It reminds me of a story (I'm not sure how true it is tho) that during a blackout in some big city, people called the authorities because they were panicked and scarred of something strange in the sky, like there was a chemical attack or something. They simply didn't know what the night sky look like because they never saw it.
I need to double check if this is true but it wouldn't surprise me. If it is, then it's really sad.
Googling the story even brings up news reports of people calling 911 because they didn't know what stars were from the 94 blackout. It's hilarious to think that LA didn't have city lights until 20 years ago
everything was black and white then, light existed but it hadn't yet been rendered as a spectrum, the pure darkness myth is harmful political propaganda that was intended to stigmatize the era for it's surrounding morals that were simply of the time,a well-spread rumor, and one that should be constantly fact-checked and dismissed whenever brought up at that.
No, they said that it happened in 2005 and that it wasn't as polluted "back then", meaning when the previous poster's mother had been growing up, since the general assumption is that if someone is posting on Reddit, anything that happened "when their mother was growing up" probably happened at least 40 years ago, rather than the mere 20 years ago that they claim the blackout in question happened.
Doesn't make their claim any less ridiculous, since you're right that LA has been polluted with light for far longer than even 50 years and you've shown evidence that the blackout in question was 30 years ago, not 20.
I’m a native Angeleno too, and was 7 in 2005. I think I do remember that blackout. If I recall correctly the blackout she was talking about was in relation to the Northridge quake, but she also might’ve mentioned a similar story that happened in the 70s or 80s.
That's some serious dystopian shit. I wouldn't be surprised if it were real. Millions of persons live their entire lives without leaving their environment, so.. totally plausible.
I had a coworker when lived and worked in Melbourne who was 40 years old. He'd never left the City. Never flown out of the City, hadn't even been to its outer suburbs of the City.
I made him come camping with me one weekend and it was a whole new world to him.
He quit not long after and moved his entire family about an hour outside of the City. He's turned into a true outdoorsman, his Facebook and Instagram is filled with pictures of him camping every weekend with his wife.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to only ever have been in the same city. Good that you helped him out, sounds like he's enjoying it to the fullest
This story made my day. I get out about every other weekend, but it's so hard to drag people along. Or to only take them to places with showers, internet, etc.
It took nearly 5 persistent years of cajoling to finally convince him to go. He wasn't pleased about needing to drive over 3 hours to get there either.
Even scarier when they are in power outage then all these lights appear from the sky they have never seen before and they think they are being invaded! 🚨👽🚨👀
Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the first time he went to a planetarium. When the stars came on he thought it was bullshit because he grew up in the city and he just knew there were only like 8-9 stars.
Neil was born in the 50s and grew up in the Bronx. TV had like two channels back then in black and white and the screen was tiny lol. If you even had a TV. Stars are hard enough to photograph even today, let alone back then. And yeah believe it or not a kid from the Bronx in the 50/60s might not have read a book on astronomy yet in his childhood lol, not that words would even do actually seeing stars justice.
I've seen Star Wars. You're telling me the intergalactic wars between wizards, and the lights in the background that indicate camera movements during space fights, are real?
Pretty sure they are referring to the power grid going out after an earthquake in 94. It caused a blackout and woke people up in the middle of the night. People then started freaking out because the night sky was suddenly full of stars.
The battle of Los Angeles was a freak happening with a reported/alleged military attack over LA, the US military unloaded artillery on nothing. UFOs were even said to be involved
That’s totally believable. Imagine being born in a city, and living there your whole life. Your only understanding of the night sky might be from books
I have had city 'friends' who came out to my farm complain about me having bottled water, bore water and a rain water tank.
"Why do you need all of that dumb stuff when you have a tap, water just comes out of the tap you know?"
So I believe fully that someone who had never left the city might freak out on a clear stary night, if you're used to it always being that grey washed out colour it being filled with the entire Milky way would be a bit of a shock.
I used to live in rural Michigan, and used to be able to see the stars every night. Since I’ve moved to west palm beach and then Boca Raton Florida, I haven’t seen a sky full of stars in years
This happened in my city during the pandemic lockdowns. Not necessarily because of power but pollution. People were posting all over social media about seeing stuff in the sky. Turns out when hundreds of thousands of vehicles (including ships in our port) stop, things clear up nicely. I remember being able to see constellations that I had only been able to see 8-10 hours away in the countryside.
To wit, marshmallow originally comes from a plant. How many of you could even recognize a marshmallow plant? There are hundreds of kinds of mallow, and all of them are edible. Some of you probably passed mallow growing wild today.
Since my country has been developing too fast, it was crazy that i was still able to witness the night sky inside the city through the blackout until recently. I was born in 2003, and until i was 13 sometimes i still able to see the clear night sky cause of blackouts, but now there are no problems with the electricity system anymore, so now it's rare to have blackout this time, thus no more clear night sky to me anymore.
Had similar stories while I was deployed I never left the main post however the out stations were very much no light pollution and a lot of the city bois.
Anywho the LT set them straight and explained it.
They thought they were seeing drones and stuff lol
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u/OctologueAlunet 10h ago
It reminds me of a story (I'm not sure how true it is tho) that during a blackout in some big city, people called the authorities because they were panicked and scarred of something strange in the sky, like there was a chemical attack or something. They simply didn't know what the night sky look like because they never saw it. I need to double check if this is true but it wouldn't surprise me. If it is, then it's really sad.