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This type of thing is called spectacle. It is designed to titillate and distract people from real political action and prevent people who are easily fooled from
by hayst4ck 1y ago
This type of thing is called spectacle. It is designed to titillate and distract people from real political action and prevent people who are easily fooled from applying their attention and effort to things that actually effect their lives. The ability to direct attention is an ability that creates pacification.
This UFO stuff seems to frequently break into my scope of attention when there are big things happening politically.
Authoritarians also love the "occult" and the idea of aliens fit that category. Occult beliefs legitimize irrational behavior.
- jjtheblunt 1y agoAre you assuming people take this stuff seriously in the large, rather than just amusement?
- hayst4ck 1y agoAbsolutely, and if you don't think they do, you live in a great amount of privilege.
- jjtheblunt 1y agoWell that's a wildly wrong guess. Regardless, if you've not seen the existence of or any episode of Ancient Aliens (or Finding Bigfoot) you'll see what i'm saying: some of these spectacles are more for fun than for politics, because they can be outright funny.
- hayst4ck 1y agoIt's not funny when your relatives or elderly family members unironically consider it/believe it.
- jjtheblunt 1y agoTrue!
- tomrod 1y agoOooooh yes. Several group chats I'm on with family or kids I knew growing up are blowing up with "See, I told you!" I blame 80s AM non-religious talk radio for this one.
- squigz 1y agoEven putting aside the crazies that do passionately believe in this stuff, a lot of fairly regular people, who may not necessarily truly believe it, still think about it as a sort of "But what if it's true?" mindset, which still plays into the issue GP describes.
- esseph 1y agoI have some news for you... It's worse than you think.
- willsoon 1y agooh come on, comrades, why the down-votes? I am with you