Each year, it’s a little more difficult to write a seemingly lighthearted review of the year in weird. This year was both personally and professionally a bit of a struggle as A.I. continues to eat away at my day job and the closure or collapse of a number of media outlets has made it more difficult place stories in paying publications. I lost my gig as a CNN Opinion columnist right when it was starting because CNN shuttered the entire division. As the year came to an end, about one-third of my income for the year remains outstanding from businesses that are dragging their feet on payments and have been since early fall. That has made it difficult to devote too much energy to caring about whatever old claims the usual cadre of kooks and weirdos are recycling on any given day.
21 Comments
Another year has passed us by, and it seems that each one is somehow a little bit darker than the one before. I’ll be honest: I had a hard time bringing myself to write this year-end wrap-up this year. It’s been a hard twelve months. At the beginning of the year, the release of generative A.I. completely destroyed my career, wiping out virtually the entire industry of business writing that was my bread and butter. It happened so quickly and so destructively that CBS’s 60 Minutes came out to Albany to interview me about losing my job to a machine, and then I experienced a double humiliation when the venerable newsmagazine called me a few hours before my interview was scheduled to air to tell me that they cut me from the story and replaced me with an interview with a generative A.I. chatbot.
 This year wasn’t quite as bad as 2021, so I can’t be too upset at a year that, if nothing else, did not get appreciably worse. On the other hand, nothing really improved either. Between inflation and further work cuts in my failing industry, it’s been hard. When a prominent astrologer said this year would be the best of my life, I wasn’t sure whether that was a promise or a threat. It’s a good thing astrology is bunk, or else I would be painfully depressed to think this was the best things will ever get.
In a more general sense, this was a year devoted mostly to UFOs, which dominated the paranoid paranormal discourse for the first ten months, until Atlantis made a late run for the crown. Here, then, is the year that was, edited and condensed from my blog posts and newsletter. Given my particular interest in conspiracy theories and the supernatural, I naturally have been fascinated by the various conspiracy theories that swirled around James Dean, who is the subject of the book I have been writing. One of these conspiracies alleged that Warner Bros. intentionally fabricated an urban legend that Dean had not died in the Sept. 1955 crash that killed him but instead lived on disfigured in some secret sanitarium. For nearly seven decades, writers have shrugged and passed it off as another tabloid craze. The claim of Dean’s continued life is, of course, false, and likely originated as a spontaneously generated bit teenager mythology, but it turns out there is a compelling story about how and why the media got hold of these rumors.
Read the full story of the publicity campaign that fed conspiracy and supernatural legends in my Substack newsletter.
Note: This piece is cross-posted in my Substack newsletter.
This weekend, Fox News commentator and UFO aficionado Tucker Carlson posted previews for the new season of his Fox Nation streaming service documentary series Tucker Carlson Originals. This season’s episodes designed to appear to the prejudices and preferences of old white conservative men whose last new idea occurred to them in 1979 include one on why trans people regret changing their gender, one on the crisis of UFOs attacking and mutilating our cattle, and the one that received the most ridicule: “The End of Men,” a documentary alleging that male testosterone levels have declined steadily for decades, and men will cease to be masculine in our lifetimes unless conservatism restores their virility.
Fox Nation host Lara Logan told a right-wing podcast this week that the Rothschild banking family paid Charles Darwin to develop the theory of evolution as part of an international conspiracy of world domination involving the British government. Speaking on the And We Know podcast, the onetime international correspondent for CBS News, who left the network in 2018 to promote conservative conspiracy theories, first for Sinclair Broadcasting and then for Fox News’ streaming service, implied that that the Jews controlled not just international banking but also 10 Downing Street and used evolution as a tool to break Christian resistance to their global control.
 Writing my annual year in review article used to be amusing, if not actually fun, because there was at least some entertainment value in seeing the wild claims and fantastical speculations that passed for history and science. But each year has been a little darker than the one before, and the job is less an exercise in tut-tutting foolishness than it is a depressing reminder that wealthy and powerful people are pushing conspiracies whose real-life consequences are no longer hypothetical but manifest every day in ways large and small, from the halls of Congress to hospital ICUs.
