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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 10:47 am
How is the X-Files any worse than Star Wars ("use the force") or Superman or any other movie or TV show with impossible things going on? It is fiction, and it isn't trying to be a documentary. (As an aside, some of the episodes are very funny; the writers clearly had a sense of humor. I never much cared for the show, but my wife, who is a devout atheist and nonbeliever in alien visitations and other paranormal nonsense, did like the show, so I have seen quite a bit of it.)
If you make a list of movies with impossible things and throw them away, you will eliminate or nearly eliminate entire genres of movies, like fantasy (in toto), science fiction (almost all are bad science with magic gravity in spaceships, etc.), action (e.g., people do not fly backwards when shot with a handheld gun), horror (with only very few exceptions of realistic killers), etc.
Basically, most fiction films and TV are ridiculous. Many times, intentionally so, other times because the people who made it are idiots.
Excluding very young children, people who cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality have very serious problems.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 11:02 am
(This post was last modified: May 31, 2015 at 11:03 am by Alex K.)
Pyrrho,
As opposed to SW, X-Files was set in the present, in the same world as the viewer,and it claimed a conspiracy
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 12:22 pm
(May 31, 2015 at 11:02 am)Alex K Wrote: Pyrrho,
As opposed to SW, X-Files was set in the present, in the same world as the viewer,and it claimed a conspiracy
I agree with Alex. That was one of the premises of the show, and it catered to people who fall for such claims.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."--Thomas Jefferson
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 12:41 pm
(May 31, 2015 at 11:02 am)Alex K Wrote: Pyrrho,
As opposed to SW, X-Files was set in the present, in the same world as the viewer,and it claimed a conspiracy
It is clearly not the same world we inhabit. It resembles it in some ways, but we do not live in a world like the show depicts.
In the Superman story, Superman is supposed to be living on earth. Would you say that that means that Superman is in the same world as the viewer? He also conspires to hide his identity.
I don't see any of this as relevant. It is fiction. It was not presented as a news story or documentary.
Now, it may appeal to people with certain predispositions to particular kinds of delusions. But the same may be said of Star Wars and "the force." Or one could bring up The Fifth Element, as some people believe that ancient civilizations were visited by aliens. But it is fiction, not a documentary or serious attempt at describing reality.
To put this another way, the X-Files is not going to convince anyone that there really is a government conspiracy to hide alien visitations. Someone who already believes such nonsense may (or may not) particularly like the series, but the series is not the source of such a ridiculous view of the world.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 1:17 pm
I agree in that I would never blame the X-Files for the existence of conspiracy nuts, but you can't seriously suggest that the world depicted in the X-Files doesn't have a much higher level of realism than Star Wars or Superman (in fact, people can immediately know that they do not live in Superman's universe because the existence of Superman is not a secret in-universe.)
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 1:31 pm
I rate X-Files right up there with Lost. I just could not get into it. There was so much 'nothing' going on and then you sneeze or blink and miss the only relevant event. I enjoyed the premise of the show, but it was poorly done IMHO. It was like a lot of shows in that they were not catering to me, but rather the susceptible sheep that would go out and buy the advertised garbage. And that is not to say that everyone that watched and enjoyed it was a couch potato sheep, but most were.
Now Firefly ... I guess the sheep did not like that show.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 2:10 pm
(May 31, 2015 at 1:17 pm)Alex K Wrote: I agree in that I would never blame the X-Files for the existence of conspiracy nuts, but you can't seriously suggest that the world depicted in the X-Files doesn't have a much higher level of realism than Star Wars or Superman (in fact, people can immediately know that they do not live in Superman's universe because the existence of Superman is not a secret in-universe.)
Having seen a good number of the episodes of the X-Files, I can confidently assert that it is full of crazy nonsense, and is not more realistic than Superman. Both involve us being visited by aliens, who do basically magical things (though there may be some pretense that it isn't magic). But in the case of the X-Files, there is also a good amount of nonsense that isn't presented as being from aliens, but is apparently just a part of the world. I do not recall anything in the Superman story that is earthly and supernatural, just earthly and science fictional. For Superman to be as unrealistic as the X-Files, there would need to be earthly supernatural nonsense.
My guess is that you have not watched much of the X-Files. Otherwise, if you think it is even remotely realistic, your grasp of reality must be much less than I have presumed to be the case.
We could look at this another way. The odds of the X-Files being an accurate representation of reality are precisely the same as the odds of Superman being an accurate representation of reality.
The difference you perceive is, I think, not in the shows, but in the fact that there are crazy people who believe some of the types of nonsense depicted in the X-Files, but there are not (at least not many) who believe in the nonsense depicted in Superman. That is not due to the show being more realistic; it is that the basic ideas for the show comes from real craziness instead of artificial craziness. That makes it more like the movie The Omen, which also is based on craziness that people actually believe.
Perhaps you object to basing a ridiculous show on ideas that crazy people actually have, rather than on ideas that some [presumably] sane person dreams up. And there might be a legitimate reason to object to that. But it does not make the show more realistic.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 2:14 pm
(This post was last modified: May 31, 2015 at 2:15 pm by IATIA.)
(May 31, 2015 at 2:10 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: For Superman to be as unrealistic as the X-Files, there would need to be earthly supernatural nonsense.
Mister Mxyzptlk? One of Superman's weaknesses is magic. He has had various encounters with magic, including "earthly" witches.
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 2:17 pm
All great art holds a mirror up to society, making us see ourselves as we truly are and showing possible consequences if things don't change. I'm not claiming that the X-Files is great art, but without real world conspiracy believers it could never have been made. That it has a modern day setting and claims a conspiracy is precisely the point. Take the Lone Gunmen, Mulder's Baker Street Irregulars working from a basement. They may have access to an impressive amount of espionage technology and a network of underground contacts, but aside from advancing the plot occasionally their major impact in this world is producing a newspaper with an increasingly dwindling readership. Even their own readers think they're crazy.
That certain sections of viewers take it seriously enough to consider it a documentary says more about the viewing public than the X-Files. Lots of people think soaps are real as well, sending flowers when a character is killed off.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: X-Fleas, why I hate that show!
May 31, 2015 at 2:27 pm
I love X-files! Fox is a fox, and Scully isn't bad either. 
But seriously, what evryone else already said. I know some people who claim to be Jedi's (this is a pretty small movement, but it exists as a religious movement), and Star Wars was the direct cause of that. Where-as X-Files drew on existing lore and conspiracy theories, though it may have created a few more CT's, most people viewing it realize it's just fun fiction.
Plus, the subtle humor and great chemistry/relationship between the main characters was a rare gem in TV shows. Cont me amongst those looking forward to the revival.
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