2. We've got a bunch of balloons in the air. Balloons are a technology dating back to before they started keeping records [0]. If it turns out people aren't registering every single balloon flight with every government then that isn't really a surprise. Drones are in the mix now too.
2b. People are going to use balloons to spy on each other. That isn't new. Governments spy on everything all the time. These comments are probably being logged in a super-database somewhere in the NSA, in the GRU and the Chinese Ministry of State Security. While it makes a good story it is not evidence change unless someone does the legwork to show that it wasn't just a slow news week.
Anyway your point is invalid. The situation I described is exactly the HN vibe you see. Hypocritical, lacking in self awareness, desperate to be seen as smart...well, hey...whaddayouknow...exactly like what you've displayed here. Hmmm, not a caricature at all (tho I admit it was satirical) and also not intended at everyone! Totes makes sense now that the person most wounded by that satire and thus prompted to reply would be the person most likely to demonstrate the very same! Thank you for revealing yourself! :) ;P xx ;p
All your other points are valid but uninteresting, they don't disprove anything. But yeah...this whole thing seems like a distraction for the current tumult. There's 1000s of other cases if you're interested in something real...but you're probably not, but second I'm guessing maybe you are into this (maybe you're just too scared to admit it in public?)...anyway whatevs...this thing's probably a distraction. Well except for your comments, they just revealed you. But, yeah, the balloon thing: probably a distraction.
Just because we found metallic balls doesn't mean it must be alien. It's far more likely an SCO state that's spying on the US.
Additionally, the last fictious alien event series around Roswell turned out to be the A12 (aka SR-71 Blackbird) that was being tested for its radar stealth capabilities.
Yet none of those tinfoil hats ever realized that...so...here we are, with "aliens" supposedly using a crappy technology like a balloon instead of warp-drive capable space ships. Because you know, space can be travelled in a balloon /s
If we take one question mark from each event, we can construct a very spooky narrative. But none of the question marks, on their own, seem all that peculiar.