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My life was so much better before I read that
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Dec 31, 2020 21:15
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Push El Burrito posted:I'm not a big fan of Rambo. When I was a kid my great grandma had two pets, a dog named Rambo and a cat named Sambo. She might have been racist, but that's not the point. The point is Rambo would knock my tiny child body over and proceed to hump away and I wasn't powerful enough to stop it. Rambo's depravity knew no bounds
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Dec 31, 2020 21:28
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I have a book on Special Forces in Vietnam and there is an appendix that lists the MIA. Just about all the descriptions are things like: Helicopter hit by enemy fire, explodes in midair, no remai s recoverable. Hit by mortar/rocket/IED, no body to recover. Last seen unmoving after hit multiple times by enemy fire in ambush, withdrawal by survivors prevented recovery of body. The few that weren't something along those lines (couldn't get him or nothing left to get) were went out on patrol, never seen again or seen alive but seriously wounded and couldn't be recovered. And there were very, very few of those. Of the almost 2000 MIA from then, at most a couple of dozen are in that last category. There are still 72,000 MIA from WW II, as a comparison. In war, sometimes people are just... gone.
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Dec 31, 2020 21:35
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Who was bringing that up in 2008?
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Dec 31, 2020 22:13
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MrUnderbridge posted:I have a book on Special Forces in Vietnam and there is an appendix that lists the MIA. Just about all the descriptions are things like: Our HUGE war hero, Lauri Törni, as in Larry Thorne, was one of those and there was an expedition to get a definite proof that his chopper was shot down and get official disclosure. But that man was a national hero for some reasons and a huge rear end in a top hat for some others, but still no expense was too much to "get him a burial". I'd expect that most of these are the same.
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Dec 31, 2020 22:13
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Whenever people talk about QAnon or whatever crazy conspiracy theory is making the rounds I think about how town halls across the country fly the POW/MIA flag (mine included) and how few Americans know it's based on an insane long-debunked conspiracy theory. I brought it up in some thread where I posted about going to an NFL game (that happened to be on military appreciation week or whatever but I didn't know) and brought it up when they had a giant version of it on the field with the American flag and our state flag and poo poo and a bunch of goons had no clue. It's like if nobody questioned 9/11 being an inside job and just had no clue al-Qaeda existed.
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Dec 31, 2020 23:49
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The flag and the org behind it both came about while the war was still going on iirc. POWs didn’t become a fringe issue until after they were all returned. For a lot of people, it probably just remained a way of commemorating their dead family or community members. If I see it painted on the side of an old building, I usually just assume the owner had a family member who was killed.
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Jan 1, 2021 00:12
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The idea that Vietnam was keeping POWs after the war came up in a lot of 80s pop culture. Rambo, obviously, the Chuck Norris Missing in Action films, Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman, and my personal favorite, Airwolf. Not always remembered that Stringfellow Hawke was hired to retrieve Airwolf and kept it to force the intelligence agency that hired him to look for his missing brother. On the plus side, pretty much every other character in the show kept telling him his brother was dead and he needed to move on. It's really one of the saddest conspiracy theories, because you can see why people would prefer to believe that their loved one is alive and going to be rescued any day now, rather than blown to pieces and their body left to rot in a jungle while fighting a pointless war. Happy New Year.
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Jan 1, 2021 00:33
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Antifa Turkeesian posted:The flag and the org behind it both came about while the war was still going on iirc. POWs didn’t become a fringe issue until after they were all returned. For a lot of people, it probably just remained a way of commemorating their dead family or community members. If I see it painted on the side of an old building, I usually just assume the owner had a family member who was killed. It's POW/MIA not KIA. Just because people don't know it's an insane conspiracy theory doesn't make it any less so it's why I made the 9/11 comparison.
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Jan 1, 2021 01:18
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Huh. I guess that explains the episode or two of Unsolved Mysteries where a wife just refuses to admit her husband was killed in Vietnam.
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Jan 1, 2021 02:50
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Detective No. 27 posted:Huh. I guess that explains the episode or two of Unsolved Mysteries where a wife just refuses to admit her husband was killed in Vietnam. Those were the most depressing segments, those and the closely related ones where a family refuses to accept that someone committed suicide.
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Jan 1, 2021 03:00
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Like Kurt Cobain?
