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The Year in Review: 2019 in Pseudohistory, Space Aliens, and Conspiracy Theories

12/28/2019

81 Comments

 
Picture
Perhaps more than any year in recent memory, 2019 was the year in which fringe history stopped being fringe and went completely mainstream. This year, we saw pseudohistory and conspiracy theories top the literary bestseller lists, multiply across cable channels like mushrooms on a rotten log, and attract record crowds to traveling carnivals masquerading as pseudohistory “fan” conventions. It perfectly captures the tenor of the times for the post-truth era that the very notions of fact and fiction ceased to have meaning. This was a long, hard year, both for the world and also for me personally. After dealing with family health problems, buying and selling a house (and still not being able to close on selling the old one until early 2020, nearly half a year after the sale), writing two books, and a knot of lawyers for many different developments, I am ready for this unpleasant year to end. Let’s look back in anger:
January
The year began with Ancient Aliens concluding its thirteenth season with a batch pair of new episodes. These two episodes, added to the twenty-two which aired later in the year as the show’s fourteenth season, meant that 2019 saw more original episodes of Ancient Aliens air than any year since the show’s debut ten years earlier. The History Channel, which airs Ancient Aliens, doubled down on its alien and UFO programming by debuting Project Blue Book, a dull conspiracy thriller that imagined the Air Force’s Project Blue Book as an anti-X-Files, suppressing the truth about UFOs and ancient astronauts. Naturally, it became one of the network’s highest-rated scripted series. The New York Times, which carried a wraparound ad for the show, delivered free advertising in the form of credulous reporting about the “truth” behind the show from UFO disclosure advocate Leslie Kean, who masquerades as a journalist when not actively lobbying the government for UFO disclosure. Australia’s History Channel marked Australia Day by airing a marathon of Ancient Aliens episodes claiming aliens and Egyptians colonized Australia. An alt-right Proud Boy follower of the pro-Trump Q-Anon conspiracy theory killed his brother with a sword after becoming convinced that his brother was a Reptilian. This sad story of apparent mental illness brought to light the convergence of pro-Trump and UFO/Reptilian conspiracy theories in the darker parts of the internet. Religion scholar Diana W. Pasulka published American Cosmic, a study of UFO culture, which offered controversial depictions of leading government officials and scientists enthralled by imaginary space aliens. The Travel Channel began airing reruns of America Unearthed to whet viewer appetites for a revival of the 2013-2015 extreme pseudohistory series. Travel’s sister station, the Science Channel, announced a new America Unearthed-inspired series, America’s Lost Vikings, to search for evidence of white people in pre-Columbian America. The Council for West Virginia Archaeology blasted Appalachian magazine for reviving claims that Irish monks colonized pre-Columbian America. Archaeologists in Scotland discovered that an “ancient” stone circle had been built in the 1990s.
 
February
In February, Erich von Däniken received an “integrity” award from the Conscious Life Expo, and the admitted fabricator accepted with a speech containing years-old false claims that had been repeatedly debunked. His speech dealt with his particular obsession: “Did extra-terrestrials have sex with humans?” The Australian Labour Party and Jewish groups pressured the Coalition-led government to ban conspiracy theorist David Icke from the country because of his anti-Semitic claims about Jewish complicity in a Reptilian conspiracy to rule the world. Scott F. Wolter, erstwhile host of America Unearthed, spilled the beans on the Travel Channel’s plans when he was spotted in Scotland filming new episodes of America Unearthed before an official announcement of the show’s renewal was made a couple of weeks later. The Travel Channel called the resurrection of the former H2 show a “crowd-pleaser and ratings driver.” Middling Nielsen ratings showed it was not, losing viewers most weeks from a years-old rerun of Expedition Unknown that aired as its lead-in. The Science Channel launched America’s Lost Vikings, which spent a terminally dull season dancing around the idea that America “really” belongs to the hosts’ Scandinavian families because of imaginary trips by Norsemen into the interior of pre-Columbian America. This show, too, lost in the ratings to years-old reruns of Expedition Unknown. Former Ancient Aliens talking head David Wilcock apologized to Gaia TV for a dramatic and accusatory resignation letter that circulated in 2018, adding that a conspiracy had been organized against conspiracy theorists to destroy conspiracy theory TV, a claim 2019’s bumper crop of conspiracy shows proved sadly wrong. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb tried to join the ancient astronaut gravy train by defending a claim that the interstellar object Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft. Podcaster Joe Rogan blasted Tom DeLonge of To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTSA) by correctly noting that the world’s highest-profile ufologist can’t tell the difference between reality and hoaxes. Former baseball player Jose Conseco made news by babbling about his belief in bendable time-traveling space aliens. A Tampa-area man thought that finding a Roman coin on the beach meant the Romans reached Florida, and a Nevada newspaper bizarrely claimed that the Phoenicians mistook Maya cities for Atlantis a thousand years before they had been built. The University of New Mexico quietly removed Afrocentric claims from its website after criticism of a planned study abroad program to explore the “African presence” among the ancient Olmec.
 
