our preconceptions are, and try to have an understanding about the roots of those preconceptions. Not to rid ourselves completely of them, since that would undercut the construction of individual conceptions. But understand how the foundation laid by those pre-conceptions inform the edifice of conclusions which are built upon them.
Make note of the portions of the excerpt which are highlighted. Mr. Wise is 100% correct that the questions which needed to be asked, were not asked. Probably because the reporters fleshed out the answers in their minds based upon their own unrecognized preconceptions.
A similar problem is that there is a difference between believing what we have seen with our own eyes, and what we believe about what it is we have seen. The latter is driven also by preconceptions.
Fear. Naked fear. Reality means worldview crash, worldview crash means psychotic episode, psychotic episode means loss of everything including family. FEAR.
Maybe just a common sense refusal to fall for obvious fear-mongering and quasi-religious hysteria.