Culture Ancient Apocalypse is the most dangerous show on Netflix - Why has this been allowed?

Ancient Apocalypse is the most dangerous show on Netflix

A show with a truly preposterous theory is one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits – and it seems to exist solely for conspiracy theorists. Why has this been allowed?

www.theguardian.com

Ancient Apocalypse is the most dangerous show on Netflix | Television…

archived 23 Nov 2022 12:57:31 UTC

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A show with a truly preposterous theory is one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits – and it seems to exist solely for conspiracy theorists. Why has this been allowed?

Stuart Heritage

At the time of writing, Ancient Apocalypse has been comfortably sitting in Netflix’s Top 10 list for several days. This presents something of a mystery, because the show closely resembles the sort of half-baked filler documentary that one of the lesser Discovery channels would slap up at 3am between shows about plane crashes and fascist architecture. Ancient Apocalypse obviously has an audience, but who on Earth is it?

Fortunately, you don’t have to watch for long to find out. In quick succession, during the pre-show sizzle reel, we are treated to clips of the show’s host Graham Hancock being interviewed by Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan. Finally, we have an answer: Ancient Apocalypse must be a TV programme made exclusively for people who like to shout at you on Twitter.

Of course it is. These people are Hancock’s bread and butter; the “free thinkers” who, through some bizarre quirk of nature, are often more perennially outraged than anyone else on Earth. They’re drawn to Ancient Apocalypse, thanks in part to Hancock’s loud and persistent claims that his life’s work is being suppressed by Big Archaeology.

The thrust of Ancient Apocalypse is as follows: Hancock believes that an advanced ice-age civilisation – responsible for teaching humanity concepts such as maths, architecture and agriculture – was wiped out in a giant flood brought about by multiple comet strikes about 12,000 years ago. There are signs everywhere you look, he says. To prove this, he spends an entire television series looking everywhere.

Hancock travels to Malta, to Mexico, to Indonesia, and to the US, purely so he can look at remnants of old structures and insist that they prove his theory. Which isn’t to say that is all he does, of course, because a great deal of every episode is spent railing at the buttoned-up archeological institutions that fail to listen to him (because, according to them, the whole theory doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever).

The result – sadly, given it’s about an intelligent life form being exploded off the planet in a hail of cometfire – is preposterously boring. Hancock goes to a place and says: “They want you to think it’s this, but actually it’s that,” over and over again. I once got trapped at a party with a Flat Earther. It was a very similar experience to watching this.

Which isn’t to say we should dismiss Hancock’s theory out of hand, of course. Because if he’s right, and the history of humanity really is just the first five minutes of Prometheus, it would change everything we know about ourselves. But we certainly shouldn’t treat his hodgepodge of mysteries and coincidences as fact.

That’s the danger of a show like this. It whispers to the conspiracy theorist in all of us. And Hancock is such a compelling host that he’s bound to create a few more in his wake. Believing that ultra-intelligent creatures helped to build the pyramids is one thing, but where does it end? Believing that election fraud is real? Believing 9/11 was an inside job? Worse? If you were feeling particularly mean-spirited, you could suggest that Netflix knows this, and has gone out of its way to court the conspiracy theorists.

But, hey, not all conspiracy theories are bad. If you don’t like Hancock’s story about the super-intelligent advanced civilisation being wiped off the face of the planet, here’s another that might explain how Netflix gave the greenlight to Ancient Apocalypse: the platform’s senior manager of unscripted originals happens to be Hancock’s son. Honestly, what are the chances?

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Why do j*urnalists hate conspiracies so damn much? I'm gonna watch it as soon as I find another Netflix account to mooch off

Because it's not the SCIENCE™ that they learn in their fancy UNIVERSITIES™. Only the approved SCIENCE™ and HISTORY™ that they pay to learn in their UNIVERSITIES™ is the REALITY™ and those who didn't have access to it are ignorant magatard redneck morons.

Or rather, they hate that any non-college moron with the most basic and minimal common sense can reach to conclusions that they can't despite they spent all of that money in their education.

 

[Meat Target]

Literally everyone at the Guardian has Histrionic Personality Disorder. I clicked the link to see which faggot wrote this, and immediately got a pop-up reading "RESIST POWERLESSNESS".

Bitch, there is no institution you do not rule with an iron rainbow dildo. And if Our Democracy is imperiled by some retarded Ancient Aliens redux, then that's a problem with the system being shit.

If your house can be flattened by a stiff breeze, then there was a problem with how you built it, not because the wind is a cruel and unfair mistress.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

People doing things they don't approve of absolutely makes them seethe. I'm so tired of these control freaks.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

Good on him. If he’s lying out of his ass, stop crying and prove him wrong. But proving someone wrong is hard work and it’s easier to just silence them. They’re just a bunch of lazy assholes. The guy is probably mostly wrong but they’re making him seem more credible for crying about his program. Pussies.