March
In March, former senator Harry Reid began a year of reinventing himself as a UFO celebrity by sitting down for an interview with UFO journalist George Knapp to speculate about government UFO secrets. He strongly advocated for the “disclosure” he did nothing to bring about when he actually had power over the government. The History Channel announced a partnership with TTSA and Tom DeLonge for a new series about government UFO secrets, Unidentified, and told advertisers it planned a full year’s worth of paranormal and conspiracy programming. The producer of Alien Autopsy sued a bunch of people, including an ex-congressman, over a stalled UFO documentary. America’s Lost Vikings ended its season with a whimper, and almost no one watched Starz’s Now Apocalypse, a quarterlife dramedy featuring the Apocalypse, Reptilians, and cattle mutilation. Slate magazine attacked Joe Rogan for selling pseudoscience and false enlightenment to angry white men. A right-wing extremist killed 49 people in an attack on mosques in New Zealand and wrote in his manifesto that he had been inspired by an anti-immigrant group that borrowed the name and imagery of the Knights Templar.
 
April
In April, Graham Hancock published America Before, an examination of controversial claims about North American prehistory, including allegations that Atlanteans were actually telekinetic Native Americans. The book became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Hancock embarked a media tour, attacking archaeologists as “the pseudoscientists” and appearing on Joe Rogan to sell the book to angry white men. Andrew Collins began promoting his new book alleging that the Denisovans were the Nephilim of old and the originators of civilization and religion. Ancient Aliens narrator Robert Clotworthy admitted that the show is less about aliens than it is about finding humanity’s “purpose.” Scientific American and Time both published articles linking pseudohistory to white nationalism and racism. Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal, relying on dubious research, alleged that Greco-Roman statues were a cause of white nationalism. Expedition Unknown host Josh Gates opened an Egyptian sarcophagus on live television and became giddy with excitement about posing with a human corpse, calling it “a stunner.” CBS asked whether space aliens carved Easter Island’s statues in a tweet promoting a 60 Minutes story. Ancient Aliens made a gaming deal to “leverage its franchise potential,” reinforcing that fake history is all about real money.
 
May
In May, Chandra Wickramasinghe, Kamala Wickramasinghe, and Gensuke Tokoro published an ancient astronaut book about the panspermia theory, but it was more of the same from a lead author who specializes in repeating the same claims under new covers. The book attempted to recast panspermia as a cosmology, specifically H. P. Lovecraft’s cosmic indifference. The company that manages Erich von Däniken’s intellectual property announced a Chariots of the Gods theme park would be built in Blackpool, England in 2020. The University of Bristol backtracked furiously after making a dramatic claim that one of its researchers had deciphered the infamous Voynich Manuscript by discovering it had been written in the (hypothetical) language of Proto-Romance. It was not. Financier Christopher Mellon of TTSA called on Congress to investigate UFOs in The Hill. Coincidentally or not, a few days later, TTSA launched its new History Channel TV series, and the New York Times ran another credulous article by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal backing up the show’s claims, timed to the show’s debut. Blumenthal denied being in cahoots with TTSA or timing the article to the show’s debut, but he did so by admitting to watching the pre-air screener for the show and deciding to write about, with reference to the show in the article. The FBI designated conspiracy theories a motivator for domestic terror. At the end of the month, Ancient Aliens returned for a fourteenth season, which would run, with only limited breaks, until nearly the end of the calendar year. Ancient Aliens fatigue set in, however, as the show’s 1.3 million viewers at the beginning of the season declined to under a million by year’s end, touching series lows for the second half of the season. The Curse of Oak Island finished its sixth season as one of cable’s highest-rated series, with more than three million weekly viewers. A much-diminished America Unearthed returned on a new network, with tamer topics, fewer diversions into extreme pseudohistory, and an audience a third the size of the viewership for its original run, aroung 500,000-600,000 weekly viewers. Many weeks, the show lost in the ratings in the key 18-54 demographic to reruns of its own earlier seasons airing as a lead-in. Only one episode focused on Wolter’s pet subject of Templar conspiracies, but during the show’s run Wolter revealed himself as an ancient astronaut theorist (in fringe media appearances, he described Giorgio Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens as a “friend”) and claimed that an obviously fake carving of the alien from Alien was likely a genuinely ancient record of alien visitation.
 
