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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.
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".
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.
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.
I've read neither in about 20 years since taking a comparative religion class at school.
It's the same God in both the OT and the NT. I wonder why, when Christianity's holy book's text is looked at, people leap through hoops to try to break apart the trinity or add all sorts of explanations for the hideous, God-sanctioned behaviour, with the Qu'ran it's apparently a factual guide book and evidence that all Muslims are violent psychopaths. It's all bullshit. Most Christians don't live by the Bible just as most Muslims don't live by the Qu'ran.
But whatever. This discussion is pointless. Neither book is at all suitable for teaching how to behave to your fellow man.
Fuck off Islam apologist. Sure, not all muslim are islamist, but all Islamist are muslim.
Not all people in Northern Ireland during the Troubles were terrorists, but all the Northern Irish terrorists during the Troubles were from Northern Ireland, so anyone from Northern Ireland was probably a terrorist.
The argument is ludicrous. Hint: the number of terrorists is tiny compared with the total population.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it