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Sci-Fi United Kingdom Idle

Secret Files Reveal UK Police Feared That Trekkies Could Turn On Society 214

An anonymous reader writes: Scotland Yard was worried that fans of shows like the X Files and Star Trek might run amok during the Millennium according to secret files. The file, called UFO New Religious Movements (NRMs) And The Millennium, reveals that anti-terrorism experts were also concerned about the brain-washing effect of Dark Skies, Roswell, Millennium and The Lawnmower Man on viewers. According to the Telegraph: "The secret briefing note was obtained from the Met under the Freedom of Information Act by Sheffield-based British X-Files expert Dr Dave Clarke while researching a new book, How UFOs Conquered the World. Dr Clarke, who teaches investigative journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said: 'The documents show the police and security services were concerned about the export of some new religious movements concerning UFOs and aliens from the USA in the aftermath of the mass suicide by followers of the Heaven's Gate.'"
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Secret Files Reveal UK Police Feared That Trekkies Could Turn On Society

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  • Seems obvious now (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:13AM (#49741857)

    Sure, it seems obvious now, but I'm kind of glad we have people looking at these ridiculous scenarios and planning how to deal with them *just in case*. It's difficult to predict the unknown so might as well be prepared for it even if it's unlikely.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      well, they were just concerned that people are really, really, really stupid.

      which is fair. I mean, look at youtube now. full of newage idiots babbling about how we're moving to a new age and all that stuff. luckily the people who believe in that kind of crap and conspiracy theories about the government suppressing information about crystals usually just stick to their homes(and to scamming money out of other idiots, seriously, look at any youtube channel about newage/conspiracy stuff. if they have more tha

      • by Etherwalk ( 681268 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:53AM (#49741959)

        well, they were just concerned that people are really, really, really stupid.

        which is fair. I mean, look at youtube now. full of newage idiots babbling about how we're moving to a new age and all that stuff. luckily the people who believe in that kind of crap and conspiracy theories about the government suppressing information about crystals usually just stick to their homes(and to scamming money out of other idiots, seriously, look at any youtube channel about newage/conspiracy stuff. if they have more than 2 hours of content they want to sell you something, even if they're babbling about the end of the monetary system).

        This. It seems really stupid to think that these shows will lead someone down those roads--notably, if these shows will, so will almost anything. But sometimes people are really, really stupid. See, e.g.: anti-vaxxer movement. There probably actually *should* be a government conspiracy to silent the anti-vaxxer movement because it presents a serious threat to public health.

        We could call the conspiracy the "NIH" and ask it to do "peer-reviewed research." :)

        But a good propaganda machine designed to promote research over stupid ideas that threaten public safety, scary as it is, might actually be called for on occasion... be a bit transparent about it, but still.

        • Yeah, I read TFS as a big giant "holy cow are police forces actually this damned stupid?"

          How can these idiots take themselves seriously when they have such monumentally idiotic ideas? And why should they expect us to take them seriously?

          • by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Thursday May 21, 2015 @09:31AM (#49743425) Homepage

            Yeah, I read TFS as a big giant "holy cow are police forces actually this damned stupid?"

            How can these idiots take themselves seriously when they have such monumentally idiotic ideas? And why should they expect us to take them seriously?

            You're talking about someone who managed to make it his paid, full-time job to write X-File fanfic and hang out at Star Trek conventions, most likely putting everything on a government expense account. The word you're looking for isn't "stupid", it's "brilliant".

      • I guess you just stumbled into the videos for the "Endgame" AR-Game.

        Worst. Book. Ever.

    • Yes, you posted before me but they are my thoughts too.
      • Yes, you posted before me but they are my thoughts too.

        That's because THEY transmit the "thoughts" to people's brains... think about it!

        • Yes, you posted before me but they are my thoughts too.

          That's because THEY transmit the "thoughts" to people's brains... think about it!

          I tried thinking about it but the transmissions wouldn't let me.

          • Yes, you posted before me but they are my thoughts too.

            That's because THEY transmit the "thoughts" to people's brains... think about it!

            I tried thinking about it but the transmissions wouldn't let me.