June
The month was dominated by new episodes of History Channel and Travel Channel pseudohistory, conspiracy, and paranormal programs, whose ratings rose as the network TV season ended and viewers shifted to cable. Several U.S. senators demanded a briefing on UFOs from the Pentagon after reading coverage of TTSA’s History Channel show in the New York Times. Donald Trump received a briefing as well, but told ABC News that he did not believe in alien spacecraft. Q-Anon conspiracy theorists assumed Trump was heroically lying to protect America from an imagined truth. The History Channel announced a new series from the mind behind Ancient Aliens to explore the imagined paranormal “mysteries” of Skinwalker Ranch, made famous by Robert Bigelow, who spent years trying to find flying space demons on it. Diana Pasulka revealed her true sympathies by describing longtime UFO and ancient astronaut speculator Jacques Vallée, a computer scientist and advisor to Robert Bigelow, as an “incredible” scientist of flying saucers. She spoke of an “Invisible College” of UFO scientists in the U.S. government and the defense industry, apparently unaware of their connection to Vallée’s longtime friend Hal Puthoff, formerly a Bigelow subcontractor and now a TTSA executive. TTSA and History Channel UFO and ancient astronaut celebrities appeared at the first of two annual Alien Con events to promote their shows to believers. Atlantis Rising magazine, a mainstay of the pseudohistory media industry, folded due to a lack of money. Its mistake was lying about history in print instead of on video.
 
July
David Wilcock fully embraced the Q-Anon conspiracy theory and, after trouble with his YouTube channel, declared YouTube part of an anti-Trump population-reduction death cult. An internet joke about “invading” Area 51 gained so much momentum that Giorgio Tsoukalos took to Twitter to condemn the “anarchy” of storming the military base, which he said was not actually home to alien secrets. After Unidentified ended its first low-rated season, it was renewed for a second. The show that replaced it as the lead-out to Ancient Aliens, The UnXplained with William Shatner, outdrew the TTSA series easily. TTSA announced that it had purchased so-called “metamaterials” from Ancient Aliens star Linda Moulton Howe, who had obtained them from Art Bell decades previous, when they were falsely described as wreckage from the Roswell UFO crash. TTSA went on to use “Art’s Parts” to land a contract with the Pentagon to use government resources to test the metal slag for imagined paranormal properties. America Unearthed ended its first Travel Channel series with its only Templar conspiracy episode of the season. Host Scott Wolter would later admit in a radio interview that the network had requested that the series hold back on the host’s most extreme pseudohistorical ideas. Wolter published some of these ideas on his blog shortly after the season wrapped, including an absurd fictitious Templar fish code. The Maltese government responded to pseudohistory claims from the History Channel and others about the country’s prehistory by launching an official inquiry into Maltese elongated skulls to disprove their supposed “alien” origin.
 
