This weekend I suffered a shoulder injury that has left me with some arm pain and an inability to fully move my right arm. Doctors tell me that the x-rays show that I have a calcium deposit in my shoulder that is pressing down on a tendon and causing a great deal of pain. Today I am seeing an orthopedic specialist to see what can be done to help restore my arm. The downside is that I will have to take a it a bit easy in terms of blogging because it’s a bit painful for me to type. I thought I’d begin today by noting that the White House was forced to react to the epidemic of fake news and conspiracy theories yesterday in response to the latest “Pizzagate” events. A man shot up a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. this weekend because he had become obsessed with a claim made by conspiracy theorists, including the son of Donald Trump’s national security advisor-designate Michael Flynn, also named Michael Flynn and a Trump transition official in his own right, who promoted a false story that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta were operating a child sex ring out of tunnels beneath the restaurant. The so-called “Pizzagate” has been an active part of fringe culture for the past few weeks, and I noticed that Kristan Harris, whose radio show I appeared on one time to discuss aliens and giants, was actively promoting Pizzagate last week, before the shooting. Meanwhile, our friends Scott Wolter and J. Hutton Pulitzer delivered an hour-long session of “Ask Me Anything” on Facebook Sunday night, with a low-quality web stream (a webcam view of a computer screen, if the jostling camera was any indication) that was at times difficult to see. During the show, Wolter discussed his involvement with Graham Hancock and his newfound conviction that the “Atlanteans” really existed. (Presumably he is referring to the high Ice Age culture of the continental shelf hypothesized by Graham Hancock and called Atlanteans in Magicians of the Gods.) Wolter, a geologist, claimed that “the pyramids” are thousands of years older than claimed, based on allegations that Graham Hancock himself no longer believes. (Hancock once though the Great Pyramid was Ice Age in origin, but now he suggests only that it was planned then and might be built on a smaller, older mound.)
The pair claim that they are working on a huge story that they are unable to share until a later date because they want to get it “right.” Pulitzer alleges that early Americans discovered mummies in the United States and burned them to destroy the evidence. Wolter claims that the Smithsonian Institution “made my life as difficult as they could make it” by refusing to support his work. The Smithsonian, you will recall, allowed Wolter to film America Unearthed on its premises and with its artifacts. Wolter now says that the museum is “lying” about history. They also delivered their usual and repetitive basket of claims, including allegations that “academics” (or, as Wolter slipped and called them, “asshole-demics”) are committing fraud, suppressing the truth, and don’t understand the value of his “professional peer review.” There were a lot of attacks on academics, and Pulitzer used part of his time to deny that “academics” really understand ancient history, to discuss whether humans and dinosaurs coexisted, and to claim that scientists developed the idea of human evolution from incomplete skeletons like Lucy, which he said is too incomplete to determine its relationship to humans. He and Wolter offered a bunch of claims taken over from David Childress, Robert Schoch, and Graham Hancock, including the age-old false claim of vitrified forts—a claim so old that Charles Fort wrote of it in 1919. I discussed this years ago, and it’s kind of sad that a geologist thinks that a cosmic event was required to create the burning seen on these forts. So, bottom line: Wolter now believes in Atlanteans, which I guess makes the Holy Bloodline conspiracy a subset of Lost Civilization Theory, with the Templars and Freemasons now the last lineal descendants of the secret cult that ran the Lost Civilization, identified by Ignatius Donnelly, Helena Blavatsky, Andrew Collins, and Graham Hancock with the Nephilim. It's all really coming together now!
40 Comments
Jim
12/6/2016 10:26:05 am
Wolter has officially lost it. In his blog on Zena Halpern's map, He insinuates the Templars had developed Longitude long before anyone else ! (in the comments, close to the bottom. )
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Kathleen
12/6/2016 10:34:27 am
I hate to mention the vitrified Minoan palaces I saw in Crete. Puts things too close to Santorini/Atlantis.
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Scott David Hamilton
12/6/2016 10:40:38 am
One correction: The Michael Flynn who has been promoting Pizzagate is not the general Trump nominated for a post, but rather his son of the same name.