            My God... you are old enough Slashdoter, do i have to treat you like a baby? Anyway: wear you tin foil hat first...

    • Re:Seems obvious now (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2015 @03:03AM (#49741977)

      I agree, I am glad the police are looking into trekkies, those people are strange and different and who knows what they are capable of! The police should investigate minority group and subculture, it's the only way to ensure our freedom. There are some very dangerous groups out there. Have you ever heard of slashot? They're like trekkies but with black hat hacker skills.. cyber criminals more dangerous than anything the police could have imagined in 1999. I hope the police investigate and round up the lot of them, better safe than sorry.

      • Re:Seems obvious now (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Rei ( 128717 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @04:58AM (#49742243) Homepage

        Can you imagine the dystopian dictatorship where trekkies come to power? All of the halls of power full of people walking around in spandex and fake ears and brow ridges, the fed directed to work toward the absolution of currency, the military directed to accelerate development of phasers and for all recruits to undergo "Kobayashi Maru" training.... NASA would finally get their proposed $18,5 billion dollar annual budget passed - except that the bill would have the word "annual" crossed out and the word "monthly" written in its place. National anti-bullying legislation would be passed, probably with a name like Spock's Law. And of course they'd insist on referring to the UN as the United Federation of Planets.

        • by mrxak ( 727974 )

          And they'd move the capital to the left coast. Ugh.

          • by Xiaran ( 836924 )
            In Star Trek SF in not the capital of the Federation. Earth is. A chunk of the infrastructure is located in SF but other cities(especially Paris) have other facilities.
            • by mrxak ( 727974 )

              I was just trying to make a joke about how California sucks, but sure, let's nerd fight.

              Starfleet Headquarters is in San Francisco
              The Federation Council is in San Francisco
              President of the United Federation of Planets is in Paris, but everyone knows the Federation Council has all the real power and it's been suggested the Federation is a parliamentary type system with the Council electing the President
              France is also coastal, and to the west of the bulk of the continent on which it resides, thus west coast.
              W

              • I maintain that if Trekkies took over the world, they would put their capital on a west coast.

                Unless we find a world where the sun rises in the west, in which case we'd put it on the EAST coast. It's all about the dramatic sunsets.

          • And they'd move the capital to the left coast. Ugh.

            Actually, they'd move it to Paris. San Francisco is home to Starfleet Academy, not the Federation capital.

            • by mrxak ( 727974 )

              The Federation Council is in San Francisco, too. Between them and Star Fleet HQ, the power is all in San Francisco.

        • Can you imagine the dystopian dictatorship where trekkies come to power?

          Nope. Neither can you despite a lot of imaging. It almost sounds...logical.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      You should see how high on the list anonymous Slashdot posters are. You're being watched, terrorist.
    • ... but I'm kind of glad we have people looking at these ridiculous scenarios and planning how to deal with them *just in case* ...

      Those motherfucking assholes are the real life version of the keystone kops --- They always do the wrong thing

      Had the assholes really know their stuffs that British soldier Lee Rigby would still be alive today

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... [wikipedia.org]

      And the London tube wouldn't have been bombed

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7... [wikipedia.org]

      • I love how on slashdot the surveillance society is pure fascist evil, until the surveillance isn't quite good enough and something bad happens, then it's the government's fault for not doing the surveillance right and stopping the terrorists.
    • Sure, it seems obvious now, but I'm kind of glad we have people looking at these ridiculous scenarios and planning how to deal with them *just in case*. It's difficult to predict the unknown so might as well be prepared for it even if it's unlikely.

      No doubt they are looking into a Slashdotter's apocalypse, where thousands of us come en masse out of our mother's basements, and make out with every woman we see.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Justifying a budget by inventing hypothetical enemies.

    It's Tony Blair's fault. He expanded the police force far beyond any needs, and let them set up 'private companies' to coordinate their plans.

    Those private companies became political campaign groups that expand laws to justify increased budgets. When we elect a leader to get a grip on these scaremongering oppressive ass-shats, their PR people go out and campaign against the politicians plans.