August
Tom Delonge of TTSA claimed to have secret knowledge too dangerous for the public to know. Late in the month he suggested some of that secret knowledge might include “ultra-terrestrials” arriving on Earth in “Atlantis and Lemuria time.” The Discovery Channel tried to capitalize on the perceived success of TTSA by launching Contact, a rip-off of Unidentified, and this was yet another show that did not find proof of aliens. The Travel Channel replaced America Unearthed with a clone called Code of the Wild in which brothers Casey and Chris Keefer went in search of pseudohistorical mysteries by walking around outside. Fewer than 500,000 people watched most weeks (except for high ratings for an episode on giants), and the show lost viewers from the Expedition Unknown reruns airing as a lead-in. Paranormal programs about ghosts and demons saw their ratings rise as pseudohistory shows’ ratings fell. On Fox News, the former host of the History Channel’s Hunting Hitler blamed domestic terrorism and gun violence on the “feminization” of American males. Scottish chemist Martin Sweatman claimed the Stone Age Turkish site of Göbekli Tepe was a “university” that taught the art of civilization to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The racist and anti-Semitic Barnes Review, which had previously praised America Unearthed, claimed that “white leadership” from Ancient Egypt helped the Maya to develop their civilization. Italian researchers wrongly claimed to have discovered the cave occupied by Circe from the Odyssey on the Italian coast.
 
September
In September, Andrew Collins and Greg Little published their book claiming that civilization, religion, and science originated with the Denisovans, a species of hominin known from a handful of bone fragments. In it, they attacked me, alleging that I am in thrall to an elite anti-Native American conspiracy of eugenicists. I am not. Scott Wolter published his new book, Cryptic Code of the Knights Templar in America (my review Part 1 and Part 2), in which he accepted a number of dubious documents and artifacts as authentic evidence of a cult of Templars and Holy Bloodline descendants operating in North America before Columbus. Otherwise, it was a slow month, with even cable shows largely sitting out the beginning of autumn. UFO believers gathered near Area 51 for an alien-themed concert and party which had been organized to replace the planned “storming” of Area 51. Ancient Aliens, which was on hiatus for the month, sent some of its talking heads to film segments during the event and live-streamed the gathering online.
 
October
In October, Ancient Aliens returned from a summer hiatus, joined by In Search Of, which regularly outdrew its fading lead-in in the ratings. The second Alien Con of the year took place in Dallas. A vandal used a power tool to etch a Q-Anon initialism into the cider press at America’s Stonehenge that believers maintain is an ancient sacrificial table created by an Old World culture. The owners of the site initially described the attack as anti-Masonic. The vandalism caused America Unearthed host and Freemason Scott F. Wolter to have a conniption, and he blamed me and “academics” for fostering an environment of “confusion” that inspires attacks on imagined Euro-American heritage. The FBI launched an investigation, and Wolter claimed to be privy to its non-public details. Wolter’s onetime friend Frank Joseph, the former head of the Nazi Party in America, attended a fringe history conference and posed with fake crystal skulls in a bizarre convergence of Indiana Jones and real-life pseudohistory and Nazis. Tom Delonge and Peter Levenda published a new book offering TTSA’s views on the UFO phenomenon, which turned out to be that they believe UFOs are spiritual energies from other dimensions that offer transformative religious experiences and proof of God. Psychologist Steven Pinker claimed historians “hate” science because they don’t agree with his simplistic view of Western intellectual history, which he called “objective.” A Stanford professor declared the fall of the Roman Empire the “best” thing ever to have happened to Europe.
 
November
In November, Fox News megastar Tucker Carlson appeared on Ancient Aliens to discuss his belief that the U.S. government is hiding the truth about aliens, solidifying the long-simmering connection between ufology and rightwing politics. The Science Channel launched yet another America Unearthed clone, Unexplained + Unexplored, which largely remade old episodes of America Unearthed with two hosts who were less knowledgeable and more credulous than even Scott Wolter. Fewer than 500,000 people watched, and most weeks it was more like 350,000. Naturally, the show used plenty of conspiracy theorists from the History Channel roster and some misidentified and fake evidence. Nexstar, a local television operator, launched Mystery Wire, a UFO news website based on KLAS UFO reporter George Knapp’s reporting. Knapp has longstanding relationships with TTSA, Robert Bigelow, and Bob Lazar, the so-called Area 51 “whistleblower” who published an autobiography this year with TTSA. It was all very incestuous. Nephilim theorist Steve Quayle held a fallen angel conference in Branson, Mo. and announced on Sky Watch TV that the fallen angels would soon return to kill us all. Even though Giorgio Tsoukalos condemned the effort to storm Area 51 and claimed the site held no alien evidence, he still appeared in an Ancient Aliens episode celebrating the event. The SAA Archaeological Record, a publication of the Society for American Archaeology, published a theme section dissecting pseudohistory through lens of Graham Hancock’s America Before. Hancock took to his blog to attack the articles, including my own contribution, as biased against him. The History Channel announced that Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin would appear alongside the cast of Ancient Aliens and other History Channel pseudohistory shows at a fan convention to celebrate the network’s 25th anniversary next year. After receiving criticism, the network revised the lineup, and Kearns Goodwin is now scheduled to appear alongside Tom Brokaw and two U.S. presidents at a tonier Carnegie Hall celebration of the History Channel that will not include the network’s controversial pseudohistory stars. There was little that so clearly encapsulated the difference between the upper class and the mass audience they pandered to than having one convention for ignorant conspiracy theorists and another for media and political elites, both to celebrate the same corporation.
 
