In The 50's They Were People From Outer Space...Now They're Aliens. Why the Switch?

"Aliens" is certainly a much more reactionary term than "people from outer space". If the PTB want to help alleviate fear and panic when the time comes for first contact, then perhaps encouraging the use of the word "people" to describe these visitors would be in order.
Or maybe the switch in terminology was due to new information that showed a little anxiety was warranted.

I refer to them as "space-lings"

Or Bogons.

reply to post by Alexander the Great


Spacelings? Aww...that's adorable. But don't forget interdimensionalbeinglings and timetravelersfromthefuturelings.

The scare factor is greater if the INVADER is a thing, it allows a higher level violence and destruction. Terror and Horror combined to break down your walls of reality and imprint your psyche that you are going to die. If it were just "people from outer space," the attitude is big deal, we'll just kick their ass!. The real truth is, you'll not even know it happened.

reply to post by debris765nju


We won't know contact happened or destruction happened? Please clarify?
57th line of this post. Deleted the other 55.

reply to post by Alexander the Great


Alexander...or should I say Mr. the Great, did you mean Vogons as in the Hitch hikers Guide to the Universe? Er...Galaxy?

[edit on 5/9/2009 by MsSmartypants]

I just call em "Aliens" A term I grew up with and a term I shall be using throughout my existance!

reply to post by The Shade


I either call them delusions or illegal immigrants.
and now a song brought to you by the need to say more than you want.
im the ice cream man
stop me when i am passing by
im the ice cream man
stop me when i am passing by
all my flavors are g-guaranteed to satisfy

I think 'Alien' is a more appropriate term because it may be true in some cases that a species won't actually come from outer space as we know it. For instance some species may be inter dimensional. Therefore the word 'Alien' (i.e. alien to our planet) is a blanket term that covers almost everything that's not indigenous to this planet.

IRM

I like spacelings. We are all spacelings.
I grew up with the "people" or the "beings" from outer space. Remember "martian"? There was even the Blob. Seems like the "good" space beings looked like handsome people. The bad beings were ugly or objects.

Not quite sure when we started calling them "aliens", but one of the funniest headlines I read was the one (from the 1980's) that read, Alien Hordes Massing At The Border. That was one scary headline, until I realized it meant there were a lot of Mexicans (or Nicaraguans, El Salvadorans, etc.) starting to live right below the southern US border.
No duh, all the maquiladoras having been built, attracting Mexicans northward, plus all the American involvement in Central America to keep the Commies at bay but also driving those nations' citizens northward. Talk about fear back then...many Americans were made to fear that those alien, Commie hordes were going to march across the border, bust down their door and shoot them (after raping the womenfolk). Honestly, I knew people who thought that.
E.T. be damned, fear ALL aliens!

Why, not just call them "people"?

In The 50's They Were People From Outer Space...Now They're Aliens. Why the Switch?

Back in the 50's, black people were called.....spooks, jiggaboos and ni....
Back in the 50's, the fridge was called an icebox
Back in the 50's, CD's were called 45's
Back in the 50's, cokes cost a nickle and women were called mam'....not bitch

perhaps the overall social attitudes of people changes and language is the expression of that consciencness.

reply to post by MsSmartypants


Both, the contact that matters has already happened, anything else is just for show. The end occurs in an instant, think of it as a time stall.....the only moves left are theirs.

they are called aliens nowadays because it has become illegal for them to visit here.

In the case of an alien crash or landing the rules are always to kill the being when the proper authorities would be on the scene.

I still wonder how the X-files got that info.

I see them more as those not from earth or the nonhumans.

reply to post by The Killah29


Exactly! Just call them "people". Eventually that's how they will be refered to anyway.We will of course differentiate between the species. But they will be people nonetheless.

Originally posted by Alexander the Great
I refer to them as "space-lings"

Spacelings it is then. Besides, according to the dictionary, the word 'alien' has the following meaning:

"...residing under a government or in a country other than that of one's birth without having or obtaining the status of citizenship there..."

...in other words, "alien" means "Obama".

reply to post by Albertarocks


So...we're all agreed then. Spacelings it is.
And to reiterate...interdimensionalbeinglings and timetravelersfromthefuturelings as well.

I usually just call them ets. But spacelings is nice. So is non-terrans, which I think I prefer now. Visitors as well. They're people, so non-terran people. Ets for short though.

"people from outer space" = same as or similar to us almost endearing.

"Aliens" = strange, unknown, foreign = scary unknown, can't be good.



If the PTB wanted us to prepare for an invasion. Which is more scary?

The outer space people invasion!

or

The Alien Invasion!

I believe the term 'alien' used to signify a being not of the Earth came into the vernacular after Ridley Scott's film 'Alien' appeared in 1979. Prior to that, the word was hardly used by the public at large. There were plenty of 'outer space' type feature films, but I don't remember the term 'alien' being used in any of them.

WG3