Council-backed entertainment park to house "Chariots of the Gods" Theme Park

[tenchboy]

OOH ETA sorry -properly this time - thought we were in Relaxation.

So binned it

[Tessa K]

The project reminds me of the Noah's Ark Zoo near Bristol and similar projects peddling misinformation as 'facts'. In this case it's more about making money than promoting an 'alternative' explanation of the world but even so, the fact that this load of old tosh would even be considered the basis for a theme park in this era of increasing disinformation and conspiracy theories is not good news.

Meanwhile, the aliens look on and laugh.

[Bird on a Fire]

A quick search brought this up, which brings him down on the racist side. When I posted about this on Twitter there was the inevitable old white guy saying it's not racism it's just bad research. Hhm.

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/the-a ... on-daniken

They will probably skirt round the racist elements in the theme park but no doubt sell the books in the gift shop. I'd like to know what an 'alien themed diner' would be like. Does it involve any probing?

Also, how many people have even heard of him? It's not something younger people would automatically be attracted to, like Marvel or Potter.

Ooo wow, some of that stuff is super racist! Maybe he was more careful in Chariots but let it leak out in later work.

At least his racist stuff doesn't have much to do with ancient monuments or anything else visually exciting, so it's unlikely to make a good ride.

Sounds like the overlap with racist tropes might be more than a coincidence though. His "just asking questions" approach really grates too.


As for whether people have heard of him, there's loads of ancient aliens garbage on Netflix. I've never watched any of it, but von Däniken may well be approvingly mentioned there.

[nezumi]

Sounds like the overlap with racist tropes might be more than a coincidence though. His "just asking questions" approach really grates too.

The old adage "there's no such thing as a stupid question" really needs to disappear.

Sadly Mr Mouse doesn't seem to see through these things and so he gets mighty pissed off when I keep mercilessly mocking Ancient Aliens. I am fine with watching it becuase shouting "NO! NO THEY DIDN'T" at the telly is really quite cathartic.

[jdc]

That's true, 50 years ago he had the ancient aliens game all to himself, but people who might go to a theme park today weren't born then. Sure there are lots of crappy ancient aliens "documentaries" on TV which might name-check him but again young people aren't watching TV so they probably only get seen by older people looking for landfill war documentaries or reruns of Foyle's War. I guess that leaves do-your-own-research conspiracy nuttery on YouTube but they're unlikely to bother to name-check him as the only name they need to squeeze into every upload is their miracle-working saint Tesla.

Speaking of YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3qRYC ... Setk7WJqKg Erich von Däniken Official - 74.1K subscribers

There's a 'weekly shows' playlist here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Scwq9pzUeP which, excitingly, has something on coronavirus. I bet that's worth watching.

Long vid here which I won't be watching on Chariot of the Gods and Sumerian Scripture (posted May 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XndxdqH ... eP&index=7 with 20k+ views

[Herainestold]

That's true, 50 years ago he had the ancient aliens game all to himself, but people who might go to a theme park today weren't born then. Sure there are lots of crappy ancient aliens "documentaries" on TV which might name-check him but again young people aren't watching TV so they probably only get seen by older people looking for landfill war documentaries or reruns of Foyle's War. I guess that leaves do-your-own-research conspiracy nuttery on YouTube but they're unlikely to bother to name-check him as the only name they need to squeeze into every upload is their miracle-working saint Tesla.

Speaking of YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3qRYC ... Setk7WJqKg Erich von Däniken Official - 74.1K subscribers

There's a 'weekly shows' playlist here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Scwq9pzUeP which, excitingly, has something on coronavirus. I bet that's worth watching.

Long vid here which I won't be watching on Chariot of the Gods and Sumerian Scripture (posted May 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XndxdqH ... eP&index=7 with 20k+ views

It gives me something to do during lockdown. I wonder if I will end up being converted.

[jimbob]

"... a series of novels".

Novels?

Yes, I clocked that. They've changed it to 'books' now.

Purely on the charge of racism, it's worth bearing in mind that von Däniken uses examples from every continent, including stuff like Stone Henge, the Old Testament, cartography from the Age of Discovery, etc etc. For all the flaws in his arguments, I'm not sure it quite makes much sense to accuse him of being racist against every race simultaneously. He just thinks it's more likely the aliens came to Earth lots of times and in lots of places millennia apart, than that people figured out how to build things.

No, I think it is racist - the 'must have been aliens' is based on an assumption that earlier cultures were simply incapable of the organisation and artisanship needed to make stonehenge, pyramids, Nazca lines etc. etc.

This, in turn comes from an assumption of the cultural superiority of the west which it uniquely gained as a result of the specific elements of its Judaeo Christian heritage based on the Greek and Roman underpinnings.

It's the same assumption that made people think that the Benin Bronzes must have been the result of Portuguese metal working and artistic influences reaching West Africa.

Yup beat me too it.

[jimbob]

Okay, but sort-of-seriously just for a moment, is that idea in any of E Von D's books or are we just poking fun at exceptionalism because it's amusing? Was he in fact an equal opportunities belittler of ancient cultures?