I gave an interview to Salon about vaccine conspiracies, UFOs, and the deep history behind modern conspiracy culture. Be sure to check it out on Salon's website.
After a 15-month investigation, a New Jersey man has been charged with one count of criminal mischief in the vandalism attack on America's Stonehenge that left the New Hampshire colonial cold cellars wrongly believed to be an ancient Old World monument defaced with QAnon slogans. Mark Russo, 50, is currently is in jail in New Jersey waiting for extradition to New Hampshire to face trial.
A couple of weeks ago, Huang Heqing, a professor in the department of art and archaeology at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China made ridiculous claims about ancient history at a conference. Huang, who teaches art history, holds a doctoral degree from the University of Paris but nonetheless is convinced that all the achievements of ancient Western cultures were fabricated in the nineteenth century.
|
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. 
Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
June 2025
|
- Home
- Blog
- Books
-
Articles
-
Newsletter
>
- Television Reviews >
- Book Reviews
- Galleries >
- Videos
-
Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud
>
- Chariots of the Gods at 50
- Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
- Of Atlantis and Aliens
- Aliens and Ancient Texts
- Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
- Blunders in the Sky
- The Case of the False Quotes
- Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
- David Childress & the Aliens
- Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
- Intimations of Persecution
- Zecharia Sitchin's World
- Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
- Extraterrestrial Evolution?
- Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
- Collection: Ancient History >
- Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
- Collection: UFOs >
- Scholomance: The Devil's School
- Prehistory of Chupacabra
- The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
- Magicians of the Gods Review
- The Curse of the Pharaohs
- The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
- Whitewashing American Prehistory
- James Dean's Cursed Porsche
-
Newsletter
>
-
The Library
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
-
Ancient Texts
>
- Mesopotamian Texts >
-
Egyptian Texts
>
- The Shipwrecked Sailor
- Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
- The Papyrus of Ani
- Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
- Inventory Stela
- Manetho
- Eratosthenes' King List
- The Story of Setna
- Leon of Pella
- Diodorus on Egyptian History
- On Isis and Osiris
- Famine Stela
- Old Egyptian Chronicle
- The Book of Sothis
- Horapollo
- Al-Maqrizi's King List
- Teshub and the Dragon
- Hermetica >
- Hesiod's Theogony
- Periplus of Hanno
- Zoroastrian Fatal Winter
- Ctesias' Indica
- Sanchuniathon
- Sima Qian
- Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
- The Book of Enoch
- Slavonic Enoch
- Sepher Yetzirah
- Fragments of Artapanus
- Tacitus' Germania
- De Dea Syria
- Aelian's Various Histories
- Julius Africanus' Chronography
- Fragments of Bruttius
- Eusebius' Chronicle
- Chinese Accounts of Rome
- Ancient Chinese Automaton
- The Orphic Argonautica
- Fragments of Panodorus
- Annianus on the Watchers
- The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
-
Medieval Texts
>
- Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
- The Hunt for Noah's Ark
- Byzantine World Chronicle
- Isidore of Seville
- Book of Liang: Fusang
- Chronicle to 724
- Agobard on Magonia
- Pseudo-Diocles Fragmentum
- Book of Thousands
- Voyage of Saint Brendan
- Power of Art and of Nature
- Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
- Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
- Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
- The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
- Islamic Discovery of America
- Popol Vuh
- The Aztec Creation Myth
-
Lost Civilizations
>
-
Atlantis
>
- Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
- Fragments on Atlantis
- Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
- Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
- Gómara on Atlantis
- Atlantis as Biblical History
- Sardinia and Atlantis
- Atlantis and Nimrod
- Santorini and Atlantis
- The Mound Builders and Atlantis
- Donnelly's Atlantis
- Atlantis in Morocco
- Atlantis and Hanno's Periplus
- Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
- W. Scott-Elliot >
- The Lost Atlantis
- Atlantis in Africa
- How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
- Termier on Atlantis
- The Critias and Minoan Crete
- Rebuttal to Termier
- Further Responses to Termier
- Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
- Amazing New Light (Hoax)
- Lost Cities >
- OOPARTs
- Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
- Caucasians in Panama
- Jefferson's Excavation
- Fictitious Discoveries in America
- Against Diffusionism
- Tunnels Under Peru
- The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
- Mound Builders
- Gunung Padang
- Tales of Enchanted Islands
- The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
- The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
- The Interglacial Period
- Solving Oak Island
-
Atlantis
>
- Religious Conspiracies >
