Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Ancient Aliens.
It was about 2002. I was 20.
Yes the internet existed back then but it just wasn't so pervasive. As in I didn't own a computer and that wasn't uncommon.
I bought a second hand book called Ancient Astronauts (?) by a guy called Erik Von Daniken. He's absolutely the 80s / 90s version of Graham Hancock. All the same pseudoscience strategies to popularise a bullshit theory.
I think I could best be described as a troubled young man. I drank heavily, smoked weed every day, party drugs on the weekend. When I was 18 I had left my home and a deeply religious background. I guess I was looking for some kind of secret arcane understanding of the world that wasn't religion.
I honestly don't know what I would have said if someone had have asked me directly - do you really believe that extra terrestrial beings have visited the earth in it's distant history. Like I don't know if I really truly believed it. I sure loved thinking about it though.
I changed my position over a decade or so. I went to uni, got a degree, started my career in accounting. Completely un-related to science or history or anthropology but, I certainly realised that people who have spent a lifetime studying to become experts in their field really know what they're talking about. Like it's just stupid to suggest that "every real archaologist in the world is stupid and only I can explain earth's real history".
I still am a weird guy but I don't believe in weird stuff like that anymore.
Conspiracy nonsense is one of my favorite hobbies to the point where I read your first sentence and immediately thought 'Erich von Däniken!' and two sentences later he is mentioned, coincidence, I think not!
He is one of my favorite weirdos, humans developing through aliens fucking apes? That's exactly the kind of freaky shit I'm in to chef's kiss
Hollow earth is also great.
Chariot of the Gods, by Erich von Däniken, was actually published in 1968. The nonsense has been going on for quite a while.
I read von Daniken knowing he'd already been thoroughly debunked as a crank, it's actually highly entertaining if you don't take it too seriously.
The extraterrestrials have visited earth. It was so long ago we have forgotten that we were the aliens. We were fleeing from a dying planet, which we killed. Rinse and repeat.
That could be me. I swapped christianity for the burgeoning new-age and neopagan stuff that was having a moment.