As I recall he also posits the role of aliens in the development of Western societies. The Bible is definitely in there, for instance.

He wasn't talking about particular periods of history, either. One of the weaknesses in his argument is that it requires aliens to visit Egypt, and only Egypt, at one time, and Mesopotamia at another, and Peru at another, and so on. Right through to the Age of Discovery with stuff like the Piri Reis map, which at least implies that Columbus navigated to the New World with the help of aliens. Which suggests that European colonialism resulted from alien intervention, rather than inherent supremacy.

I certainly don't recall any explicit Western exceptionalism, but it was ~15 years ago now. Have you read it, Gfamily?

But that's ALIENS DID IT FIRST THEN KNOWLEDGE WAS LOST BUT IN THE WEST WE JUST NEEDED TO KNOW THAT IT WAS DONE TO EMULATE THE ALIENS

[Herainestold]

It's the same assumption that made people think that the Benin Bronzes must have been the result of Portuguese metal working and artistic influences reaching West Africa.

When in reality much of the flow was the other way.

[nezumi]

Von Dudemaniken* misses the entire point of the study of history, archeology and paleontology and many other ologies. What does his work teach us? Aliens did it, so humans can't do anything on their own. It's like God did it only somehow even less convincing. It teaches us learned helplessness, which is worse than nothing.

I wouldn't normally advocate book burning, but if you wanted to make a start, that bloke's work would be an excellent place for it.

* I hate him enough to have mentally eliminated his name. I purposely do not know what he looks like and have sworn an oath never to countenance reading one of his books.

[Martin_B]

The Wikipedia page for The Burkiss Way includes Douglas Adams' sketch Eric von Contrick. Always worth listening to.

[FlammableFlower]

The Wikipedia page for The Burkiss Way includes Douglas Adams' sketch Eric von Contrick. Always worth listening to.

I like that under the Reception section it has a single quote from Rob Grant saying he liked it.

[El Pollo Diablo]

Lol, the people who go to a Blackpool "theme park" won't be buying books in the gift shop. They won't even bother to stock books in the gift shop.

This will be a Winter Wonderland type of "theme park". A couple of crappy rides worse than those of a touring carnival, a burger bar with hilarious puns, a really bad VR show - and endless arcade games, fruit machines and those things where you drop 2p coins in and hope loads more 2p coins fall out the bottom.

The only link to Von Daniken will be a peeling sticker of an alien covering up the damp patch on the burger bar wall.

I've never heard of any of this Chariots of fire stuff but this is the right answer. It's Blackpool. Just get Coca-Cola to sponsor a massive rollercoaster and it's sorted. Whatever they do, it's unlikely to be less fun than the Illuminations, which even as a child I never understood.

Although, that said, Blackpool Pleasure Beach is good fun, especially if you go on the Pepsi Max ride whilst it's just shy of storm conditions.

[lpm]

Everybody should go to Blackpool at least once in their lives. There's so much to marvel at. How can so many tattoo shops be profitable? What exactly is in the £1 burgers? Is the B&B for £23.50 a night really better than the one for £23.25 a night?

This thread is pretty funny if you've ever been to Blackpool. It's like worrying if Pirate's Cove properly addresses the links between piracy and racism, the misogyny of pirates, and alcohol abuse onboard pirate ships. When Pirate's Cove is just one bloke dressed up as Johnny Depp with a plastic parrot pinned to his shoulder and a load of arcade games.

[Fishnut]

Rather than just moan here I emailed Blackpool Council asking if they were aware they were supporting racist pseudoscience. I got a reply this morning,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding Blackpool Central.

Blackpool Central is a large-scale, mixed-use leisure development that incorporates several different components including restaurants, hotel, event space and world class visitor attractions such as a flying theatre. Some of those attractions will have a theming based on space exploration and ancient civilisations, such as the Pyramids. This type of fictional fantasy has provided the creative inspiration for numerous Hollywood films and TV series down the years. The Blackpool Central scheme is aimed purely at providing high-quality family entertainment and is not an endorsement of any literature or theories associated with these themes.

The wording on the Blackpool Council website will be amended to avoid any misleading information.

[Martin Y]

Rather than just moan here I emailed Blackpool Council asking if they were aware they were supporting racist pseudoscience. I got a reply this morning,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding Blackpool Central.

Blackpool Central is a large-scale, mixed-use leisure development that incorporates several different components including restaurants, hotel, event space and world class visitor attractions such as a flying theatre. Some of those attractions will have a theming based on space exploration and ancient civilisations, such as the Pyramids. This type of fictional fantasy has provided the creative inspiration for numerous Hollywood films and TV series down the years. The Blackpool Central scheme is aimed purely at providing high-quality family entertainment and is not an endorsement of any literature or theories associated with these themes.

The wording on the Blackpool Council website will be amended to avoid any misleading information.

Nice. As I started to read it I feared it might be a brushoff but actually it looks like they're aware that pseudoscience isn't the same thing as fairy stories and they're not going to be seen to endorse crazy.

[Fishnut]

The Skeptic has a piece on the theme park.

[jimbob]

The Skeptic has a piece on the theme park.

Nice, thanks