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Jan 1, 2021 03:17
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Antifa Turkeesian posted:Those were the most depressing segments, those and the closely related ones where a family refuses to accept that someone committed suicide. I haven't watched all of NuUnsolved Mysteries but I really felt that it missed the mark on what made the original work so well. It seemed to veer towards missing murdered person to ghosts/aliens. I don't think they did any lost connections or any of the heartwarming other ones. Rewatching the early 90s episodes is a trip because you'll get old people on and they'll recreate their childhoods from over 110 years ago now and it's wild. The craziest story I remember was the one about the guy who spent decades as Santa Claus, cheering up children. He did it originally as a way to to find his daughter, who went missing. Very heartwarming and the first time I saw it I was sure that there would be a nice update showing them reconnecting. Then the update happened and it said she died in a car explosion in the 70s. 
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Jan 1, 2021 03:26
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Antifa Turkeesian posted:Those were the most depressing segments, those and the closely related ones where a family refuses to accept that someone committed suicide. One of the later episodes featured a similar story, but for another era. A man's last heard from his wife on September 10, 2001, they think. He was a doctor with a long shift that night and she sometimes spent the night with friends or relatives so as to not be alone. They lived near the World Trade Center. Communications were down and their apartment was blocked off. He looked for her at everywhere he knew she might be. Nothing. Security footage showed her in a store on September 10, but no trace of her afterwards. His theory was that she saw the first tower hit and tried to help, then died when the second tower was hit. There was nothing at all to prove this, but eventually he got her listed as official victim of the attacks. Whatever helped him sleep at night, I guess. Speaking of Unsolved Mysteries, some of the segments aged pretty poorly. Like some of the supernatural and coincidence segments could have been pretty easily disproven these days. There was also a guy pretty obviously faking amnesia for a) publicity and b) to avoid criminal charges, which were popped up right after the segment originally aired.
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Jan 1, 2021 03:29
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Megillah Gorilla posted:Like Kurt Cobain? Kurt cobain was murdered by Jeffrey Epstein
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Jan 1, 2021 07:15
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Presumably a reference to the people still flying the flags, because god, they sure are out there.
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Jan 1, 2021 12:37
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Nessus posted:Like the Hitler escapes to Argentina thing: after a certain point, Time would get him even if Mossad didn't. Even after they made him Man of the Year?
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Jan 1, 2021 12:55
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Unsolved classic is great. I like the new ones fine, and how they deep dive into a case, which is probably more respectful, but man do I miss Robert Stack coming out of the fog, and the wild swings it would take. "Here's a ghost, a lost treasure, a depressing murder, and a magic rock." Magic rock segment in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cevgM4Ez-5w&t=2377s
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Jan 1, 2021 13:15
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The new Unsolved Mysteries were loving terrible. They just slapped that name onto a basic crime show and called it a day. gently caress them.
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Jan 1, 2021 16:45
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Solice Kirsk posted:The new Unsolved Mysteries were loving terrible. They just slapped that name onto a basic crime show and called it a day. gently caress them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCT80HJWQ2A
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Jan 1, 2021 17:11
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Der Kyhe posted:Our HUGE war hero, Lauri Törni, as in Larry Thorne, was one of those and there was an expedition to get a definite proof that his chopper was shot down and get official disclosure. But that man was a national hero for some reasons and a huge rear end in a top hat for some others, but still no expense was too much to "get him a burial". I'd expect that most of these are the same.
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Jan 1, 2021 22:51
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Hedenius posted:Others reasons being that he was a nazi gently caress who actually joined the German army in WWII. He was pardoned in his native Finland for that particular bit of treason and went to the US to continue fighting for fascism. He was a real American hero 
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Jan 1, 2021 23:02
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Nessus posted:Yeah, I got in multiple arguments on the topic in 2008 so that date stuck in my head. They were very stupid. But the point really is more 'as time goes on, this becomes more implausible.' Like the Hitler escapes to Argentina thing: after a certain point, Time would get him even if Mossad didn't. Was it the weekly world news that ran an ELVIS DEAD story, explaining that he'd faked his death before but now was dead for real?
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Jan 1, 2021 23:11
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Yes, he died of complications from diabetes if I recall.
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Jan 1, 2021 23:13
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Solice Kirsk posted:The new Unsolved Mysteries were loving terrible. They just slapped that name onto a basic crime show and called it a day. gently caress them. Am I missing something? What was unsolved mysteries to begin with?
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Jan 15, 2021 18:51
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:Am I missing something? What was unsolved mysteries to begin with? Mysteries aren't always crimes. The original show had a wide variety of topics. Aliens, ghosts, lost treasures, lots of families getting reunited (they stole so many children away from single mothers back in the day). Stuff like that. Crimes were definitely a big part, but you never knew what you were gonna get. The reboot had an alien episode, but it felt more like they were throwing a bone.
