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Secret Files Reveal UK Police Feared That Trekkies Could Turn On Society
An anonymous reader writes: Scotland Yard was worried that fans of shows like the X Files and Star Trek might run amok during the Millennium according to secret files. The file, called UFO New Religious Movements (NRMs) And The Millennium, reveals that anti-terrorism experts were also concerned about the brain-washing effect of Dark Skies, Roswell, Millennium and The Lawnmower Man on viewers. According to the Telegraph: "The secret briefing note was obtained from the Met under the Freedom of Information Act by Sheffield-based British X-Files expert Dr Dave Clarke while researching a new book, How UFOs Conquered the World. Dr Clarke, who teaches investigative journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said: 'The documents show the police and security services were concerned about the export of some new religious movements concerning UFOs and aliens from the USA in the aftermath of the mass suicide by followers of the Heaven's Gate.'"
Sure, it seems obvious now, but I'm kind of glad we have people looking at these ridiculous scenarios and planning how to deal with them *just in case*. It's difficult to predict the unknown so might as well be prepared for it even if it's unlikely.
Its funny that they should be concerned about this but go out of the way to say that so many real acts of terrorism committed by Muslims using the Qur'an as justification "have nothing to do with Islam".
Justifying a budget by inventing hypothetical enemies.
It's Tony Blair's fault. He expanded the police force far beyond any needs, and let them set up 'private companies' to coordinate their plans.
Those private companies became political campaign groups that expand laws to justify increased budgets. When we elect a leader to get a grip on these scaremongering oppressive ass-shats, their PR people go out and campaign against the politicians plans.
So you see endless stories with policeman hypothesizing new crimes and dividing society by creating suspicion.
I am watching Adventure Time episodes now, hope it does not turn me violent
captcha: idealism
With those uniforms ?
The article labels them "anti-terrorism experts" but the mere fact that they even considered this long enough for there to have been a written record belies that title and proves instead that they are "anti-terrorism idiots".
These guys really believe the public is weak-minded enough to be 'brainwashed' by silly film & tv fiction. This speaks volumes about how out-of-touch with reality and utterly disconnected from society these guys are.
Trekkies always keep their phasers set to stun ...
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
Wanna keep us off the streets? Stop canceling our goddam sci-fi shows!
The dossier – called UFO New Religious Movements and the Millennium – was drawn up in response to the 1997 mass suicide by 39 cultists in San Diego known as Heaven's Gate.
Given that cults with a somewhat "sci-fi" approach to their idiocy exist it seems fair game to, at the very least, think through possible scenarios and plan accordingly. This is surely good disaster planning, certainly logical. What has happened here, it seems, is that someone has suggested regular "trekkies" are the real risk to garner attention and to sell someone's book.
Do I believe in UFOs and little green men? No, but shows like Dark Skies and The X Files taught me to question everything, especially information provided by those in power. That's what made shows like that useful. Now with Snowden et al we find that governments have been lying to us for years.
We need shitloads of those TV shows to keep those "experts" busy, perhaps then they do less damage to the things that matter. Denial-of-service attack FTW!
2038 will be a whole new level. Machines will run amok.
that Men in Black flashy thing.
Trekkies can't turn on anyone!
Protecting people from evil cults (even if they got the specifics of meme transmission a bit off by choosing "X-Files" and similar) is definitely something I would like my government to do. You need to research the cults, methods etc. to do that.
Further, if this was in existence a few decades ago, perhaps we would have nipped Scientology in the bud before it landed in the UK.
... but I'm kind of glad we have people looking at these ridiculous scenarios and planning how to deal with them *just in case* ...
Those motherfucking assholes are the real life version of the keystone kops --- They always do the wrong thing
Had the assholes really know their stuffs that British soldier Lee Rigby would still be alive today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
And the London tube wouldn't have been bombed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7...
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
So let me get this straight: islam is all fine and dandy, but trekkies are considered a religious problem?
If anyone knows any starships leaving for a saner planet please let me know...
The British Government is afraid of sci-fi that is actually written well enough to inspire people in any way.
... 10.000 cosplayers dressed up as Borg to the great amusement of all non-basement dweller declared London fully assimilated on January 1st, 2000.
When I saw this article on the front page of Slashdot, there were 47 comments on it.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
X-Files was supposed to be an over-the-top conspiracy filled sci-fi series, but considering what we've all learned in the past few years about the spy scandals they weren't that far off with their conspiracies.
Protecting people from evil cults (even if they got the specifics of meme transmission a bit off by choosing "X-Files" and similar) is definitely something I would like my government to do. You need to research the cults, methods etc. to do that.
Further, if this was in existence a few decades ago, perhaps we would have nipped Scientology in the bud before it landed in the UK.
And if it were done a few decades before that, we could have avoided giving the underclasses any of those expensive, nasty human rights they are constantly drumming on about. This evil cult of not knowing one's place should have been stamped out a long time ago. Now we will have to try even harder to get the UK's house in order.
Why is it that the people who accuse others of being mentally unstable seem to be the mentally unstable ones?
Sure, there were probably a handful of sci-fi fans to be concerned about. On the other hand, those people are not in a position of power and are generally frowned upon to start with. Yet the police and security services are in a position of power, while having a greater means to act upon their paranoia. Those are the ones to worry about.
