Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 November 10

= November 10 =

Did The X Files Really Happen?
Did The X Files Really Happen? A lot of Evidence suggests that much of the information and plots of the TV Series were accurate versions of real things that had happened, although Names had been changed.:Scully230 DES (talk)DESiegel Contribs 21:19, 10 November 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scully230 (talk • contribs)
 * X-files is fiction, but some stories may be based on some kind of reality. There are 202 episodes with different stories, so you would have to consider each episode. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:55, 10 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Check out what preceded this diff and tell us the user is not trolling. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:23, 11 November 2019 (UTC)


 * The closest real thing to it was Project Blue Book. SinisterLefty (talk) 06:51, 11 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Just so everybody who is unfamiliar is clear about the basics:
 * The X-Files was a television franchise and a work of fiction. It is an entertaining, but fictional, dramatization that revolves around a few agents of the FBI who investigate unusual phenomena, including a detailed fictional backstory relating to intelligent extraterrestrial life forms and their effort to interfere with Earth and its major governments.
 * You can also read about the actual, non-fictional FBI at our Wikipedia article: Federal Bureau of Investigation; and at the official website, FBI: What We Investigate.
 * The official website of the FBI also maintains a public archive of interesting files relating to unexplained phenomena: FBI Records: The Vault - Unexplained Phenomenon (sic).
 * If you're truly interested enough to read them, you will find that most of the case files that pertain to the so-called "supernatural" are letters from the American public inquiring whether the FBI has any such files; and archives of the formulaic letter response from the relevant bureau office. Skipping straight into spoiler territory: yes some archives exist; yes, there have been some investigations; yes, if you are truly interested, you can see the files; and no, nothing really neat usually turns up.  Every so often, the investigation leads to a successful prosecution for a violation of Federal law, and we can all celebrate our national commitment to justice.  After all, the last thing we want is an unchecked conspiracy to defraud the United States by introducing eight-legged aliens into our food supply in violation of clearly-worded Federal fisheries law.
 * In at least a few instances that relate to space-aliens, the FBI actually expended the effort to investigate a report, if it was credible enough to investigate. In other cases, the responses were coordinated by other Federal agencies.
 * The astute reader will occasionally even find the letter "X" in these archived FBI files. Woo!
 * When the FBI actually investigates space aliens - if there is any investigation at all - it typically has more in common with a police-report about a prank-call than it does with a science-fiction television show. The big deal here is that such investigations are like a prank-call to the Federal police, and they operate much differently than your local police-department.  For example, if you hassle the local police with a spurious UFO report, they'll probably ignore you and tell you not to abuse the emergency services.  On the other hand, most Americans don't usually interact too frequently with the local branch of the Federal government police - the "Feds" tend to, shall we say, speak softly - but if you hassle the Federal Government with such matters sufficiently to draw their ire, you may be committing a Federal crime that can subject you to imprisonment.
 * Personally, I read a lot of government documents (for fun and for profit); and as many readers here know, I also enjoy the occasional foray into science-fiction literature, television, and cinema. In terms of the efficacy of providing entertainment-value relating to the supernatural, the fictional television program X-Files do a better job than the government dossiers.  The real FBI files on that topic are usually pretty dry, and rarely ever even yield criminal prosecution.
 * But, on more thought-provoking topics, there is a lot of other interesting stuff to find in the FBI Vault: for example, what can we surmise from our national history about the times when the Government is put in the very unusual position of investigating itself for committing crimes of a politically-motivated nature? And if you are a real student of the television-program The X-Files, you already know this stuff.  Despite a few vile elements within our Government who may seek to confuse, dilute, and dissuade,... the truth is out there....
 * Nimur (talk) 13:51, 11 November 2019 (UTC)