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12/6/2016 12:06:51 pm
It was my understanding that the father tweeted about how it was interesting and asked told readers to make up their own minds, while the son was more direct about endorsing it. Either way, it's weird.
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12/6/2016 01:44:53 pm
Well, you don't want to be spreading fake news yourself, so you might want to check here for a clarification:
JA Sterling
12/6/2016 11:12:25 am
Wish you well on your recovery... well done piece as usual. One just has to admire the variety of precisely picked elements for the plot-lines that are created for all these fictional stories (ie pseudo-archaeology)
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SDO
12/6/2016 11:24:04 am
Jason, you need to get Cortana, Alexa, Siri ,... to help you out even though they are probably tied to some conspiracy theory somewhere :)
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Fred
12/6/2016 11:41:00 am
Wolter has reached the point of no return. In a way he has compromised himself with his associations then expects to be taken seriously by the academic world. Hello. The academics treat each other just like they treat Hancock and Wolter so why should they even care if their ideas are accepted by them? He has now adapted an "us against them stance" that will only serve to fuel their own misconceptions and wishful thinking. lol. Next week Pulitzer and Wolter advocate for the "flat earth" stay tuned.
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Shane Sullivan
12/6/2016 11:57:06 am
Poor deluded fool. The Cosmic Serpent already told me that Atlantis wasn't real. Also that UFOs were atmospheric phenomena, myths do not record alien encounters, ley lines are pure nonsense, vaccinations do not cause autism, the Great Pyramid was designed and built by Egyptians, and that the New World Order hasn't existed since 2000 whereupon Jarrett, Steiner and the Harris brothers joined The New Blood and Nash joined The Millionaire's Club.
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Kal
12/6/2016 12:04:42 pm
These two old fringe TV guys seem awfully obsessed with finding secret knowledge they made up to hide their obvious closet insecurities. They should both just decide to take up exploerer fantasy writing. It might be more lucrative. Hey, they could try trashy romance novels with covers of burly self portraits but with muscles and wearing Indy Jones hats, bare chested. One of them could be dressed as a Mermaid...merman...or something.
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Americanegro
12/7/2016 05:10:24 pm
"obvious closet insecurities"! If I get your gist, I've been saying this for some time. Wolter is high-strung in a way that suggests he's wrestling with concealing The Love (or Hobby, or Inclination) That Dare Not Speak Its Name. I don't think it's guilt from The Great Agate Fraud that's eating away at him. Still, that's an interesting story because he either defrauded someone for thousands of dollars or he's not competent as a geologist. There's no third possibility.
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At Risk
12/6/2016 01:04:19 pm
Jason, yes, less keyboarding and more reading for a while should help.
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A Buddhist
12/6/2016 01:16:52 pm
As a Buddhist, I also believe in demonic possession - but demons are the product of the mind, as Vasubandhu argued.
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Uncle Ron
12/6/2016 03:58:36 pm
"Answers in Genesis <are> prejudiced, insofar as its writers must defer above all else to the authority of the Christian Bible."
A Buddhist
12/6/2016 06:08:15 pm
"Answers in Genesis" is the name of a website.
Uncle Ron
12/6/2016 06:31:50 pm
My apologies. I misunderstood the intent of your remark.
At Risk
12/7/2016 11:15:10 am
A Buddhist, hi again, yes, I am believing answers in Genesis reveal the truth about the World's origins; however, I also believe in the science of evolution.
McFad
12/6/2016 01:56:59 pm
I tried to listen to that horrid video got 20 mins in and just couldn't listen to that garbage anymore. scott wolter and hutoon can't even claim a comedy act together....SAD.
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Kathleen
12/6/2016 02:57:06 pm
Oh jeez, now I won't be able to get that song out of my head.
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Bob Jase
12/6/2016 02:28:03 pm
Oh I've met a few real Atlanteans myself, when I visited Atlanta that is.
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Andy White
12/6/2016 02:46:54 pm
I have become increasingly convinced that Atlanta really doesn't exist.
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Shane Sullivan
12/6/2016 02:51:55 pm
My dad and I visited Atlanta years ago. Detours kept re-routing us back into the city, preventing us from leaving.