Didn't Futurama have an episode like that? Where Star Trek became a religion and was banned at some point? I gotta find me that episode!
This is considered ridiculous and absurd?
Yet, when Anita Sarkeesian says that video games are evil because they're violent and sexist and misogynistic and gamers are rapists and stalkers and sending death threats (when they actually aren't) and blaming everything on "male toxicity", we consider that fucking reasonable?
How is that shit any different from this?!
Given the vast weirdness of the government bureaucracy and its penchant for contingency plans for all kinds of events, I wonder if contingency plans for some branch of the government trying to take over based on paranoid contingency plans has ever happened.
The headline:
Scotland Yard was worried that fans of shows like the X Files and Star Trek might run amok during the Millennium according to secret files.
The actual story:
'The documents show the police and security services were concerned about the export of some new religious movements concerning UFOs and aliens from the USA in the aftermath of the mass suicide by followers of the Heaven's Gate.'"
Slight difference...
Anyway, was this going to be the Star Trek Wars or the Star Wars Trek?
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
I don't want the police deciding what belief I can and cannot follow, be that Trekky, Catholic, Dr Who or 'theatons' .
And you think its *OTHER* peoples cults they would protect against, but why should your choices get to be the special ones permitted? Freedom of expression is a right and not just for you.
My mom disowned me for prefering Picard over Kirk.
They worry us right wingers will rise up.
I suspect the Jedi are behind this.
I'm glad they were worried about Trekkies and not, like, Islamic State. Or super AIDS. You know, just one teaspoon of super AIDS in your blood and you're dead in three years. So just remember, intelligence agencies, there's nothing to be afraid of. Except super AIDS.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
To the government, everyone looks like a potential criminal.
If you wanted to nip Scientology in the bud, you could do so by fighting their lawyers to make it safe to expose their wrongdoing. But preventing blackmail and protecting whistleblowers isn't in line with the wishes of those in power.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
It's not the Trekkies you need to worry about. Hell no.
It's those dastardly and sinister Trekkers that you have to watch.
Tonight let's party like it's Space 1999....
..."Have a friend that excels in math and science? Report him!"
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
And give us bread, too!
When someone says, "Any fool can see
I have been worried about those Pentecostals for over a century now. They stole my relatives to the abyss of Purgatory, abused my uncle by messing up his marriage and made me avoid my cousins like plague. Oh, and those other movements are fun as well: my moving man told about his role in naturally fertilizing the wives of the believers who can't get it up during the national yearly religious get-together with tens of thousands of people there.
Why are American Asians a special bunch?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I can't win, they know it, I know it. So fuck them.
And this just solidifies that.
Why are American Asians a special bunch?
Cause they got the best looking chicks.
"Herbert" is a derogatory term for a rigid, hidebound person, named from an unimaginative "minor official", notorious for his "limited patterns of thought".
The Star Trek Wars
Terrorism is a red shirt.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
Wow, logic fail that just keeps on trucking.
A) "...the surveillance society is pure fascist evil" - repeatedly revealed by history as a not only valid, but an undeniably true statement (Power corrupts and so on)
B) "...the government's fault for not doing the surveillance right..." - Pervasive surveillance is not only evil, it is used incompetently, or maliciously (let certain things happen to scare the public and increase power/control.)
A) and B) are in no way contradictory. They are complementary.
Stop pretending that the two opinions you mock are some kind of contradiction. They are both the essence of a very powerful argument against a surveillance society.
I suspect they were more concerned with the socialist aspect of the whole thing.
This could make a pretty good X-Files episode:
"Dark powers and Black Ops in government are afraid of citizens taking the X-Files too seriously. Leading to black helicopters landing and taking the suspects to a secret desert base for reprogramming. The reprogrammed citizens are then returned for use as double agents, spying on the local fan groups!"
The trekkies and conspiracy nuts grew up and got government jobs. Remember 911 we invaded Iraq and only the conspiracy nuts in the white house knew why.
Maybe in the United Kingdom Scotland Yard fears local fans of American science fiction programs, but they got it backwards. The real troublemakers, tracked by the F.B.I. and U.S. Secret Service, are American fans of the British television show Doctor Who. The American authorities fear that these American fans might go mad and kill themselves, turn against society or start a weird cult. After all, it is patently obvious that X-Files and Star Trek convey perfectly normal behaviors, but Doctor Who presents some very odd and disturbing ideas, not to mention the strange accents and misspellings of simple words like "color" and "civilization".
Protecting people from evil cults (even if they got the specifics of meme transmission a bit off by choosing "X-Files" and similar) is definitely something I would like my government to do.
I do not want my government involved in such things. I want my government involved in infrastructure and physical harm mediation. Protecting me is not on my list of things a government should do.
Yes, there is some protection afforded by the fact that the government will mediate physical harm issues, but the subtle point is that it is not done for protection but to mediate after the harm has already been done. You can not actually prevent ANYTHING.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
This reminds the Futurama episode "Where no fan has gone before"
Further, if this was in existence a few decades ago, perhaps we would have nipped Scientology in the bud before it landed in the UK.
If it were in existence ~1400 years ago, perhaps we would have nipped Islam in the bud.
If it were in existence ~2000 years ago, perhaps we would have nipped Christianity in the bud.
And I wonder how many readers agreed with my first line, then threw a shit-fit when they got to my second line.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.