An old, recognizable poster is visible on the wall of Fox Mulder’s office during the new X-Files miniseries. It shows a blurry image of what appears to be a flying saucer hovering over a forest. Printed in bold type below the shot: i want to believe. It serves as a testament to Mulder’s earnest faith in extraterrestrial or paranormal beings and a deep skepticism towards a heavy-handed federal government that suppresses and obfuscates their existence.
Still, The X-Files has bigger problems than the amnesia of its characters: the show’s core premise has aged much worse than its attractive lead actors. The Roswell incident is a fun diversion, but there’s something hopelessly quaint about being obsessed with the cover-up of a gaggle of big-eyed aliens that crashed in the New Mexico desert 60 years ago when measured against the insanity of the present.
Not that conspiracy theories are relegated to the right. The left is increasingly rife with batty ideas: “9/11 was an inside job!” “Vaccines cause autism!” “There are toxins in all my food!” “The Koch Brothers control everything!”
