This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2065.
Why are Americans all about aliens?
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Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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Lindsay, do you believe in aliens?
Oh my gosh, of course I do, Aubrey.
No, no, no, no.
No, you don't.
Not really.
I don't know.
Who knows what's out there, right?
But I've been to some crazy places where people really do, like Roswell, New Mexico.
Have you ever been there, Aubrey?
I haven't, no.
I went there in 2016 on the road trip that we always talk about from the Connected Communicator.
And actually, that was a...
Location where they believe a UFO landed, right?
And there's a whole museum.
I talked to people to see what they thought.
And people are believers, big time.
Yeah, I don't know what to make of it.
I just don't know.
Right.
It's fascinating.
Until you see something with your own eyes, it's hard to take things secondhand.
This has been really interesting because it's been in the news a lot lately here in the U.S., right?
And a lot of you out there listening maybe see these articles and maybe you're on board.
You're like, oh, yeah, this makes sense for aliens.
And a lot of you might be thinking, why?
Why are Americans fascinated with aliens?
Why is this such a thing in U.S. culture?
It's a little bit similar to the ghost conversation, although I believe in ghosts more than I believe in aliens right,
But there are like, hardcore believers in ghosts and there are people who are very skeptical and there are people who are kind of on the fence.
So it's kind of interesting.
But Aubrey, before we get into this conversation, what do we need to say?
Who do we need to thank?
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Good stuff, Aubrey.
Yes.
Awesome.
So we want to kind of give you guys a heads up about what we're chatting about today.
We're going to share sort of why aliens have been in the news in the U.S.
It has to do with our political system, some interesting things.
And also we're talking about the vocabulary here because...
For a long time, the word alien was used in the U.S. to refer to immigrants.
And this is now becoming less politically correct as people are starting to realize this feels very offensive and cruel to create this sense of otherness, to dehumanize someone.
So we're talking about that, too, and sharing better options.
Yes, I love that.
It's so important to have a respectful shared language. right?
When it comes to people from all over the world who are living in the US, and we're all about connection here, at All Ears English.
So let's get into, you know, what are the right words to use?
We'll get into that a little bit later in the episode, right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
Yes.
So first we want to share, this is interesting.
This has really been a big deal in the US that there was a whistleblower named David Grush.
So first of all, what is a whistleblower, Lindsay?
What does that mean?
That's a great word.
So it's usually someone not always within the government, but often within the government who spot something that is illegal.
That's happening.
And then they will kind of blow the whistle.
They'll report it.
And it also could be in companies, I guess, as well.
But I feel like it happens more within the government.
Exactly.
Right.
Because it's someone who has inside information that they're not supposed to share, something confidential, something secret that people don't know about.
And they become a whistleblower when they share that information with the rest of us who aren't privy to that inside info right.
Yeah, that's a key piece is the inside info, having access.
For sure.
So what happened was yeah, this gentleman.
He shared with the world that and provided evidence to Congress that that there was an existence of a secret government program that is supposedly reverse engineering technology that has been discovered, but through crashed alien spacecraft.
So the difference yes, the difference between this and maybe Roswell is now the government's involved, where we're having actual hearings in government offices to determine whether or not this secret branch exists.
We have congressional oversight committees that have hearings on these allegations.
So now suddenly it's been given a little more weight And it's inspired tons of memes.
It's inspired a lot of sort of discourse to be like this.
This seems different to have the government taking this seriously.
We love a good government secret.
Right.
I don't know.
There's some crazy stuff going on within the government.
And, you know, there's a lot of layers of confidentiality.
Right.
Things that people can't share.
Right.
And yeah, when it comes to UFOs in government, I'm just like, what is happening?
I know.
It's fascinating, right?
There are all kinds of conspiracy theories always, but very few of them are substantiated at all by actual government bodies.
And so it sort of exists on the fringes and we don't really take it that seriously.
And that's what sort of changed recently is.
It feels like there's sort of a sheen of authenticity given to, you know, Mr Grouch, and where he has the background to actually have this insider knowledge.
So now it's sort of trying to be determined.
Is he just lying or is this true that there are these secret agencies that make people feel a little more that it might be true that there are aliens and there have been crashed UFOs?
Well, I do feel like we're at risk for conspiracy theories to be more rampant nowadays, right?
With social media, with people living in their own um echo chamber right online.
We talked about that, so they tend to become I mean, you know it tends to become.
People think that truth is kind of is it like it's fuzzy, but it's not.
But I think people get convinced about different realities.
Absolutely.
Right.
So it's interesting when something like this happens and it sort of explodes in the news.
And especially now with meme culture.
If you're on social media at all, you'll see all kinds of alien memes all over social media.
One of my favorites I'm just going to share is like a photo of a previous US president and some of his officials.
And the officials are saying, sir, they're asking questions about the economy again.
And the president says, just hit him with the UFOs.
So this is a very clever meme to sort of say like OK guys, the reason all this alien stuff is in the news is to distract from the real problems that we're experiencing.
Oh, there's so much stuff that goes on in terms of strategy around distracting the US population from what's really
We've seen that over and over again throughout history, haven't we, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
We do see this a lot.
And once you know to look for that pattern, I think, it becomes very obvious, right?
If you feel like oh, the government's giving weight to this sort of crazy outlying.
Wait a minute.
Am I being distracted from what's really going on?
What else is going on, right?
And usually you have to go one level deeper, right?
You have to read certain.
Just make sure you go to the right places to try to get unbiased news.
I mean, it's hard to find unbiased news these days, but I think some publications are less biased than others.
And you have to be proactive about finding the right information.
It's so crazy.
Absolutely.
So guys, you have seen how Lindsay and I have had this very interesting conversation just about something that sort of popped up in the news.
