Eric Snowden, Meet Gary MicKinnon, Meet war.gov/UFO

Snowden's taxonomy of conspiracies was as honest a framework anyone in his position had ever offered. Then May 8th happened.











Gerry Gomez

May 20, 2026























In June 2021, Edward Snowden — the man who proved that the most outlandish-seeming surveillance conspiracy was completely real — published a taxonomy of conspiracies on his Substack that most people missed.

His central argument deserves to be quoted directly, because it is the most precise formulation anyone in his position has ever offered:

“The greatest conspiracies are open and notorious — not theories, but practices expressed through law and policy, technology, and finance... The truest conspiracies meet with the least opposition.”

— Edward Snowden, “Conspiracy: Theory and Practice,” Substack, June 29, 2021

He drew a distinction between conspiracy practices — documented, verified, institutional; gerrymandering, the debt industry, mass surveillance — and conspiracy theories: the dramatic, unverifiable narratives that capture attention and, in doing so, obscure the real ones.

His conclusion was uncomfortable in the best way: we talk about conspiracy theories in order to avoid talking about conspiracy practices, because the practices are too daunting, too total, too present to emotionally metabolize.

That framework has been the editorial backbone of this platform since before I knew Snowden had articulated it. Document the practices. Source the claims. Follow the incentives. This used to be called journalistic integrity. It was taught in Journalism 101 classes. Hold the interpretive layer separate from the observational one. Let the evidence do the work.

I agreed with Snowden then. I agree with him now. And I want to show you exactly where his map — brilliant as it is — runs out.










The Taxonomy and Its Blind Spot







Snowden organized conspiracy thinking into five categories, drawing on Jesse Walker’s framework: the Enemy Outside, the Enemy Within, the Enemy Above, the Enemy Below, and — the category most relevant to this piece — Benevolent Conspiracies.
His definition: extra-terrestrial, supernatural, or religious forces dedicated to controlling the world for humanity’s benefit. He placed this category adjacent to Enemy Above — the conspiracies of those who manipulate events from within the circles of power.
He did not dismiss the Benevolent Conspiracy category. He taxonomized it. But the implication was clear: it belongs in the same analytical bracket as the others, subject to the one question Snowden himself acknowledged no existing taxonomy adequately addresses — truth value.

His original substack article can be found here:


Skywatch Signal@UAPWatchers

🚨Jillian Michaels Fights back Tears as Elizondo Talks about Alien Hybrid Breeding Programs "There's been a long-standing agreement or understanding between us and our friends from out of town. Um, that have allowed us uh to work with whoever whatever these are uh in a


4:56 AM · May 19, 2026 · 283K Views



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342 Replies · 451 Reposts · 2.63K Likes


On a human note, the reactions of Jillian in the clip is why I’ve come back into the discussion. It’s mind blowing shit that when you begin to take it seriously, it changes you and your view of history and control – the control of these particular messages.


The Thing That Has Not Changed







Here is what I want to say clearly between what we know, what we interpret, and what we reflect on.

The May 8th release does not validate every claim made by SSP insiders, whistleblowers, or the disclosure community over the last thirty years. Truth will lay in the eyes of the beholder. Some of those claims will prove accurate. Some will not. The files released so far contain eyewitness accounts, videos of ambiguous objects, and historical records that raise more questions than they answer.

What the release does confirm — unambiguously and on the primary government record — is that the official position has shifted. The category of “alien and extraterrestrial life” is now a subject of active government declassification with the President’s explicit direction. That is a conspiracy practice in Snowden’s precise definition. Open. Institutional. Announced in public.

And it is meeting, just as he predicted, with the least opposition.

The most sophisticated response to that pattern is not to claim vindication. It is to keep doing exactly what this platform has always done: document the practices, own the interpretations, hold the reflections to scrutiny, and ask the question that the mainstream keeps finding ways to avoid.

If the President’s objection to a predecessor saying “aliens are real” was not that the claim is false, but that the information is classified — what exactly is classified?

Gary McKinnon spent twenty-five years without his drives back. He already knew the answer.

Snowden’s map was the best map available in 2021. The territory has moved.

We have eyes to see it.

— Gerry

 

Gerry Gomez is an investigative journalist, creative director, and hybrid war correspondent who has spent a decade documenting the convergence of financial, media, and geopolitical forces shaping the current global transition.


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