December
December saw Ancient Aliens end its fourteenth and longest season with a promise to return shortly after the new year begins. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Deep Prasad, who recently turned to investigating UFOs, announced on Twitter that he had had an alien encounter, but his description was extremely similar to the type of waking dreams experienced in the twilight between waking and sleep. He also released results from tests conducted on metals similar to those purchased by TTSA. His analysis could not rule out a terrestrial origin. Jacques Vallée, who was also investigating the same metals, refused to provide proof of his claim to have documents showing the CIA faked alien abductions as “psychological warfare.” Andrew Collins claimed Denisovans were “grotesque” cannibal giants but that the first people of India had sex with them anyway. Scott Wolter claimed Akhenaten and Jesus Christ were his ancestors. A British production company began work on a new America Unearthed-style series called Relic Hunters, which was to feature Templar conspiracies. After releasing a Jordanian teen drama about Jinn earlier this year, Netflix finished the year with a Turkish drama, The Gift, which placed Göbekli Tepe in a supernatural conspiracy. Diana Pasulka announced on Twitter that her new book would discuss high-ranking researchers and scientists who now believe UFOs are angels and demons because studying UFOs had convinced them of the literal reality of Jesus and Satan. It was the perfect distillation of everything wrong with popular science and history in 2019.
81 Comments
Joe Scales
12/28/2019 10:18:31 am

"In November, Fox News megastar Tucker Carlson appeared on Ancient Aliens to discuss his belief that the U.S. government is hiding the truth about aliens, solidifying the long-simmering connection between ufology and rightwing politics."

Yes. It solidifies the connection in your own mind via confirmation bias. That you would post this ignorance once again is rather mind-boggling as you failed to make such a connection with what you posted just above in regard to Harry Reid:

"In March, former senator Harry Reid began a year of reinventing himself as a UFO celebrity by sitting down for an interview with UFO journalist George Knapp to speculate about government UFO secrets. He strongly advocated for the “disclosure” he did nothing to bring about when he actually had power over the government."

Funny, but where is the long-simmering connection there? Fringe beliefs cross party lines. That you can't grasp this is the fatal flaw to your work. You really need to debunk yourself in this regard Jason. To be taken seriously, that is.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
12/28/2019 12:28:50 pm

There you go again, Mr. Scales.

When you say "fringe beliefs cross party lines" as an attempt to discredit Mr. Colavito when he correctly notes the special relationship between the Fringe and the Right, you're engaging in a classic Fringe tactic of the "false dichotomy" or the "false dilemma." "Ancient Aliens" does it a lot so you're in great company. (For example, you might hear from that show or one of its fans something like "aliens likely exist, therefore isn't it possible that one of them built the pyramids" and such.)

You'd have us believe that the existence of a Left Fringe somehow discredits the special relationship between the Fringe and the Right. Incorrect.

Here are some examples of that special relationship. I've cited these before and it's not my fault that you choose to ignore them.

