I’m currently getting through the first season of The X-Files (slowly).

The episode “Space” is about a space shuttle being sabotaged. And damn, people really did think it was the end of history in the 90s, didn’t they? The episode starts with Scully asking Mulder “Who would want to sabotage the US space program? The Soviet Union is gone.” And Mulder is like “Maybe terrorists. The space program represents the superiority of American progress. Or maybe it was sabotaged by people who hate technology.” And then he talks about maybe its about hiding aliens because it’s Mulder and of course he would say that.

And here I am thinking about the current state of US Space exploration and Space X, and how naive people were in the 90s. They really thought the US was funding space research because they cared about human progress.

They really thought that this was it. That the US had won and capitalism had won and that it could only get better from here. They didn’t realise that the Soviet Union was the only reason the US was pumping money into Space exploration. It wasn’t about progress to the US oligarchs, it was about propaganda. That’s why it took Sputnik to really get US to really try and catch up.

Once the Soviet Union broke up and “Space race” propaganda glow wore off, they didn’t have to compete with Soviet science anymore, so the funding slowed down now the whole thing is gradually becoming a privatised mess whose progress pales in comparison to Soviet or 70s NASA.

Now all they have to do for space propaganda is get Elon to dance around and send a car or some billionaires into orbit on a piss leaking shuttle now and again.

The West in the 90s had no idea just how screwed they were about to be, now that capitalism no longer felt threatened by a scientific communist superpower.

Holy shit Dirt_Owl it was just a throw away line in the X-Files what is wrong with you. bird-screm1

  • newacctidk [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    35·
    1 month ago

    X-Files is the most 90s show ever and serves as the perfect encapsulation of the end of history but from the POV of a not super partisan dumbguy who is still conspiracy pilled. Matt and Felix had a great discussion on it save for the random tangent about modern tv. They described Carter like an enlightened surfer dude, can’t see the forest for the trees, but sees the forest when everyone else is saying trees don’t exist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoPUL_t8yUk

    Like the show has Unit 731 as a prominent plot point and something the US not only took ideas from but, like in real life, kept from facing war crimes trials. The show unambiguously shows the US as not dominated by singular personalities or even ideas, we are the hegemon and all the moves us is the machine of neoliberalism. If aliens are in charge or not does not seem to actually matter much, if we control them or they usdoesn’t either.

    There is something wonderfully honest about the show. It sucks that the relaunches could never find their footing. I think part of it is X-Files works best in that end of history mindset and era. The best continuation from what I hear was the season 10 comics which more or less carry on right from the series heyday.