    So you see endless stories with policeman hypothesizing new cri

  • by bug1 ( 96678 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:42AM (#49741925)

    With those uniforms ?

  • by crbowman ( 7970 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:44AM (#49741933) Homepage

    The article labels them "anti-terrorism experts" but the mere fact that they even considered this long enough for there to have been a written record belies that title and proves instead that they are "anti-terrorism idiots".

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Either than or they are heavily into UFOs and the real threat there were considering was humans allying with the aliens against existing power structures. This whole government attack on all things UFO based on the ludicrous idea that humans are the only intelligent species in this galaxy, really is beginning to smell more like their complete and total impotence when it keeps to dealing with stuff not of this world or even just the idea of it. So they are desperate to maintain a front of control and author

    • The article labels them "anti-terrorism experts" but the mere fact that they even considered this long enough for there to have been a written record belies that title and proves instead that they are "anti-terrorism idiots".

      One might be tempted to assume this is a hoax. Unfortunately we have examples of similar hysteria from decades past that make one seriously consider that this might be true. It is really strange how people manage to get themselves into a state of utter hysteria about some minority ethnic, cultural or even cultural sub group. Punks, hippies, jews, gypsies, gays, social democrats... to name a few have all caused the elements within society that are prone to worrying themselves to death or who just simply enjo

    • The article labels them "anti-terrorism experts" but the mere fact that they even considered this long enough for there to have been a written record belies that title and proves instead that they are "anti-terrorism idiots".

      They were idiots if they acted on those suspicions and started spying on Comic Con or individual geeks, but to have never researched them at all would have been stupider by far.

      Geeks are a major cultural force and a lot of those shows have their own utopian ideology mixed in, the 20th century is basically a story of different ideologies fighting it out, Democracy, Communism, Fascism, etc. Almost certainly nothing sinister would ever emerge from Trekkies, but when you have a national law enforcement agency t

    • The article labels them "anti-terrorism experts" but the mere fact that they even considered this long enough for there to have been a written record belies that title and proves instead that they are "anti-terrorism idiots".

      Or they could just be sci-fi wannabe writers themselves.

      Not everyone can write a good sci-fi conspiracy theory, but many people still try anyway.

  • by Forever Wondering ( 2506940 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:47AM (#49741947)

    Trekkies always keep their phasers set to stun ...

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2015 @02:48AM (#49741949)

    Wanna keep us off the streets? Stop canceling our goddam sci-fi shows!

  • Reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by symes ( 835608 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @03:13AM (#49742001) Journal

    The dossier – called UFO New Religious Movements and the Millennium – was drawn up in response to the 1997 mass suicide by 39 cultists in San Diego known as Heaven's Gate.

    Given that cults with a somewhat "sci-fi" approach to their idiocy exist it seems fair game to, at the very least, think through possible scenarios and plan accordingly. This is surely good disaster planning, certainly logical. What has happened here, it seems, is that someone has suggested regular "trekkies" are the real risk to garner attention and to sell someone's book.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Do I believe in UFOs and little green men? No, but shows like Dark Skies and The X Files taught me to question everything, especially information provided by those in power. That's what made shows like that useful. Now with Snowden et al we find that governments have been lying to us for years.

  • 2038 will be a whole new level. Machines will run amok.
    • by Andy_R ( 114137 )

      Never mind 2038, it's 2048 when the Y2K bug hits us that we'll really be in trouble.

  • by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @04:01AM (#49742101)
    that Men in Black flashy thing.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Trekkies can't turn on anyone!

  • by Afty0r ( 263037 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @04:43AM (#49742219) Homepage

    Protecting people from evil cults (even if they got the specifics of meme transmission a bit off by choosing "X-Files" and similar) is definitely something I would like my government to do. You need to research the cults, methods etc. to do that.

    Further, if this was in existence a few decades ago, perhaps we would have nipped Scientology in the bud before it landed in the UK.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I don't want the police deciding what belief I can and cannot follow, be that Trekky, Catholic, Dr Who or 'theatons' .

      And you think its *OTHER* peoples cults they would protect against, but why should your choices get to be the special ones permitted? Freedom of expression is a right and not just for you.