The rightist politics of the ancient aliens folks. The denial of Evolution. The denial of Global Warming. The perpetuation of conspiracy fantasies about Bill Clinton and Hilary Clinton (Vince Foster didn't kill himself, the existence of a "Clinton list" of people he's supposed to have murdered, etc.). The Alex Jones empire and the fringe foundation it's built on. The relationship between President Trump and Jones. The current President's obsession with taking things back and making stuff 'great' again (referencing certain concepts in fringe history, as Jason has demonstrated a few times here). The current President's wondering why the Civil War had to happen and why no one is asking that question (lots of stuff written about the causes of the Civil War actually). The current President's equation of the Founding Fathers and the leaders of the Confederacy (I refer to the statue controversy). Glenn Beck's embrace of the theory that the American Indians were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel and wrote in Hebrew. Glenn Beck's embrace of various conspiracy theories involving the founder of the Federal Reserve, Bill O'Reilly's attempt to whitewash (ho ho!, see what I did there) the horrors of slavery (reference is to the "slaves who built the White House" comment). The Conservative mainstreaming of the QAnon and "White Replacement" conspiracy fantasies. The President's "very fine people" remark about White Nationalists in the wake of a murder. The Conservative mainstreaming of the "Epoch Times" and, presumably, the underlying ideology of it. Tucker Carlson's attempt to call White Nationalism a hoax even in the wake of the El Paso incident. Your own embrace of a wild conspiracy fantasy which I have pointed out elsewhere.

For a fuller explication of the historical connections between the fringe and the Right, I refer you to Richard Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" and "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." I forget just how focused both works were on the Right (been a long time since I read them), they may have bent over backwards to be fair (which is not necessarily a bad thing, to be sure).

None of the examples I've cited cancels out that the Left Fringe exists, nor am I trying to. The Left Fringe exists to be sure. However Lefty fringe things are called out for being what they are, whereas Righty fringe things are well-funded and considered mainstream. (Example one: Hillary Clinton's "vast right wing conspiracy" comment is held up for ridicule to this very day, whereas the History Channel and Alex Jones make millions off of way, way worse things. Example two: Hillary Clinton's consultation with a psychic, and I'm being generous to the right in characterizing it this way [this is the Eleanor Roosevelt thing], was ridiculed way, way more than the Reagans's consultation with Astrologers.)

The Left Fringe exists. But the Right and the Fringe have a special relationship. There is, Mr. Scales, a difference.

I know I won't covert you Mr. Scales. You're not my audience -- I write for anyone who might err by taking your arguments seriously, not recognizing the context.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Gus Hall
12/28/2019 01:04:14 pm

Nerd, please keep in mind that you’re discussing this issue with someone who regularly posts here under two identities and who actually replies to his own comments with those different names. I seriously doubt anything reality based is going to sink in very far with him. But good luck!

Joe Scales
12/28/2019 10:22:12 pm

"-An Anonymous Nerd"

Liar, liar, pants on fire. You are a lying liar.

White person
12/29/2019 08:09:01 am

By the way, Khufu built the great pyramid, laughing out loud.

An Anonymous Nerd
12/29/2019 10:45:17 am

[By the way, Khufu built the great pyramid, laughing out loud. ]

Of course not. The builders working for him did. Here's Michael Heiser, PhD, going over some of the basic reasons we know that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCux3EbUJDY

It's a lot more than the one inscription that folks like you seem to assert it to be, though Heiser starts with that.

For more see Romer's "The Great Pyramid" and Wilkinson's "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt."

-An Anonymous Nerd

QuantPizza
12/29/2019 10:26:34 pm

Wait, who made Michael Heiser an expert on Egyptian pyramids? Heiser is a christian, right? So he believes that you will go to hell if you have sex with your girlfriend and a whole bunch of other nonsense that Christians believe in.

Isn't it ironic and inconsistent that debunkers use someone like Heiser to help them debunk obvious facts when he must be automatically dismissed as a loon for being a Christian and believing in Biblical myth?

An Anonymous Nerd
12/30/2019 07:55:02 pm

So much bunk in such a short post.

Dr. Heiser's religious beliefs might be relevant if he were talking about, say, creationism. But we're not. Ancient history is within his areas (ancient languages) but he's not trying to claim independent expertise on the pyramids at any rate. Rather he's reading the work of his colleagues and relating it. About the same thing he'd do in a classroom teaching within the broad area of ancient history or languages but not the specific area he writes in.

I also gave you two book references of folks who are, indeed, experts on Egypt and the pyramids.