This type of topic is so great for connection.
It's interesting to talk about something like this, to ask someone if they believe in aliens.
Have they ever seen something they thought might be an alien spacecraft?
I know, when I had first gotten married we saw this line of lights in the sky that there was like no explanation for it.
And who knows if it's some kind of military thing.
But at first we were convinced it wasn't like a UFO.
And I feel like a lot of people have a story like that.
So it's just a fun thing to connect about.
Oh, for sure.
I mean, never mind conspiracy theories.
That could be another interesting topic.
Like, what do you think of conspiracy theories?
How do we combat them?
But just aliens is a great conversation starter.
Do you believe in aliens, guys?
Great way to start a conversation.
I love it.
Okay, Aubrey.
So let's get into language because this is our forte here at All Earth English.
What do we need to know when it comes to this word in the English language?
Yeah.
So people used to refer to foreigners as aliens.
And while this is still used in political terms and maybe the legal term in certain documents, it does have, or has come to have this negative connotation.
I think so, at least.
I would certainly not refer to a human being as an alien in any sense of the word.
What do you think, Lindsay?
100%.
Oh my gosh, completely agree.
Yeah, let's steer clear of this.
This is something that I would tend to hear from, honestly, an older generation, I think.
This hasn't got through the connotation that's involved.
Right.
So stay away from it, for sure.
Yeah.
In fact, in 2021, Biden sought to replace the word alien with less dehumanizing terms in immigration laws.
And though this change might sort of seem symbolic.
It's important to recognize that.
It's like you said it's helping to bring awareness to these older generations who just might not have thought through how this could make someone feel to use the term alien to categorize them.
Yeah.
And there's other terms too that we kind of are working on getting rid of or reducing the use of right.
And what are those, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So I had thought about this as I prepared this lesson the term illegals, because often, for a long time, the term would be illegal aliens.
And then people were dropping aliens and just saying illegals, which has never felt better to me.
Like, oh, that's awesome.
You're not using the word alien anymore.
But to just refer to someone as an illegal is also dehumanizing in its own way.
Totally.
100% agree.
So we do need to come up with new things to say, new words.
And so what's the answer?
What do we do here?
Should we be correcting people on the spot?
What do we do?
That's a very good question, right?
We usually don't recommend that you correct the vocabulary someone's using, but instead set an example through using vocabulary that is more kind, more thoughtful.
You certainly can inspire this conversation and ask someone you know how do these terms make you feel?
Do you think we should be using them?
And instead of directly correcting someone.
Yes, I love it.
Are there any terms that might be better? than illegal or alien.
Absolutely.
Right.
The best option is just the word immigrant.
This has a positive connotation.
Right.
It's actually associated with someone who's very ambitious and hardworking, like the word immigrant at least as far as I was raised has a really positive connotation and can just be substituted directly.
Right.
I think it's pretty neutral.
Right.
It depends on how you're raised.
But yeah, for sure.
I mean, you know, this country was built on immigration and built on hard work and a good work ethic.
And I think people are still proud of how this country kind of grew and was built through immigration.
And so I think that's neutral to positive, depending on who you're around.
Totally agree.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Right.
And there are quite a few other options.
Someone can just be referred to as a foreigner or newcomer or a foreign national.
Yes.
Yeah.
I like all of those.
Yeah.
Foreigner, I like a little less for some reason, but I really like newcomer.
I think that's great.
And foreign national is interesting because I feel like that's an older one, but it might be coming back around now in a way.
I think maybe because where you were saying you feel that little bit of negative connotation with foreigners, because that does sort of separate.
Yes.
It creates this exclusivity of like those of us who were born here versus someone who is a foreigner.
And I don't feel that same connotation with foreign nationals.
I wonder if that's why.
Yeah, that's interesting, right?
I also love international professional, right?
There's also expat, which is good, you know, also really good.
So there's a lot of other options Aubrey, when it comes to talking about people who have relocated to your country guys, if you know, if you're talking about people coming to your country right and living and working, this would work great in English.
Absolutely.
Right.
And when we're thinking about the goal being to connect in English right that piece of connection.
This is important there.
The words we use can can give offense, can create a separation between you and someone else.
And these words alien and illegal when we're talking about immigrants can do that.
So we want to be careful to avoid causing that exactly, and you know it's okay to make a mistake too, but the key is how do you do you correct yourself right if you make a mistake?
And then what's the overall interaction like between you and this person?
Is there smiling, is there connection?
Is there caring, like do you care?
Are you asking questions?
Are you engaging with them in English, right on the same level?
That's the key.
So you know, let's try to use the right words.
If we make a mistake, it's about the vibe.
Let's say the vibe, the connection.
It's about the vibe.
I love that.
I think there's a really big takeaway here to always be aware that language is evolving.
And the terms that may have been considered offensive are being replaced with better, more respective things.
And we need to be part of that change, right?
However, we feel most comfortable doing it.
Like you said Lindsay, to have these connection moments and have the feeling after we leave, after we're chatting, be positive and uplifting always.
Yeah, I think that's what the takeaway is today.
Let's always be striving to be smarter about our words.
But people... are going to judge us based on who we are as a person, right?
The entire holistic you and how you treat someone, right?
How are you treating people?
And that's the key.
Yeah, I love it.
Really good point, right?
I'm certainly not horrified when someone uses one of these words.
I'll usually assume, give some grace, recognize.
It's usually about someone not realizing that's offensive or not having thought through.
So I agree.
I love what you said there.
We're not judging mistakes.
We're giving everyone some understanding and then just always trying to do better ourselves.
Coming back to connection, Aubrey.
That's what it's all about.
Love it.
Love it.
All right, guys.
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All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
So fun.
Bye.
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