    • If you wanted to nip Scientology in the bud, you could do so by fighting their lawyers to make it safe to expose their wrongdoing. But preventing blackmail and protecting whistleblowers isn't in line with the wishes of those in power.
    • Protecting people from evil cults (even if they got the specifics of meme transmission a bit off by choosing "X-Files" and similar) is definitely something I would like my government to do.

      I do not want my government involved in such things. I want my government involved in infrastructure and physical harm mediation. Protecting me is not on my list of things a government should do.

      Yes, there is some protection afforded by the fact that the government will mediate physical harm issues, but the subtle point is that it is not done for protection but to mediate after the harm has already been done. You can not actually prevent ANYTHING.

    • by Alsee ( 515537 )

      Further, if this was in existence a few decades ago, perhaps we would have nipped Scientology in the bud before it landed in the UK.

      If it were in existence ~1400 years ago, perhaps we would have nipped Islam in the bud.

      If it were in existence ~2000 years ago, perhaps we would have nipped Christianity in the bud.

      And I wonder how many readers agreed with my first line, then threw a shit-fit when they got to my second line.

      -

  • The British Government is afraid of sci-fi that is actually written well enough to inspire people in any way.
    • Except that, even if you don't care for the pantomime style, Doctor Who often rips the shit out of politicians, the military and religion. Plus, there are other British shows like Utopia, Black Mirror, Life on Mars/Ashes To Ashes and Orphan Black (OK - the latter is a US/BBC co-production) that 'do' conspiracies and social comment in ways that the traditional US TV networks wouldn't touch with a bargepole (looking forward to "Humans" although I understand that's a remake of a Scandinavian show). US viewers

  • When I saw this article on the front page of Slashdot, there were 47 [memory-alpha.org] comments on it.

  • Didn't Futurama have an episode like that? Where Star Trek became a religion and was banned at some point? I gotta find me that episode!

  • Given the vast weirdness of the government bureaucracy and its penchant for contingency plans for all kinds of events, I wonder if contingency plans for some branch of the government trying to take over based on paranoid contingency plans has ever happened.

    • Given the veneer some contingency plans get (zombie apoc as a veneer for disease outbreak and riot scenario), "Trekkie" might have been code for something else in this contingency.
      • by swb ( 14022 )

        Given the potential universe of wacky cults, from Scientology to the Heaven's Gate to Aum Shinrikyo to Jim Jones' People's Temple, it might make sense to think about the risks associated with cults.

        Especially if you factor in that Heavens Gate attracted a lot of people with IT smarts and Aum Shinrikyo tried to sarin gas the subway. Even if they don't become mass phenomenons there's some risk that bizarre millennial thought coupled with above average intelligence could lead to some bad outcomes.

  • Journalism 101 (Score:5, Informative)

    by itsdapead ( 734413 ) on Thursday May 21, 2015 @06:51AM (#49742499)

    The headline:

    Scotland Yard was worried that fans of shows like the X Files and Star Trek might run amok during the Millennium according to secret files.

    The actual story:

    'The documents show the police and security services were concerned about the export of some new religious movements concerning UFOs and aliens from the USA in the aftermath of the mass suicide by followers of the Heaven's Gate.'"

    Slight difference...

    Anyway, was this going to be the Star Trek Wars or the Star Wars Trek?

  • by Greyfox ( 87712 )
    I'm glad they were worried about Trekkies and not, like, Islamic State. Or super AIDS. You know, just one teaspoon of super AIDS in your blood and you're dead in three years. So just remember, intelligence agencies, there's nothing to be afraid of. Except super AIDS.
  • To the government, everyone looks like a potential criminal.

  • ..."Have a friend that excels in math and science? Report him!"
  • Even more reasons I am glad I am done with the government. Its seems like ever last seemingly innocous habbit I had as a kid the government saw as some part of ungodly conspiracy. From loud rock music, to computer skills, now riding harleys.

    I can't win, they know it, I know it. So fuck them.

  • Terrorism is a red shirt.

Avoid strange women and temporary variables.

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