Nothing inconsistent. Rather reality intruding into your Fringe fantasy.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Guess What
12/28/2019 08:38:20 pm

You can't stop people in believing
Just like people can't stop you from believing in your stuff

Reply
Joe Scales
12/29/2019 10:01:29 am

Oh, I'd be more than happy to entertain rational inquiry that didn't involve a complete misuse and misunderstanding of categorizing informal fallacies. But how can one reason with someone that uses the very informal fallacies they think they see (incorrectly) when making their own ungrounded rebukes. It's actually humorous; just too bad they're too stupid to see the joke's on them.

Jason has made his choice to allow his political leanings to infiltrate his work. Just another loud, woke puppet, masquerading as a debunker. Perhaps not his goal, but his path nonetheless.

An Anonymous Nerd
12/29/2019 10:48:54 am

[Jason has made his choice to allow his political leanings to infiltrate his work. Just another loud, woke puppet, masquerading as a debunker.]

Mr. Colavito, and to a lesser extent, myself, have demonstrated capably the special relationship between the Fringe and the Right. I also have demonstrated your bizarre embrace of a wild conspiracy fantasy. And your, seemingly deliberate, embrace of intellectual fallacies.

Your political faith prevents you from seeing this (or, perhaps, lets you off the hook for the intellectual errors you make?) and I can't help that but I, and of course Mr. Colavito, can, and will, continue conveying accurate information and credible analyses in the face of your bunk.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Joe Scales
12/29/2019 10:42:58 pm

"I also have demonstrated your bizarre embrace of a wild conspiracy fantasy. And your, seemingly deliberate, embrace of intellectual fallacies."

Liar, liar, pants on fire. You are a lying liar.

PTOLEMY II PHILADELPHUS
12/30/2019 05:22:18 pm

Seriously, Joe?

Joe Scales
12/31/2019 11:26:45 am

Yes. Most seriously. In his zeal to appear educated (which he isn't, by the way) this anonymous pretension peppers my posts with lies on a regular basis. As going through his imbecilic miscomprehensions on a point by point basis would not only waste bandwidth, but would lead to even longer diatribes from this ankle-nipper in response, I've found it much easier and succinct to simply remind him that he is a liar. That he is an imbecile as well, is a given.

Jim
12/31/2019 11:52:57 am

Ad hominem (Latin for "to the person"),short for argumentum ad hominem, typically refers to a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Kent
12/31/2019 03:01:14 pm

Yes, you pointed that out on November 22 of this year. Happy Anniversary buh bye President Kennedy!

"JIM
11/22/2019 03:55:37 pm
Ad hominem (Latin for "to the person"),[1] short for argumentum ad hominem, typically refers to a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem"

An idiot, dolt, dullard or (archaically) mome, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. Commonly applied to someone outwitted by the screening process on Scott Wolter's blog.

It was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard himself or herself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by the term profound mental retardation (which has itself since been replaced by other terms). Along with terms like moron, imbecile, and cretin, it is archaic and offensive in those uses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot

B L
1/1/2020 11:03:22 am

I always get a kick out of Jason's efforts to blame right wing politics for the fringe stuff. Anecdotally, I've experienced the opposite. It's the pot smoking liberal hippies I come in contact with who can't stop talking about how fascinating the latest episode of Ancient Aliens was. Maybe it was very little to do with politics and more to do with an individual sense of a lack of control in one's own course in life. But, yep, Joe is right..... Harry Reid seems to get more of a pass here than Tucker Carlson does despite Reid being the one who would likely be perceived as having first hand knowledge due to holding publuc office.

Reply
Joe Scales
1/2/2020 10:13:33 am

A show Jason has been all over lately, Unexplored + Unexplained (+ Morons), features at least one host who could be described as a liberal activist. But no, it's those rightwing boogeymen. They're to blame for all this idiocy.

Jim
12/28/2019 10:21:05 am

How depressing this all is when you consider the real catastrophe of global warming bearing down upon humanity like a runaway freight train and being largely ignored.
The future does not look rosy.

Reply
QuantPizza
12/29/2019 09:38:45 pm

Say "thank you" to blind debunkers like Jason and alike. Clearly, whatever is flying out there has a propulsion technology that can end our dependence on fossil fuels faster than Jason can say Zecharia Sitchin.

Wouldn't it be great if his efforts were directed at that fact and a push to make this technology public instead of spell checking Hancock and others? Sure Sitchin, Hancock and others made mistakes, but who hasn't?

