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What’s next? Oh, it’s UFOs, I guess

Published by marco on

Hot off the presses of the conspiracy-theory pressure-cooker is the idea that the new movie Don’t Look Up—which is about a world that ignores the dire warnings of scientists about an incoming comet—is “predictive programming”. I suppose that means that it’s not just entertainment, but material intended to train people into acquiescence when something does arrive? Like aliens? The article Looks like that global UFO “attack” may be impending after all by Mark Crispin Miller (News from Underground) includes this quote from a reader,

“I am now officially: seriously impressed—by your prediction that aliens/space-based lunacy would be the Next Big Thing.[1]

The letter goes on,

“But here it is, with timeline included: Home – NetflixThe movie “Don’t Look Up”[2] with a massive all-star cast, including headliner Leonardo DiCaprio, gives the predictive programming […]”

It is unclear why the writer chose to emphasize Leonardo, but it’s probably because he’s known as an eco-warrior? Because climate-change doesn’t exist? I’m not that far into the scene that I can discern every nuance.

At any rate, the author seems convinced that this entertainment movie is propaganda by the government to soften up the populace for continued subjugation and that it’s “conveniently timed to the midterm elections!”

Wait, what? Those elections are over 11 months away. How does that make this movie’s release “conveniently timed”? That’s the conspiracy mindset, though. Everything’s a sign, man.

I know that it seems like low-hanging fruit to engage this kind of stuff. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel to make it look silly. But it’s important to try to understand what makes these theories—and their promulgators—tick because we do have to live in a society together. We need to understand them and they need to understand us. We have to make our case to them just as much as they need to make their case to us. For that, we need communication. The first step is to listen to what they’re saying.


[1] I continue to be fascinated by how people communicate with one another, especially in how they use punctuation. The do it like sprinkling salt and pepper into a dish: you’re not really concerned with where each individual salt or pepper grain lands, but more that there is enough. That colon between “officially” and “seriously” and the M-dash between “impressed” and “by” cannot really be explained in any other way.
[2] This person clearly has no idea what punctuation is for. Either that or it’s an AI grasping at the rules.