Outraged Gigantologist Accuses Me of Lies, Asks Readers to Send Me Hate Mail

Last evening I received a series of emails from a Canadian gigantologist who accused me of stealing my page of newspaper articles about the discovery of alleged giant skeletons from his website and his unpublished archive of newspaper articles. The gigantologist, Scott Reaney of Canada, claimed that in 2010 he invented the idea of compiling newspaper accounts of giants, that my list of articles was suspiciously similar to his own, and that—worst of all—I was using these articles for an “agenda.” That agenda apparently included using the list of entries for keyword searches (an invalid methodology, he claimed) and statistical analysis, a blasphemous violation of the sanctity of the original texts, which must be read individually as discrete units; hence the reason they should not be digitized in a keyword searchable format instead of being presented as scanned pictures of the articles, as most gigantologists prefer. He was particularly incensed that I wrote that newspaper accounts of giants were comparatively rare before the Cardiff Giant hoax.

Reaney immediately published statements on his website accusing me of being a liar for taking a skeptical view of newspaper reports of giants and applying critical thinking to the newspaper stories. He also asked for his readers to send me hate mail: “I encourage you to contact Colavito to make him aware of the fact that he is completely full of crap... and it is clear that his sole purpose is to push his personal agenda.”

Frankly, it pissed me off that Reaney berated me for judging, following Andy White’s statistical analysis, that newspaper stories of giant skeletons were less frequent before the Cardiff Giant hoax than afterward, when on his own website he writes that “these stories were so common prior to WW2... then abruptly taper off.” Really? And how might you have come to that conclusion without statistical analysis of some sort, even a rough one?

I informed Reaney that not only had I never heard of him or his website, but that my list of articles was significantly different from his own. I emphasized that chronological order is not a copyrightable organizational framework, and I did nothing to hide the fact that many of the sources from which I compiled my collection of public domain material were his fellow gigantologists, whom he immediately accused of stealing from him to further their agendas. I make no bones about the fact that I am a skeptic; it’s on my homepage, and I can’t imagine how anyone could be shocked and offended to discover it.

I thought you might enjoy a taste of this fellow’s hate mail, from one of his missives:

It was not an issue of chronological order (proving once again that you are a total idiot); it was about the fact that you are a liar with an agenda, and you have been caught lying on your own website.

You are not a legitimate researcher (as you would claim); you are just another pair of flapping lips pushing around recycled air like a ceiling fan.

The fact that you tries to gloss over your bullshit with some made up crap about statistical newspaper analysis PROVES the desperate efforts you putting forth to justify being completely fucking wrong. I view you in the same light as those no-mind idiots who spent nearly 5 centuries trying to discredit Norse relics in North America simply because you WANT to believe the Columbus myth. After 500 years, they finally got it right... but only after 500 years of discrediting the facts of Norse explorations. Now, all those intellectual dipshits like yourself act like ‘Oh Man, we knew all along that Columbus wasn't first’ (while they scramble back to their history books to rewrite them to make themselves appear less stupid).

Is it really gonna take you another 475 years to figure out how wrong you are, cuz I don't have the fucking patience.

Now... it was VERY clear from my first communication that I have examined what you said, and have found it littered with turds, yet, you replied in an effort to do what??? You are a liar, and have proven it. Every word that you try to respond with, by default, must be viewed as 'just another one of your lies'.

I can continue putting you in your place all day/week/year... so my question to you is... why do you bother responding to someone who will use your own false statements against you to show how full of shit you are??

Are you so desperate to have your opinion validated by your intellectual superior that you would willingly line up to be kicked in your academic testicles?? Just how big of an idiot are you?

Now why would Reaney be so upset about a webpage that puts together a bunch of newspaper articles all in one place in an easy-to-read format? Oh, right: He and his co-author, Mike Marshall, were hoping to turn their collection of newspaper articles into a book called Chronologies: Book of Giants. In 2014 they asked for $10,000 from supporters for the effort, of which they raised $202. A free resource is competition.