 

[TowinKarz]

People ostensibly living in the greatest age of enlightenment humanity's ever known, where more people can get more information on more things with less effort than in any other point in history, where you can literally learn the secrets of life over the breakfast table, and those same people are running around calling knowledge outside a narrow and dogmatically-policed selection "dangerous" - I weep.

 

[Crex Crex]

If an advanced worldwide civilization had existed over 12000 years ago and flourished for centuries, you'd expect to find something more advanced than megaliths that are still relatively crude in their construction and are only immediately preceded by rock huts and flints despite being dated towards the ending period of this supposed civilization (at most). There is enough garbage to reconstruct the life of mudhut dwellers in the neolithic or people living in shitholes like post-Mycenean greece yet the hyperboreans seemingly have left no trace because a flood conveniently swallowed all of it (never mind the fact that we have dredged much of what used to be dry land during the ice age and found nothing but dead Mammoths).

The author of this shit article could have written this instead of being an infantile fuck and trying to shoehorn some political narrative in it.

 

[Hollywood Hitler]

There's enough toxic waste in there already. We should shoot them into the sun.

FTFY

 

[Super-Chevy454]

More dangerous than Cuties, huh?

I could imagine Willy Wonka saying "So Netflix, you think then Ancien Apocalypse is dangerous, tell us why Cuties isn't dangerous?"

 

[Iron Jaguar]

All this article really accomplishes is solidifying my belief that journalists should be herded into the sea.

Huh. You've answered the question of what happened to all those demons after the pigs drowned - they ended up in journalists.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

More dangerous than Bird Box? I doubt this will spawn a challenge where you drive blindfolded.

 

[Toolbox]

More dangerous than Cuties, huh?

The kind of journo writing this article would have considered cuties stunning and brave.

 

[Overly Serious]

Impact theory is getting a lot more evidence now. The Carolina bays may have been formed that way as well as the haiwatha crate in Greenland. The scale of it is incredible - you’re talking about chunks of matter being thrown hundreds of kilometres and altering the landscape where they hit. The comet is probably the remains of comet encke which is now forming the Taurid meteor showers. Certainly puts the Neolithic obsession with knowin what times of year you’d go back through those meteors into context
There’s a guy called Donald tusk or something who has a lot of stuff on his blog. I’m quite on board with something nasty hitting us 12k years ago and that being the younger dryas event. It makes sense

You really are the smartest Otter I have ever known.

But why is it dangerous? I haven’t seen it - If it’s ancient aliens tier it’s just funny. How could such a show be the most dangerous thing in the media?
I don’t know much about Hancock but the idea of a cometary impact around 12k years ago has plenty of evidence. We know which comet and we can see where bits of it landed. That’s hardly ancient aliens tier stuff, it’s more cautious but increasing evidence for an event. Why dangerous?

Anything that says "experts" are wrong or might be, is increasingly dangerous. This is because if you want to call your country a democracy then your actions have to be describable as good to the population. (Whereas if you're a king you can just say "that's mine" and take it). Ergo you need people whose opinions are worth more than other people's to describe the things you are doing as good. Without them saying what you are doing is good, you are merely a despot and people will try to rise up. The people who say what is good are "experts" and if they aren't respected they can no longer fulfil their purpose.

(Please note, "experts" and experts need not be the same thing. In fact, they can be natural enemies.)

The funny thing is that for the last ten years you’d be pilloried in my industry (and I have been) for saying ‘actually I don’t think we really know how SSRIs work and I don’t think chemical imbalance theory is complete’ or ‘hey all these Alzheimer’s trials keep failing maybe our model is wrong?’
And then magically, over the course of a few weeks, the orthodoxy changes.

One of the things that drives me crazy with "conspiracies" and I have first-hand experience of this, is the way after they are confirmed everyone suddenly starts saying "we knew that all along" and wont accept under any circumstances that they believed otherwise.

 

[Otterly]

If an advanced worldwide civilization had existed over 12000 years ago and flourished for centuries, you'd expect to find something more advanced than megaliths that are still relatively crude in their construction and are only immediately preceded by rock huts and flints despite being dated towards the ending period of this supposed civilization (at most). There is enough garbage to reconstruct the life of mudhut dwellers in the neolithic or people living in shitholes like post-Mycenean greece yet the hyperboreans seemingly have left no trace because a flood conveniently swallowed all of it (never mind the fact that we have dredged much of what used to be dry land during the ice age and found nothing but dead Mammoths).

The author of this shit article could have written this instead of being an infantile fuck and trying to shoehorn some political narrative in it.

