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OK, I'll say it plainly: Ancient Aliens theories are quite racist, as they implicitly assume that brown people can't build big monuments without external help.

by msla 7y ago

OK, I'll say it plainly: Ancient Aliens theories are quite racist, as they implicitly assume that brown people can't build big monuments without external help. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/01/02/close-encounters-racist-kind https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/01/02/close-encount... https://hyperallergic.com/470795/pseudoarchaeology-and-the-racism-behind-ancient-aliens/ https://hyperallergic.com/470795/pseudoarchaeology-and-the-r... > It is notable that many (though not all) extraterrestrial theories focus on archaeological structures at sites within Egypt, Africa, South America, and North America — a fact that has led some academics to see beliefs in ancient alien engineers as a stalking horse for racism. In a piece for the online journal The Conversation rather frankly titled “Racism is Behind Outlandish Theories about Africa’s Ancient Architecture,” Julien Benoit, a postdoctoral researcher in vertebrate paleontology at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), addressed the continued harm of these theories: >> Firstly, these people try to prove their theories by travelling the world and desecrating ancient artefacts. Secondly, they perpetuate and give air to the racist notion that only Europeans – white people – ever were and ever will be capable of such architectural feats.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
I'm sorry, but... what?! > It is notable that many (though not all) extraterrestrial theories focus on archaeological structures at sites within Egypt, Africa, South America, and North America — a fact that has led some academics to see beliefs in ancient alien engineers as a stalking horse for racism. How about, they focus on those sites because that's where human civilization started in the first place? They'd happily focus on London, if London existed in 10000 B.C. Ancient Aliens people are crackpots[0], but are mostly harmless ones. But taking that and viewing it as "stalking horse for racism" is just trying to score cheap virtue points. It's worse than crackpottery in my book. -- [0] - I'm not one of them; to be clear, I was just making a drive-by StarGate joke, as I always do in such topics if I see that no one has made it before, because it's a notable scifi franchise that took the "ancient aliens" concept and went wild with it.
- msla 7y ago
  > It's worse than crackpottery in my book. No, denying that racism has a role to play here is worse than crackpottery.
flukus 7y ago
There's a lot of crackpot theories about stonehenge too and you don't get much more pasty white than the people there. I'm sure there'd be more if there were more more big monuments in Europe. As for "brown people", depending on who and when you ask those people can be considered "white people", North African and the Middle east have usually been considered Caucasian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race), historically Mediterranean is a better designation for different cultures than European/African/Black/White/etc. Even today East Asians and North Americans will be considered "white people", depending on who has a bone to pick with who. They are quite openly racist against the reptilian species secretly running the world however. Often very anti-semetic too.
- msla 7y ago
  > There's a lot of crackpot theories about stonehenge too and you don't get much more pasty white than the people there. Ah, but they were "uncivilized" Whites, and there's much more interest in the idea that African and Mesoamerican civilizations didn't build their monuments. It's quite obvious once you take off the "They're harmless!" blinders and look at what they're saying.

by msla 7y ago

TeMPOraL 7y ago

I'm sorry, but... what?! > It is notable that many (though not all) extraterrestrial theories focus on archaeological structures at sites within Egypt, Africa, South America, and North America — a fact that has led some academics to see beliefs in ancient alien engineers as a stalking horse for racism. How about, they focus on those sites because that's where human civilization started in the first place? They'd happily focus on London, if London existed in 10000 B.C. Ancient Aliens people are crackpots[0], but are mostly harmless ones. But taking that and viewing it as "stalking horse for racism" is just trying to score cheap virtue points. It's worse than crackpottery in my book. -- [0] - I'm not one of them; to be clear, I was just making a drive-by StarGate joke, as I always do in such topics if I see that no one has made it before, because it's a notable scifi franchise that took the "ancient aliens" concept and went wild with it.

msla 7y ago
> It's worse than crackpottery in my book. No, denying that racism has a role to play here is worse than crackpottery.

flukus 7y ago

There's a lot of crackpot theories about stonehenge too and you don't get much more pasty white than the people there. I'm sure there'd be more if there were more more big monuments in Europe. As for "brown people", depending on who and when you ask those people can be considered "white people", North African and the Middle east have usually been considered Caucasian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race), historically Mediterranean is a better designation for different cultures than European/African/Black/White/etc. Even today East Asians and North Americans will be considered "white people", depending on who has a bone to pick with who. They are quite openly racist against the reptilian species secretly running the world however. Often very anti-semetic too.

msla 7y ago
> There's a lot of crackpot theories about stonehenge too and you don't get much more pasty white than the people there. Ah, but they were "uncivilized" Whites, and there's much more interest in the idea that African and Mesoamerican civilizations didn't build their monuments. It's quite obvious once you take off the "They're harmless!" blinders and look at what they're saying.