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The X-Files and Post-Truth

By Justin G. on 25JUN05THU

I haven’t researched this theory at all. I’m just clarifying my own thinking first. It could be original (doubtful) or it could be independent discovery (hopeful) or it could be old news (likely). I had fun writing it up.

The X-Files as Early Stage of the Post-Truth World

TL;DR: The X-Files rehearsed the emotional logic of today’s post-truth era: trust no one, suspect everything, tantalizing resolution someday soon maybe.

As some of you may know, my wife and I are currently re-watching that mid-90s to early 2000s documentary about those two FBI agents that are just trying to find the truth. I watched this show when it first aired, and I loved it then. This time around, my third I think, is really showing how preposterous the stories, conspiracy theories, and even the choices of the characters are. I mean, I want to believe the in universe stories, but sometimes these days it is harder to maintain my suspended disbelief. Or it takes a more intentional approach than it did the first time around. Also, we’re generally binging it, not watching one episode on Friday night, so that’s different too. With that pacing, the non-resolution of, well, anything, is unmissable. The show runs on the suspense.

To be clear, I still think it’s good television. It’s so much fun! But I have a theory to sum up here.

The basic theory is that The X-Files was laying the groundwork for the deep state conspiracy theories that are dominant in some sectors of American politics since the mid-2010s. Not the details of what is in the episodes of the show, not fluke worm man, or any particulars of EBEs or any of those specifics. But the Cancer Man vibe, and all the unknown unknowns in the world, maybe filled with black oil or unknown assassins trained in the School of the Americas, that was all close enough. It’s that there is a cover up, that someone out there knows the truth, and if you believe hard enough (Mulder) you can even convince the hired skeptic (Scully) to buy in. For years on end it maintained the narrative that there is much more going on than we are led to believe. What’s really going on goes in all sorts of different directions. Then, dot dot dot, QAnon.

I’m not saying that The X-Files created this paranoia out of thin air. Ruby Ridge (‘92), Waco (‘93), and Oklahoma City (‘95). The raw ingredients were around, the show just packaged it all together into a weekly prime-time habit.

The show existed in a time when Unsolved Mysteries still aired regularly, and JFK was a recent theatrical release. I didn’t even know about Coast to Coast AM until much later, but it was on then too. I was more likely to listen to Love Line, haha. But what also was on the airwaves was a show called Law & Order (among others). The X-Files served as a credible bridge from the cop show watching set to the conspiracy theory sci-fi folks. And maybe, just maybe, it contributed to those unskeptical want-to-believers pulling in more and more of those police procedural programmers. The show itself likely didn’t convince anyone, it just opened the door for more people who wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed. Olivia Benson is pretty facts driven in her approach to the law. Contrast that with the FBI agents who have a much more vibe-y relationship with the truth.

I wasn’t a part of it at all, but early Usenet message boards at the time searched for clues in every episode; it was a pre-run for OSINT and today. My friends and I did our post-episode forensics the old fashioned way, over the landline.

The point I’m feeling my way toward is this: the show’s style of managing the viewer’s emotions feels uncannily like today’s information rush. We’re living in a world that echoes the 44-minute format Mulder and Scully inhabit. We get no breaks. Everything happens, and we’re left to puzzle it out for ourselves. There are never any answers. It’s fun on TV, but not so much IRL. And that’s the point.

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