r/badphilosophy • u/thirdstoneanimal • 3d ago

Why are aliens always portrayed as scary/evil in film?

And yet there are indigenous tribes that claim the opposite, like the sacred Anunnaki. In a few medieval religious paintings there are what seem to be ‘ufos’ painted in the background. Only until the modern day have we begun to bastardize a potentially cosmic subject.

Chariots of the Gods turned 4ft grey creatures that bring on the apocalypse ???

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u/Hot-Explanation6044 3d ago

My take is that it's a reflection on how these authors authors see 'hierarchy'. There's a logical leap where if aliens (or computers) are more advanced they will necessarily exert violence and domination. Might ultimately have colonial roots since that's how the west behaved with the rest of the world. Maybe some sort of Freudian expression of our own drives also since the other is always a distorted projection of ourselves

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u/shivux 3d ago

The first alien invasion story, War of The Worlds (there might have been predecessors, idk, but that was the big one) was very explicitly about “what if colonialism happened to us!?”

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago

Wow interesting

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u/drtickletouch 2d ago

My friend it's simply common sense. Point to a time in history where a more technologically advanced colonizer was kind to the indigenous peoples they were colonizing. It doesn't happen. Aliens would see us as parasites or bugs most likely. I'm not even sure we would qualify as being conscious.

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago

I am leaning more towards this theory. What exactly an Alien is changes from one person to the next, pointing to the possibility that its more of a projection of subconcious. Are the aliens coming to remove my ovaries, or are they coming to help me ascend spiritually???

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u/Ihaveaboot 3d ago

I grew up in the 80s. The original Alien movies scared me silly as a kid.

But we also had Mork and Mindy, Alf, and Howard the Duck to take the edge off.

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago

Signs was my first ever scary movie as a child

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u/Konofast 3d ago

Who knows

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u/IllegalIranianYogurt 3d ago

Haven't you even read Hobbes??!?

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago

No? Tell me abt it

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u/whynothis1 3d ago edited 3d ago

Imagine you were an alien being, with an intelligence far greater than ours, and you saw a bunch of jumped up monkeys inflicting capitalism on each other.

I think I'd judge them more if they didn't try to whipe us from the universe.

As a by the by, the last part reminds me, I always admired yahweh's choice to era appropriate methods of transportation. I think it really would've broke the emersion if he sent a flaming ferrari to collect his prophets or use or something kind of flaming rail infrastructure to transport the Israelites out of Egypt.

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u/Bombay1234567890 3d ago

Human projection is universal.

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago

This is true

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u/EconomyAny1213 3d ago

Just look into the fucking data. It's so obvious non human intelligence is malevolent. And you are delusional if you belive other wise.

Alien abduction

Cattle mutilation

And even human mutilation and killings.

Also ask yourself, why are they in the shadows if they have nothing to hide? Does the burglar introduce himself before he robs you? Does your neighbor break into your house in the middle of the night and watch you while you sleep to be friendly?

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u/thirdstoneanimal 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thanks i guess for a clear example of the ‘malevolent alien propoganda’. Theres no legit “data”aliens have mutilated cows… that would be called anecdotal evidence: information derived from personal stories or individual experiences, often used to illustrate a point but considered less reliable than statistical or scientific evidence.

The new agers have reported totally opposite experiences with non human intelligence, mind you.

Edit 2 add: i suppose the only real data we have of ‘non human intelligence’ are crop circles

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u/Key_Bar_2787 2d ago

Don't ignore his larger point, if they wanted to be known they'd be known, so intentionally hiding must have some questionable if not less than honorable intentions. Either aliens are real and up to no good or they aren't real at all. But I think a larger point can be made in asking why something smarter than us would fail to see that goodness is more beneficial to all than evil

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u/FancyMaterial684 2d ago

What reason could a space faring alien species with mal intent poaaibly have for remaining undetected? Would it not be as simple as they are so so so much more advanced than us that if they had mal intent its be easiest to just pull up and do whatever there gonna do? What would they even want? Anything related to resources or materials or anything theyd prolly just like, hit us with some kind of sci fi level shit and kill everyone fast as hell, i mean shit they could prolly easilly do some sci fi global EMT shit and yea idk dude im high at work on the shitter and im unconvinced of secret malicious aliens

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u/Key_Bar_2787 2d ago

What is there to gain?

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u/bbq-pizza-9 2d ago

Hello I’m an alien AMA

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u/MicroChungus420 2d ago

I think there is a lot of fear about what they might do to us. Especially when you look at what we do to eachother

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u/Life_Celebration_827 2d ago

Errrrm "E.T." wasn't scary.

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u/Blaw_Weary 2d ago

Once you truly understand Baudrillard you get to go to hyperspace and ask the aliens any questions you want.

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u/thirdstoneanimal 2d ago

Oh dang i wana learn more

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u/normie-222 20h ago

since, everyone wants to rein over human civilization. therefore, Aliens would rather taste that too