| abstract | - We've all seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But what if these stories weren't false, but rather, made to distract people from the real aliens, government conspiracy and vampires? This trope describes the use of stories to serve as a psychological smoke screen. If someone came up and said that small grey aliens with big eyes just abducted him, you'd probably dismiss him as watching too much TV. It's used in media to show how big the conspiracy is. The people in charge know that they can't keep a lid on it all the time, so they start to release fictional accounts of their exploits, so if they ever do get seen, people will not believe the witnesses. Such a show is always popular. Thus the Conspiracy shows a power that's unimaginable when you think about it. See also Plausible Deniability and All Part of the Show. Examples of Fiction as Cover Up include:
|