I’m honestly not sure that we would find much more and I’m not convinced it was worldwide. By advanced society, I do think they mean cellphones (although I’ve not seen the series) , they mean Bronze Age level. And there are quite a few megalithic structures that are of ages that are disputed. Some of the structures around the pyramids for example are queried in age. The sphinx is too and I think the serapeum is as well. Ness of Brodgar? OOOOLLLD. Plus there’s that place in Indonesia, what’s it called (looks it up) gunung padeng:

A Scientist Claims The World's Oldest Pyramid Is Hidden in an Indonesian Mountain

When Dutch colonists became the first Europeans to discover Gunung (Mount) Padang in the early 20th century, they must have been awestruck by the sheer scale of their ancient stone surroundings.

www.sciencealert.com

We certainly wouldn’t find iron, that lasts a few hundred years in the ground. What would we find if there’s been largely coastal civilisations who got inundated? There’s a few places off India that are drowned as well…
I just think it’s very interesting. We’ve been an anatomically modern species for several hundred thousand years. We only just got going in the last eight or so? Nah. I can quite believe we’ve got to Bronze Age levels and been knocked back a couple of times.
Have you ever been to skara brae? If you’re ever in Orkney, do. It’s the oddest feeling to stand in someone’s home that’s older than the pyramids and think ‘yeah I’d lay it out like this, nice beds for the kids, little stone dresser for possessions and stuff.’ It’s so completely modern, and yet it’s five thousand years old.

 

[PumpkinSpiceBitchMeringue]

Why do j*urnalists hate conspiracies so damn much? I'm gonna watch it as soon as I find another Netflix account to mooch off

Just use himovies.to or something.

Fuck that, 2kmovie.cc is 10 times better for pirating Netflix content.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I'M NOT YELLING, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S YELLING!!!!!!!!!!

I'M NOT CRAZY INSTITUTION
YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S CRAZY INSTITUTION
YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY INSTITUTION
ALL I WANTED WAS A PEPSI! INSTITUTION

 

[raspberry mocha]

Graham Hancock is a bit of a smarmy boomer hack but the general theories he espouses are interesting if you get past the "archaeologist experts HATE this!" schtick. As for Ancient Apocalypse, I thought it was really funny that only the American authorities stonewalled him when he tried to interview them.

 

[The Ghost of Kviv]

The only Ancient Aliens-esque part of the show is Hancock somehow finding a way to bring all findings to mean the destruction of some civilization. While that's annoying it's also his shtick, and how he's made a living past the 80's.

I'm super excited for the series because it brings other, more believable scientists, into popularity, such as Randall Carlson and Robert Schoch. Carlson was featured in the last episode, where they go over all the geological evidence, and he has a great video about how ancient humans spent an incredible time detailing Earth's path through space and time:

HIDDEN MATHEMATICS - Randall Carlson - Ancient Knowledge of Space, Time & Cosmic Cycles

Randall Carlson is a master builder and architectural designer, teacher, geometrician, geomythologist, geological explorer and renegade scholar. This present...

www.youtube.com

Carlson also has a whole channel full of this stuff, including the Atlantis theories they mentioned in the series: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRandallCarlson

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

Here's just some quick images I've got.

View attachment 3926628
View attachment 3926631

View attachment 3926634

this evidence is mentioned on the show as well

 

[Crex Crex]

I’m honestly not sure that we would find much more and I’m not convinced it was worldwide. By advanced society, I do think they mean cellphones (although I’ve not seen the series) , they mean Bronze Age level.

Would have still left plenty of evidence, regardless of how advanced or widespread it was.

And there are quite a few megalithic structures that are of ages that are disputed. Some of the structures around the pyramids for example are queried in age. The sphinx is too and I think the serapeum is as well. Ness of Brodgar? OOOOLLLD. Plus there’s that place in Indonesia, what’s it called (looks it up) gunung padeng:

None of those exceed 4000-5000 years old (without accounting for bullshit such as the Sphinx erosion hypothesis or Gunung Padeng being a giant pyramid).

We certainly wouldn’t find iron, that lasts a few hundred years in the ground. What would we find if there’s been largely coastal civilisations who got inundated? There’s a few places off India that are drowned as well…

It's not necessarily iron or metal metal that you should find: the civilization should have produced mountains of masonry, pottery, votive offerings, carvings and whatever stuff they threw out. Where there were genuine inundated settlements, things like those are often dredged from the bottom. Not to mention remnants of fortifications and irrigation systems.

I just think it’s very interesting. We’ve been an anatomically modern species for several hundred thousand years. We only just got going in the last eight or so? Nah. I can quite believe we’ve got to Bronze Age levels and been knocked back a couple of times.

Civilization took so long to emerge because human population was very low for the first few tens of thousands of years (and even went through population bottlenecks), plus an ice age not being too conducive for agriculture.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

If you don’t like Hancock’s story about the super-intelligent advanced civilisation being wiped off the face of the planet, here’s another that might explain how Netflix gave the greenlight to Ancient Apocalypse: the platform’s senior manager of unscripted originals happens to be Hancock’s son. Honestly, what are the chances?

Oh my god! Nepotism in show business??? This truly is a story worth telling and not filler by some dipshit with a deadline.