Andy White
12/6/2016 02:56:20 pm
Which also doesn't exist. Case closed.
Jim
12/6/2016 03:07:07 pm
Some claim the south will rise again.
Screaming Eagle
12/6/2016 10:24:07 pm
Love...
Only Me
12/6/2016 03:14:16 pm
It goes without saying, but you can always tell when a fringe proponent has become desperate. He/she will:
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SDO
12/6/2016 10:05:18 pm
I love how Pulitzer had to say "Hi" to every single person who was online, all 6 of them. Even the person who "got pounded by 8 inches".
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Americanegro
12/7/2016 05:14:00 pm
Eight inches, you say? Ooh la la, as the Templars would say! Sounds super campy.
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GEE
12/6/2016 10:56:39 pm
Andy, the Bermuda Triangle is not real?
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David Bradbury
12/7/2016 08:15:23 am
Nope, it's a triangular zone of imaginary stuff
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Oliver Smith
12/7/2016 07:32:16 am
We cannot say for certain that Atlanteans didn't exist as a historical people, only that there is a lack of evidence for them and they are probably fiction. I don't see a contradiction between being sceptical and developing a hypothesis for historical Atlanteans, because the latter has not been falsified. The problem is the lack of reasonable Atlantis theories, few have academic credibility.
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Bob Jase
12/7/2016 12:34:47 pm
If you subscribe to Cretans/Minoans being 'Atlanteans' then Atlanteans never existed because the C/M neither called themselve Atlanteans nor were they called Atlanteans by others.
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12/7/2016 06:20:08 pm
Plato doesn't mention Atlanteans in his dialogues, only Atlantis and variant spellings meaning "of Atlas". The argument for a historical Atlanteans as inhabitants of Atlantis would be to map the location of the Titan Atlas and his pillar/mountain in Greek mythology, but Plato is by no means clear that the Atlas of his dialogues is the same as the Titan (he has a different genealogy, however both Plato's Atlas and the Titan are positioned in the far west.)
nomuse
12/7/2016 11:46:39 pm
Or "Minoan," for that matter.
Cousin Eddie
12/7/2016 10:38:29 am
What Jason ... no comment on the other Wolter bombshell on the Q/A show? Perhaps you are working on that one ...
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12/7/2016 11:00:27 am
I believe that's the same "treasure" he and his friends have been blathering about for a year now, since his Templar conspiracy friend (the name escapes me) wrote a book (which I believe I reviewed earlier this year) claiming that there the Freemasons' Secret Vault is really in Montana and that the Ark of the Covenant or whatever was buried there.
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Mike Morgan
12/8/2016 05:28:30 pm
Yes, "Templar Sanctuaries in North America" by William F. Mann.
At Risk
12/8/2016 08:03:17 pm
I have a copy of Right Eminent Knight William F. Mann's book, "Templar Sanctuaries in North America, Sacred Bloodlines and Secret Treasures," which has a lengthy foreword by Scott Wolter, and I just re-read the three-part series by Jason, about it. Additionally, I just listened to Jimmy Church's radio program, from the link in Jason's December 8, 2016 blog, where Scott and Jimmy kick it around for a while about notions of treasure.
Kal
12/7/2016 12:05:41 pm
IF SW and JHP were any more drunk off their own moonshine, they'd be drunks and need an intervention from the 6 remaining people on their podcast.
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jeff sanderson
12/8/2016 02:42:31 pm
Graham Hancock on a recently posted youtube - title suddenly changed from 'I was a stringer' to 'Ice Age is the foundations of House of History' - fesses up that he wasn't 'the East African correspondent for The Economist' but only a lowly stringer. Why the sudden honesty. Was he about to get busted and like all good politicians is getting out in front of it. Ummm... so for twenty+ years he misleads and bases a lot of pseudo credibility on this fake job title. He doesn't seem to be correcting this major mistake in his resume on his bio material on Amazon, etc. More significant in the video he forgets to mention the real reason he was in the country. Writing books to order to tweet a dictators' image! Very spiritual. Probably a slick rationalization somewhere for the reason a grown man in his thirties would go after this life goal.
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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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