-
Giants in the Earth
>
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
- Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
- Fossil Elephants
- Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
- Fossil Mammoths and Giants
- Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
- Fossils and the Supernatural
- Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
- Man During the Stone Age
- Fossil Bones and Giants
- Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
- American Elephant Myths
- The Mammoth and the Flood
- Fossils and Myth
- Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
- History of Paleontology
- Fragments on Giants
- Manichaean Book of Giants
- Geoffrey on British Giants
- Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
- Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
- Book of Howth
- Purchas His Pilgrimage
- Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
- The Giants of Sardinia
- Giants and the Sons of God
- The Magnetism of Evil
- Tertiary Giants
- Smithsonian Giant Reports
- Early American Giants
- The Giant of Coahuila
- Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
- Index of Giants
- Newspaper Accounts of Giants
- Lanier's A Book of Giants
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
-
Science and History
>
- Halley on Noah's Comet
- The Newport Tower
- Iron: The Stone from Heaven
- Ararat and the Ark
- Pyramid Facts and Fancies
- Argonauts before Homer
- The Deluge
- Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
- Old Mythology in New Apparel
- Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
- Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
- Devil Worship in France
- Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
- Arabic Names of Egyptian Kings
- The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
- The Mutinous Sea
- The Rock Wall of Rockwall
- Fabulous Zoology
- The Origins of Talos
- Mexican Mythology
- Chinese Pyramids
- Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
-
Extreme History
>
- Roman Empire Hoax
- America Known to the Ancients
- American Antiquities
- American Cataclysms
- England, the Remnant of Judah
- Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
- Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
- Vestiges of the Mayas
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
- Origins of the Egyptian People
- The Secret Doctrine >
- Phoenicians in America
- The Electric Ark
- Traces of European Influence
- Prince Henry Sinclair
- Pyramid Prophecies
- Templars of Ancient Mexico
- Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
- The Faith of Ancient Egypt
- Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
- Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
- Book of the Damned
- Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
- The Shaver Mystery >
-
Ancient Texts
>
-
Alien Encounters
>
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
- Fortean Society and Columbus
- Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
- The Skyfort Document
- Whirling Wheels
- Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
- Soviet Search for Lemuria
- Visitors from Outer Space
- Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
- "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
- UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
- Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
- The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
- Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
- Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
- Noah's Ark Cables
- The Von Daniken Letter
- CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
- CIA Search for the Ark of the Covenant
- Scott Wolter Lawsuit
- UFOs in Ancient China
- CIA Report on Noah's Ark
- CIA Noah's Ark Memos
- Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
- Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
- Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
- House UFO Hearing
- Ancient Extraterrestrials >
- A Message from Mars
- Saucer Mystery Solved?
- Orville Wright on UFOs
- Interdimensional Flying Saucers
- Poltergeist UFOs
- Flying Saucers Are Real
- Report on UFOs
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
-
The Supernatural
>
- The Devils of Loudun
- Sublime and Beautiful
- Voltaire on Vampires
- Demonology and Witchcraft
- Thaumaturgia
- Bulgarian Vampires
- Religion and Evolution
- Transylvanian Superstitions
- Defining a Zombie
- Dread of the Supernatural
- Vampires
- Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
- Science and Fairy Stories
- The Cursed Car
-
Classic Fiction
>
- Lucian's True History
- Some Words with a Mummy
- The Coming Race
- King Solomon's Mines
- An Inhabitant of Carcosa
- The Xipéhuz
- Lot No. 249
- The Novel of the Black Seal
- The Island of Doctor Moreau
- Pharaoh's Curse
- Edison's Conquest of Mars
- The Lost Continent
- Count Magnus
- The Mysterious Stranger
- The Wendigo
- Sredni Vashtar
- The Lost World
- The Red One
- H. P. Lovecraft >
- The Skeptical Poltergeist
- The Corpse on the Grating
- The Second Satellite
- Queen of the Black Coast
- A Martian Odyssey
- Classic Genre Movies
- Miscellaneous Documents >
- Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
- About Jason
- Search
RSS Feed
© 2010-2025 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.