A Facebook event inviting interested parties to join in a storming of Area 51 has quickly gained steam and now has more than 500,000 alien fanatics RSVP’d and ready to complete the proposed mission, ABC News .
While many of those listed as “attending” understand this is clearly meant as a joke, there is some concern that a few might actually have real intentions to attempt to infiltrate the supposed alien base.
The mysterious and historically heavily-guarded Area 51 has been a hotbed for alien conspiracy theories for decades.
Firm believers in extraterrestrial beings are convinced that this location is where the American government stores aliens and any humanoid spacecraft that have infiltrated earth.
In the 1996 movie Independence Day , it featured as a testing laboratory for the government to conduct experiments on aliens.
Despite repeated assurance that there’s no such thing as aliens, The Pentagon made headlines last month for seemingly contradicting this statement.
In June, they provided a classified briefing to Congress in which they revealed U.S. navy pilots have reported sightings of unidentified aircraft, otherwise known as UFOs.
Some of the spotted vehicles appeared to have no engines and could reach hypersonic speeds.
Now, in the hopes of catching other-worldly friends at the site, over 700,000 people have RSVP’d to one Facebook event.
Dubbed the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us” , event, it calls for willing participants to join in on a raid of the speculated alien hotbed in the Nevada desert in a sort of strength-in-numbers type of attack.
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“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” the event co-coordinator wrote, whose Facebook handle is S***posting cause im in shambles .
“If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.”
The so-called “Naruto run” refers to the Japanese anime series “Naruto”, and its title character’s iconic means of running full-tilt with his arms outstretched behind him. This hilarious technique has become a popular online meme, and now a tongue-in-cheek plan of attack for the supposed Area 51 stormers.
Of course, a majority of those who have RSVP’d “yes” to the event have done so to be part of the mass joke.
People online and media news outlets have all acknowledged that this proposed event is simply meant to be a funny internet sensation, which it certainly has become.
And just for good measure, one Facebook user wrote on the post, “P. S. Hello U.S. government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan.”
However, there is still very real cause for concern about those who are intent on indeed storming Area 51 on September 20.
U.S. Airforce spokesperson Laura McAndrews told the Washington Post that government officials are indeed aware of the Facebook event.
Although she did not elaborate on what plans are in effect in case the event does become something other than a simple internet joke, she did issue one very simple and straightforward warning to anyone intending on actually attempting to follow through on it: don’t.
“[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train America armed forces.”
She added, ““The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”
The Military Aviation site The Aviationist also spoke to a local company who offers tours near the Area 51 site about the proposed event. They, too, discouraged anyone from attempting it for real and said it would be “very stupid” to do.
“Area 51 is not a joke. No matter what is going on there, people need to remember, this is a military facility. You wouldn’t get far.”
So, while it’s always fun to join in on viral internet sensations, such as wildly unrealistic Facebook event, it’s also important to remember that there are real people out there who may be more dedicated to such ridiculous causes than they should be.
Alien fanatics or not, if anyone is thinking of actually doing the Area 51 storming, they’d be smart to reconsider. The numbers aren’t as strong as they think they are, and they definitely won’t get very far. Let’s just leave this as the ridiculous but hilarious internet joke it is and move on with our lives, shall we?
h/t: ABC News , National Post
