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Art Bell Back in Time

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Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#81

Post by pessimizer »

api wrote: post #50
varelse wrote: post #36

What was a wonderful pre-apocalyptic buzz guilty pleasure back in the 90s is now the sad precursor to MAGA. Why are people so utterly stupid? But, for real, I was in the theater next to Art Bell when he watched Contact. And you know how much he loved that movie. That said, the night the satellite feed was cut after the supposed Area 51 worker called in and said everything about the aliens was real was to die for.

That was back before the fringe was, like everything else in our culture, politically weaponized. It was largely apolitical back then, or if there were politics it was 90s libertarianism of a sort that seems shockingly sane today. Much of the audience and I think Bell himself were pretty skeptical too. It was about having fun and exploring wild possibilities, like a radio version of the old Amazing Stories pulp seria…

This is back before the fringe were 1) named the big bad of the media, and 2) networking with each other on the internet. The fringe believed the same stuff they do now (in broad strokes) and was just as large as it is now.

As a collector of John Birch and Communist blacklist material, none of this is new. Look up Eustace Mullins.

edit: or for the mystic, Savitri Devi.

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#82

Post by causi »

mindcrime wrote: post #12
egfx wrote: post #3

I used to work obscenely late hours in my QA days at Bliizard and I would listen to Art Bell alone in my car late at night outside an undeveloped area of Irvine looking at the hills and the stars at 1am for my dinner break. I still listen to Coast to Coast for 30 minutes every night for the bumper music or more if the topic is interesting.

It's funny... pretty much the only time/place I ever want to listen to Coast to Coast AM is when I'm in my car, driving somewhere overnight, and it's 2:00 in the morning and I'm on the Interstate halfway between Bumfuck and Nowhereville. In that setting, there is something magical about it.

Art's appearance in the 2006 videogame Prey was pretty great. Several sections of the game play Art's show in which the callers are experiencing similar events to the game's protagonist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enb_vZTFcdc

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#83

Post by api »

pessimizer wrote: post #81
api wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was back before the fringe was, like everything else in our culture, politically weaponized. It was largely apolitical back then, or if there were politics it was 90s libertarianism of a sort that seems shockingly sane today. Much of the audience and I think Bell himself were pretty skeptical too. It was about having fun and exploring wild possibilities, like a radio version of the old Amazing Stories pulp seria…

This is back before the fringe were 1) named the big bad of the media, and 2) networking with each other on the internet. The fringe believed the same stuff they do now (in broad strokes) and was just as large as it is now. As a collector of John Birch and Communist blacklist material, none of this is new. Look up Eustace Mullins. edit: or for the mystic, Savitri Devi.

The fringe I remember wasn’t the same as what you remember but the fringe is very heterodox by definition. If you want lefty conspiracies look up Mae Brussel and Dave Emory.

Lefty and righty conspiracy theories tend to mix freely in the wild. This soup of weirdness thing is one characteristic of the true fringe.

Maybe there was a previous era of weaponization in the 50s. The time I recall was the post Cold War 90s. The current weaponization started after 9/11 with transparent Saudi money in the “truther” movement and then went into high gear when the Trump team got into it.

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#85

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

area51org wrote: post #38
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some real classic episodes that are an amazing introduction. There’s one where a guy calls in from his cell phone while ion a Cessna about to fly over Area 51. Art urges him not to do it . The last we hear from him is his reports of fighter jets approaching. That’s not even an interview it’s just a caller! Even if completely fake, the entertainment value was huge. I’ll reply later with some links to 2-3 of…

Here's a link to an MP3 of that 'dude flying into Area 51' call: https://www.area51.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Man-tries-...

Thanks! Remember “Mel’s Hole”? The bottomless pit in rural Oregon or Washington where people had been throwing down all sort of stuff (like refrigerators) without the hole filling up in the slightest. It was taken over by the military, according to Mel, on his second interview.

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#87

Post by otterley »

pessimizer wrote: post #79
otterley wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to speak to those particular examples, but shaming someone for a voluntary act, such as committing a crime, is very different from shaming someone for something they are and cannot control, like their race or their gender. Those why the latter are considered "protected classes" for the purpose of anti-discrimination laws.

That's a very common rubric, but also a very offensive one. The reason we should consider those protected classes (under particular circumstances) is because we have judged discrimination against them in areas of employment and housing to be both irrational and damaging (because limits on employment and housing are damaging.) It's not because it's morally wrong to punish someone for being bad if they can't help being…

As a society we've largely dealt with the latter problem by deeming children less capable of making rational decisions, and therefore holding them to a different, lower level of responsibility for them. This can be observed particularly in how we punish them differently than we do adults for their misdeeds.

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#88

Post by varelse »

api wrote: post #83
pessimizer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is back before the fringe were 1) named the big bad of the media, and 2) networking with each other on the internet. The fringe believed the same stuff they do now (in broad strokes) and was just as large as it is now. As a collector of John Birch and Communist blacklist material, none of this is new. Look up Eustace Mullins. edit: or for the mystic, Savitri Devi.

The fringe I remember wasn’t the same as what you remember but the fringe is very heterodox by definition. If you want lefty conspiracies look up Mae Brussel and Dave Emory. Lefty and righty conspiracy theories tend to mix freely in the wild. This soup of weirdness thing is one characteristic of the true fringe. Maybe there was a previous era of weaponization in the 50s. The time I recall was the post Cold War 90s. T…

Recurrent subjects on his show were things like The Cosmic Watergate, MJ-12, and all sorts of other slashfic derived from the Roswell crash, whatever that actually was. Real-life events like the satellite feed getting cut while on the air, the government stopping an Area 51 lawsuit on the grounds that Area 51 did not officially exist, and hilariously fake found footage kept spraying lighter fluid on the fire to keep it from burning out. But, IMO, none of it was as crazy as the QAnon folk expecting JFK Jr to show up in Dealey Plaza last week.

I mean I choose to believe there's life out there myself, I'm just skeptical that we're worth more than a single disappointing visit.

Re: Art Bell Back in Time

#89

Post by rograndom »

mindcrime wrote: post #12
egfx wrote: post #3

I used to work obscenely late hours in my QA days at Bliizard and I would listen to Art Bell alone in my car late at night outside an undeveloped area of Irvine looking at the hills and the stars at 1am for my dinner break. I still listen to Coast to Coast for 30 minutes every night for the bumper music or more if the topic is interesting.

It's funny... pretty much the only time/place I ever want to listen to Coast to Coast AM is when I'm in my car, driving somewhere overnight, and it's 2:00 in the morning and I'm on the Interstate halfway between Bumfuck and Nowhereville. In that setting, there is something magical about it.

Yup, same. Driving somewhere in between Elizabeth, NJ and Montreal every 2-3 weeks overnight. Co-driver is saying stuff like "I'm getting sleepy, find the lizard people on the radio."
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