JasonChapman":35aqp8gy said:
...So why do so many people embrace scifi as fact and reject the unexplained as mainly fiction?
I don't think people embrace "sci-fi" as fact.
It's the nature of many types of fiction stories to be allegories or similes for real-life subjects. "The Wizard of Oz" was about the controversy revolving around the Gold Standard for currency. Because people paid attention to it, does that then mean they believed there was a wizard in some land called Oz populated by short people and very, very flat witches?
When a fictional story is couched in a drama revolving in a present-day milieu, people are going to immediately expect one of two things:
We're going to explore something about human nature or society.
This is an allegory, simile or demonstrative illustration regarding a current topical issue.
Look at "Law & Order." (Not the CSI/SVU crap but the good ol' regular L&O) There are MANY Law and Order episodes that come, seemingly, straight out of the headlines. Often, they either deal with angles that are either not covered or not seen in the news. Sometimes, they put a twist in there to bring out an important view. If people pay attention to that, if they understand the story, does that mean they believe it happened as told?
The X-Files played upon the conspiracy theme in the UFO community. It took that popular myth (myth, because it isn't proven) and expanded upon it, creating an entire history and mythology that takes place in the modern day. Because a great portion of the audience was already "familiar" with the subject, they could jump right in with both feet. The X-Files didn't have to teach anyone what a UFO was nor did it have to lay substantial groundwork in order to legitimately create a fictional government coverup angle. If people enjoyed that, if the understood what the messages were, does that mean they believed it as it was written? No.
Believe it or not, a great many people think that it is possible that aliens could visit Earth and could actually fly around the atmosphere in spaceships. The last poll I saw showed that a majority of Americans believed that ET exists. That's not due to the X-Files. But, it is partly due to the wide body of fiction that is out there. Every single "alien" movie adds to the culture.
So, in a way, the more alien sci-fi there is, the more the culture becomes attuned to it and the more accepting the culture is of the subject in general. The more accepting of the subject they are, the more likely they will take an interest in it and discover what they can about it.