Redacted

Contains or will at some unspecified point in the future or past contain cryptozoology, discussions on 'getting out the signal', books, The X-Files, Queen Victoria, The Hum, and platypi.

Attempting that 90s sweet spot of The X-Files and Buffy, anti-authoritarian scepticism, sci-fi escapism, late nights in the archives, and grainy VHS.

The international mystery of ‘the Hum’ by The Financial Times, PDFHost link

Taking the fun out of cryptids

I've been struggling to reconcile my love for stories about cryptids and secret societies which I think is fun and silly - what if there's this world just underneath ours with monsters! How cool is that? - with the real world lurch towards violent and vile, dangerous and right-wing conspiracy theories. Somewhere along the way folklore and nerdery became weaponised, radicalised propaganda.

Taking all the fun out of cryptids 2nd April 2025

You can't handle the truth

World order would collapse, panic on the streets, yadda yadda yadda, the stories say. I don't believe it.

The myth of getting out the signal at Reactor Mag

We need to stop using 'exposing the bad guys' as a plot device. We have proved it doesn't work. It's only aspirational, the wish that we lived in a society where actual awful scandals brought the bad guys down. (The article uses Serenity as an example, and I feel similarly about Andor and many others.)

Can't stop the signal at TV Tropes

Snowden, the Panama Papers, Cambridge Analytica. We have all the information we need. We know the staggering scale of wealth inequality, we know how the crown robs us blind. One of my favourite real conspiracies, a crazy scandal, is the internal drainage boards as discussed by George Monbiot.

Historical conspiracies

A favourite conspiracy is the Legitimacy of Queen Victoria put forward by AN Wilson.

The royal family aren't reptiles but they do siphon vast amounts of wealth out of this country and propaganda the heck out of themselves. They enjoy untold privilege off the back of what ought to be the commons.

Can I interest you in paleocontact? How about some ancient astronauts? Directed panspermia?

Books

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. It has redacted sections and I thought that was cool, and kind of stole it for this page.

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells has a modern pop culture life of its own. I do love it. You can listen to a recording of the legendary 1938 Orson Welles radio play on Youtube. I also love a bit of John Wyndham. Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos style.

I'm trying to get hold of Abduction by John E Mack. Just about to start First Contact by Becky Ferreira.

Visual media

Kimberley Hirsh's I am a time traveler from the 1990s links to The X-Files Has Made Me Nostalgic for a Time I Never Experienced

My brain exists in a perpetual 1993-1999, and when it encounters things that don’t belong in that milieu, it’s not because that milieu is old, it’s because I have somehow been transported into this dystopian future.

Also, Reactor Mag rated The 15 Best X-Files Monsters of the Week and I had arguments right up until the end because I love War of the Coprophages.

Also: Buffy and Fringe.