Have you ever met a person who thought sci fi was too violent or even a tool of Satan?

There was this article I came across a while ago.
https://www.facebook.com/brentbozell/posts/10152104745911337
Man some of those comments! How can some people be so fearful and ignorant?

Do you think these people would be horrified by even Star Wars violence?

I was always fascinated by people who blamed stuff like comic books, video games, and music for society's ills. Back in the 2000s I was an avid reader of GamePolitics. I frequently went to the conservative sites like the Parents Television Council to get a cheap laugh at the "prudes"
https://www.mrc.org/articles/dark-knight-pornography-violence

Have you ever met a person who thought sci fi was a "tool of the Devil"?

 

I've known people who refused to watch Harry Potter because of the witchcraft elements.

 

Sure. I'm related to a couple.

It doesn't bother me. It's they're point of view. I've read blogs about Christian CDs being evil. I don't feel the need to argue with them. Better to engage them in relationship, have a discussion with them and explore different points of view.

IDIC and all that.

 

I used to work in a toy shop that refused to sell HP merch for the same reason.

On the plus side, we got every Sunday off.

 

Yes. My mother. She used to forbid me to watch (or play) "anything violent", which, in her world, included animated series like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, XMen, etc, and anything that wasn't a Super Mario game. I was also never allowed to have action figures that came with weapons (which basically eliminates all action figures). It wasn't for religious reasons, though - she simply hated weapons/violence of all kinds. I was also never encouraged to watch anything sci-fi (which explains my lack of interest in it today, maybe) - but it was just as well, I VERY much doubt she'd have allowed me to watch Star Wars or even Star Trek. She also LOATHED that my father would sometimes - when he was in a good mood and ready to tolerate the idea of my existence, which rarely happened - counteract her ridiculous rules by handing me a toy gun and getting me SNES games like Turtles Tournament Fighters from the local Blockbuster.

I remember how I begged her for WEEKS to let me see Jurassic Park - I was a HUGE dinosaur nerd - but there was NO WAY she'd allow it. She did buy me the novel instead because she saw how sad I was... little did she know that the book is a LOT MORE VIOLENT than the movie even TRIES to be. lol She was horrified when she found out and took the book away but eventually handed it back to me - it HAD been a present, after all - but allowed me to only read one chapter a day so that I "wasn't traumatized".

I firmly believe this is why I'm so much into the horror genre today - it's to make up for all those years. So yeah. Been there.

 

A kid was recently forced to remove his t-shirt before he boarded his flight cause it had a snake picture on it, and they said it could scare other passengers.

 

Where was that? HP merch seems like it would be a decent chunk of a toy shop's revenue.

 

Science Fiction, no. But back in the early eighties I remember everyone being totally paranoid about Dungeons and Dragons. There was a movie of the week about it that adults discussed. I was in my early teens (Stranger Things generation) and parents objected to our D&D club at school so we had to stop playing it there.

 

The Entertainer ?

 

That's the one!

 

Sci-fi, no never. Horror, yes.

 

Sadly, this is nothing new.

There's a good non-fiction book, The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hadju, on the long history of anti-comic-book hysteria, which dates to back to way before Dr. Wertham and the Senate hearings in the 1950s. Believe it or not, religious groups condemned Wonder Woman because of her "immodest" costume.

Waltzes, pulp magazines, sci-fi, comic books, rock-and-roll, Harry Potter . . . the "think of the children!" crowd have been with us always. Heck, look at the opening number in The Music Man, when Harold Hill convinces an entire small that (gasp!) a pool hall is going to turn their children into juvenile delinquents who read trashy magazines!

 

Whenever I see people objecting to any kind of sex or violence in TV, I want to lock them in a room and force them to watch a whole collection of episodes of Game of Thrones, just to watch them lose their minds.
If people don't like something, then they can just not watch it, I don't think they should be allowed to determine what I can or can't watch.

 

Tell me the room and I'll lock myself in to it.

 

No.

 

My mother used to call sf "that dumb stuff" but it didn't bother me. I figured she just didn't understand it, so I continued to read and watch what I wanted. I always figure people are entitled to their own opinion and I'm not bothered if their opinion is different from mine. That's life. Plus, these things always change over time.

 

One of them is a relative. Not naming names. They definitely filed it under "tool of Satan", because they sent me Chick tract comics to leave me no doubt of what they thought.

 

Yup.

 

"Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherf#$%ing t-shirt print snake images on this motherf#$%ing plane!"

 

That's a clear case of CYA (Cover Your Ass) insecurity theatre in action; the kid and his parents should make a lot of noise about this incident, IMHO.