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edogawa rando posted:To be honest, this is something I've occasionally wondered about while watching an episode of something like Star Trek. I mean I think it would depend on the story. Like War of the Worlds is very clear a critique on British imperialism and poo poo. The Martians are stand ins for colonial powers. It's a story that asks "wouldn't it be hosed up if someone did to YT what YT is doing to everyone else?" Right down to disease doing what the technologically inferior weaponry of the native peoples could not. But stuff like Independence Day and other stories where there's no real "actually, the aliens represent a hosed up attribute of people and the story is really 'boy, humans suck'" yeah, those would read pretty bad.
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Feb 13, 2023 14:40
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edogawa rando posted:Yeah, War of the Worlds was the first thing that popped into mind. Independence Day would be the much better example, TBH. Although even then if you want to whitewash for aliens - and you know people would try - ID4 you could still argue that it's in a roundabout way critical of humanity. The only thing that can force human beings to behave in a civilized manner and come together, putting aside pointless differences, is a literal existential threat that fucks us up harder than anything else since the Toba Eruption has. Like it's funny to think of it that way, but yeah. While it's schmaltzy and on its surface and intended to be an optimistic story about how people are fundamentally good, ultimately ID4 is ridiculously cynical. Only a threat as overwhelming as the aliens in that film would force us to behave. That doesn't say good things about us.
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Feb 19, 2023 10:37
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Yep. And Carl Sagan made it a few times as well. But yeah, it's definitely not an intended theme or message of ID4. For a film with such an insane bodycount, ID4 really is optimistic and idealistic in its depiction of people. It's one of the most 90s things out there.
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Feb 20, 2023 11:33
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tadashi posted:My biggest worry is that we'd encounter an alien race like the extremist Skrulls in the Marvel Universe who also believe that their supreme being has commanded them to conquer and convert all life. That was just one faction of them and only gained ground because between Galactus and then the Annihilation Wave, their civilization was destroyed and their species nearly wiped out. It was very much a realistic radicalization pipeline. Hence why Veranke went from "that crazy relative of the Emperor" to "our savior." But yeah. Aliens pose an existential threat for messianic religions because, well, why did a loving God create them but not send a messiah unto them? Like all of the possible answers are problematic for religion.
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Feb 24, 2023 03:57
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Why does the Bible not mention them, even in metaphorical terms? Why did God visit no prophets at all upon them, only humanity? The list goes on. Like basically the bulk of the logical issues with Christianity that aren't more pure logic stuff like issues with the Incarnation or Godhead become amplified a lot once you add other planets into the mix. Do aliens have their own Hell? If not why did we not get mention of them in the Harrowing? What if human food, or at least bread and/or wine, is toxic to them? Why would Jesus choose to make his body and blood something these beings cannot process? I'm sure given enough time there would be handwavey non-answers that the apologists would put forth that would satisfy most people, but I absolutely think it would be a very serious crisis of faith for a lot of the more religious folks.
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Feb 24, 2023 11:31
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