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Joe Rogan was on a pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory kick this week, with two separate multi-hour episodes devoted to imaginary history, so lucky me: I am making a second bonus post today because so many bad things happened. This time, his guest was Nephilim-hunter Timothy Alberino, who was on to promote his special edition of the Book of Enoch. Alberino related the story of the Kandahar Giant, which I examined a decade ago. I encourage to you to read what I found back at the time, namely that there were at least four different versions of the story Quayle told, one being explicitly a work of fiction (Quayle’s 2006 novel), followed by yet another contradictory account by L. A. Marzulli—all of which find no supporting evidence in U.S. military records from the Afghanistan War. The supposed military member who confirmed the story also refused to give his name, making it impossible to evaluate his story.
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On Friday, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson devoted his show to the Nephilim, interviewing pastor Stephen de Young of the Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Louisiana about the biblical beings, which de Young claims are demonic hybrids who have infiltrated the upper echelons of our society. During the interview, Carlson—allegedly a Christian and a promoter of Christianity—claimed he was unaware of Genesis 6 or the Nephilim narrative until four years ago, when “someone mentioned it to me. And in the subsequent years, I must have had 15, 25 conversations about the Nephilim.” Archaeologists racing to excavate the bones of a lost race of giants in a remote wilderness. Hints of a lost civilization. An attack by hostile Natives, and sensational dispatches from a reporter on the scene. But how much of it really happened?
When the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright protection for an additional 25 years, it had the effect of freezing the public domain for much of my adult life. As a result, material from the 1920s and 1930s was often quite difficult to access, making it hard to check on particular claims—but easy for pseudohistory writers to make claims, knowing most readers would never be able to find the truth. However, now that the public domain has been unfrozen and material from 1930 has entered the public domain, a particular claim about a race of giants in a remote part of Mexico is much easier to research to find the real story the fringe writers left out. This week, UFO-curious right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, a former guest on Ancient Aliens, devoted a ninety-minute episode of his eponymous streaming show to the threadbare “mysteries” of giants, pyramids, psychic spies, lost civilizations and the other detritus of History channel pseudo-documentaries. Carlson interviewed A. J. Gentile of The Why Files and the two began the discussion by complaining about the “extreme hostility against alternate (sic) archaeology,” with Gentile expressing outrage at archaeologists for opposing the claims of Graham Hancock, “whose work I admire.” The two men defended Hancock against charges that his work supports white supremacy and then claimed that the accusation was a “slur” designed to “destroy” Hancock as part of a “sinister” effort by archaeologists. This set the tone for the rest of the discussion. An article in the New York Post went viral yesterday for claiming an Egyptian papyrus supposedly is proof that the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4 were real flesh-and-blood giants. The Post piece from Sunday summarizes a Daily Mail article from earlier in the day breathlessly reporting the contents of Papyrus Anastasi I, an Egyptian papyrus scroll found in 1839 and translated into English in 1911 (several partial translations, and a full translation taken from a German edition, had previously appeared). While the reports call it a “lost” scroll that had just been “rediscovered,” the text is well-known and is frequently discussed in academic literature. It will surprise no one to discover that the claims for Bible giants in the Egyptian text are overblown.
When I started writing year in review columns in 2017, I intended those columns to be an amusing look back at the follies of the year. But somehow, they have grown into a chronicle of an incipient Dark Age, with each year’s rundown becoming a bit gloomier than that of the year before. This year was an especially depressing chronicle of the growing influence of irrational, paranormal, and conspiratorial thought at the highest levels of power, with Congress, the White House, and the billionaire class joining the major media in promoting—and apparently believing—insane notions ranging from space alien visitation to the imminent arrival of the Antichrist. By contrast, the traditional sources of occult and pseudohistorical claims—cable TV and book publishing—all but closed up shop, conceding the ground to Washington, D.C.
UFO-believing Christian congressman Eric Burlinson (R-Mo.) suggested that as a member of the House Oversight Committee, he could open an investigation into claims that the Smithsonian is hiding the bones of Bible giants. Burlinson, who spoke about his belief in Nephilim at a Nephilim conference this summer, credited Christian podcaster and gigantologist Timothy Alberino with radicalizing him to believe in the giant bone conspiracy, a popular but false belief among evangelical Christian extremists who oppose the evolutionary theory.
Ufologist Michael Salla presented an interview with “JP,” who allegedly serves in the United States military, about the discovery of a dimensional portal to an ancient temple housing the slumbering body of a dead-but-dreaming red-haired, presumably white-skinned, Giant. Here’s how Salla describes JP’s claims:
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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
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