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Jan 15, 2021 19:07
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iirc, because the mysteries were unsolved sometimes they entertained some extremely wild theories to account for all of the available facts and so there'd be some fella genuinely trying to make a paranormal case out of it hauntings, otherworldly abductions, etc
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Jan 15, 2021 19:19
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It's harder to do paranormal/alien poo poo in 2021. 1. Most of the developed world is full of phones and cameras that would be recording paranormal poo poo if it were actually happening, removing the thin veneer of "hey you never know" that justified 90s poo poo like X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries. 2. You have to go pretty far into bonkers territory to get noticed after 3 straight decades of trash shows like all the ghost hunters and Ancient Aliens bullshit. 3. A lot of the actual developed world is more and more public with actual, harmful  poo poo like "vaccines don't work/microchip you" and "the earth is flat" so it's a bit ethically harder to justify stories that encourage... "outside the box" reasoning.
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Jan 15, 2021 19:20
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mind the walrus posted:It's harder to do paranormal/alien poo poo in 2021. true, except modern media clearly has no ethical problem with stoking the conspiracy fire
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Jan 15, 2021 19:24
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Frankly I have no idea where else to put this https://twitter.com/maskeddancerfox/status/1349748173535911943?s=21
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Jan 15, 2021 19:29
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hawowanlawow posted:true, except modern media clearly has no ethical problem with stoking the conspiracy fire
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Jan 15, 2021 19:34
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:Am I missing something? What was unsolved mysteries to begin with? if you ever saw the unfairly-denigrated masterpiece of cinema the Super Mario Bros. movie, they're watching unsolved mysteries or a cheap fictional version of it at the beginning when they are talking about the abducted brooklyn women and the crackpot who starts ranting about other dimensions and stuff
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Jan 15, 2021 19:36
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Henchman of Santa posted:Frankly I have no idea where else to put this I mean, yeah, pretty drat cringey to be chanting "take it off" at her considering what made her famous in the first place.
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Jan 15, 2021 19:46
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I don’t know—John Walsh did some silly media stuff back in the 90s. It’s probably kind of nice to not have to be the face for activism related to your extremely painful trauma for a few hours.
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Jan 15, 2021 19:53
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Detective No. 27 posted:Mysteries aren't always crimes. The original show had a wide variety of topics. Aliens, ghosts, lost treasures, lots of families getting reunited (they stole so many children away from single mothers back in the day). Stuff like that. Crimes were definitely a big part, but you never knew what you were gonna get. Yeah, I liked the new Unsolved Mysteries, but it's like an itch that can't be scratched. I'm fine with an alien encounter being unsolved and mysterious, or the unexplained death of a spy 30 years ago. I'm less fine with a teenager being recently murdered for being Hispanic and his killer remaining a mystery.
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Jan 16, 2021 22:37
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I recently watched through all the old Unsolved Mysteries on Prime and was probably most shocked by Henry Rollins appearing as the roommate of a person who had been murdered. He was identified as “local house painter and musician Henry Rollins.” He was still extremely charismatic in his interview though.
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Jan 16, 2021 22:53
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hyperhazard posted:Yeah, I liked the new Unsolved Mysteries, but it's like an itch that can't be scratched. I'm fine with an alien encounter being unsolved and mysterious, or the unexplained death of a spy 30 years ago. I'm less fine with a teenager being recently murdered for being Hispanic and his killer remaining a mystery. the "mystery" is usually he smoked pot so the cops marked it off as gang affiliated and dropped it to lowest priority.
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Jan 16, 2021 23:52
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hyperhazard posted:Yeah, I liked the new Unsolved Mysteries, but it's like an itch that can't be scratched. I'm fine with an alien encounter being unsolved and mysterious, or the unexplained death of a spy 30 years ago. I'm less fine with a teenager being recently murdered for being Hispanic and his killer remaining a mystery. At that point it's just an unsatisfying Forensic Files episode.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:01
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the_steve posted:I mean, yeah, pretty drat cringey to be chanting "take it off" at her considering what made her famous in the first place. Wh.... what do you think Elizabeth Smart is famous for?
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Jan 18, 2021 00:22
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VanSandman posted:Wh.... what do you think Elizabeth Smart is famous for? What do YOU think she's famous for? It's a pretty surreal and uncomfortable thing to chant at someone who was sexually assaulted daily for months.
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Jan 18, 2021 00:33
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