I’m a full on non believer, but I do often like to watch shows like the ones I described in the title. I don’t believe any of them, I just think they’re entertaining.
I just finished listening to THIS gem on YouTube. A tale about a CERN conspiracy. Don’t believe a word of it, but I found it thoroughly entertaining (especially with the creepy computer voice)
Anyway, just curious if there are any others out there that likes to watch these types of shows despite not believing.
They might have some interest or tell an interesting tale, but in the back of my mind I constantly fear how they undermine critical thinking. 99 times out of 100 they are not telling the whole story. I know how I reacted to the various woo programs that saturated the airwaves in the 70’s when I was a kid. I later got better info on what was going on but skeptical thinking was in short supply for those programs.
I have enjoyed watching shows about “real” hauntings and ghost-hunters, as long as it’s about the ghosts of people who lived and died in that house and hang around the place for some reason–some of those “A Haunting in —” episodes, for example. But if it starts to turn into a story about demonic possession or evil spirits, I quickly lose interest. So, ghosts yes, demons no.
I quite enjoyed Fact or Faked.
I think they are “entertaining” to a point. But ultimately, they’re disappointing to me. I think the reason is that, deep down inside, I WANT something like this to be true. But I know that there is no evidence or proof. To me, skeptics aren’t about “debunking EVERYthing”, they’re about making sure that when something IS shown that it’s real. We just don’t want to believe in something that’s fake. I would love real, incontrovertible evidence that ghosts exist, but nothing like that has ever shown up. So these shows just rehash the same tired routines and stories. Which becomes boring after a while.
I feel the same way as Mr. Miskatonic for most shows, but I will make an exception for movies like Men In Black. MiB requires suspension of disbelief, but no more so than a play on a stage. It doesn’t take the attitude of “there are things out there that are being covered up; you are being lied to, and the government is the Big Bad Wolf.”
MiB, like Harry Potter or LotR, constructs a fantasy world that no one expects you to believe is true, then builds upon it, cleverly. Once you accept the original premise, it does follow logically, and that’s part of the charm.
About 20 years ago I read various conspiracy sites for entertainment value. As I’ve gotten older, I have a whole lot less patience for the kind of stupidity involved.
Conspiracy shows can be kinda fun. I find ghost hunter shows to be among the dumbest things to ever be created by man.
And, they have never, ever found a ghost.
I kinda like the conspiracy theory ones, but don’t drink the Kool Aid.
UFO ones are interesting because there usually is evidence (picture, film) of SOMETHING and it’s definitely unidentifiable, but that sure as heck doesn’t mean it’s aliens from outer space!
Ghost ones are just dumb, as already mentioned.
Indeed some are really Top Secret military things, which is also interesting.
I don’t see any value at all, not even entertainment value. What’s the point of watching people do things badly?
No, I despise them. If for no other reason than how some people, seeing such shows on TV, will disengage what feeble brains they may have and believe such tripe.
Occasionally to entertaining to laugh at. For ghosts and the like not even worth watching a whole show. There were some Hystery Mystery type things that were really funny, one about the ancient Minoan civilization mining and transporting thousands of tons of copper from the Great Lakes region. There’s even a thread about that one I think. Many, many years ago now I started a little video project on a fictional local lake monster and found out that it was quite easy to put anyone in front of a camera and talk about a mythical creature they’d only heard of moments before.
I’ve always had a thing for ufos, the paranormal, and mysterious disappearances. I think I can blame it on watching Unsolved Mysteries re-runs whenever I could. That show used to terrify me, but I’d watch as much as I could and then be up all night scared. And now, I’ve been re-discovering my love for this stuff (due, in no small part, to all the good true crime shows and podcasts there are right now) as an adult. But I realized that I’m not a believer in the paranormal, and never was, but I am fascinated by the possibilities it presents. It’s like I want so badly to believe this stuff could be true, I suspend my rational disbelief when I dip my toe into the pool of UFO and paranormal encounter forums. Later, though, I always Occam’s Razor my way out of believing what I just heard.
Me, too. I’m currently watching back episodes of Ancient Aliens.
Most of them are irritating beyond the pale.
I’m always interested in genuine investigation of almost anything intriguing, but the vast majority of these shows are just following a very simple and infuriating format.
Basically, if they look okay,I might watch and listen at first. But the moment I hear the narrator express ANYTHING in the form of a leading, but obviously never-to-be-answered question, I’m out.
Love ghost shows. As much as I would like to believe in ghosts, I doubt they exist in the form presented in popular culture. Otherwise one would expect a place like Auschwitz to be the most haunted place on earth.
This.
With ‘hauntings’ shows it’s like watching young children trying to scare each other by putting flashlights under their chins and going ‘Whoooooh!’. Not my idea of entertainment.
Are you calling Derek Acorah a fraud? 