Sure right-wingers are no fun, but was Moses a right-winger, too? What about Ezekiel and others? Oh, that's right, they never existed and the Jews just made up crazy stories, right?

The Ark of the Covenant's description in the Bible is very specific and was clearly a technological device. Was manna that fell from the sky hallucinogenic? Because you need to be high on some good stuff to make up stories like that. Oh, that's right, those crazy Jews, they just love to make up crazy stories and believe in them for thousands of years. What do they know, right?

The blind watchmaker? More like the blind debunker that cannot see the forest for the threes.

Reply
Kent
12/28/2019 02:58:05 pm

"This was a long, hard year"

Ted Danson, the God Emperor of Cheers recently said "It is a very, very stressful time. It feels like it’s inevitable but I will refuse to believe that. I keep thinking, off-topic here, I keep thinking here, we’re advertised as this split country that’s very angry with each other and when you talk politics, people can easily get enraged."

If you're stressed or "enraged" because things aren't going your way, then you're worse than a child because you will also expect to be treated as an adult. You may even have a driver's license.

"It perfectly captures the tenor of the times for the post-truth era that the very notions of fact and fiction ceased to have meaning." Jason makes a valid point here. I know I was extremely disappointed (not "stressed" or "enraged") when the obvious fact that the FBI lied repeatedly to obtain FISA warrants under the Obama administration was revealed.

Words to ban in 2020:
"flavorful"
"umami"
"erstwhile"

"Scott F. Wolter, erstwhile host of America Unearthed, spilled the beans on the Travel Channel’s plans when he was spotted in Scotland filming new episodes of America Unearthed before an official announcement of the show’s renewal was made a couple of weeks later."

How could Wolter be the erstwhile host while he was the current host?

"Hancock .... appearing on Joe Rogan to sell the book to angry white men."

What the actual fuck, Jason? Thass raciss and stoopid. Demonizing people whom you perceive to be responsible for making things go not your way is just sad. And doesn't that make you an angry white man?

"The FBI designated conspiracy theories a motivator for domestic terror."
Decades late to the party started by the CIA.

Through a mixture of Karl Popper's and Leo Strauss's thinking, the traditional American tendency to regard elite conspiracies as a real but harmful aspect of our society was gradually stigmatized as either paranoid or politically dangerous, laying the conditions for its exclusion from respectable discourse. Refer to Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics".

It's interesting that you share Wolter's belief that "Q-Anon" which doesn't actually exist is behind a lot of things.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
12/28/2019 07:35:19 pm

Ugh. You did notice that this was a chronological discussion, right? Wolter was the former host of AU at the time that sentence covered and became it again when the show was revived. So, I was referring to him as he was in that month.

Similarly, you might have noticed that part of the reason for collecting these highlights together is to show how they reflect and bounce off each other. The reference to angry white men refers back to Slate magazine's attack on Joe Rogan in a previous month. It was a callback, not an accusation.

Reply
Ken mehlman
12/28/2019 08:14:52 pm

Jason, give him a beak. Just as you provided a succinct year in review of fringe media and related topics, Joe Kent Scales feebly regurgitated all of the conservative talking points he learned in his echo chamber over the past year. He has no learning outside of that bubble and he’s “proud” to show it off. In its own sad way, it’s quite fitting.

Kent
12/28/2019 09:38:48 pm

Nah, you just think saying "erstwhile" gives your prose more umami and makes it more flavorful. Using your rubric, how could he he "erstwhile" while he was filming the show?

Would you eat expired pudding?

Kent
12/28/2019 09:56:37 pm

NO JASON. NOT JUST NO BUT HECK NO.

YOU WROTE:
"Hancock embarked a media tour, attacking archaeologists as “the pseudoscientists” and appearing on Joe Rogan to sell the book to angry white men."

NO "CALLBACK". AN ACCUSATION.

"Master Race Magazine tells the truth about N-Words. A right-wing extremist killed 49 people in an attack on mosques in New Zealand and wrote in his manifesto that he had been inspired by an anti-immigrant group that borrowed the name and imagery of the Knights Templar.

April
In April, Graham Hancock published America Before, an examination of controversial claims about North American prehistory, including allegations that Atlanteans were actually telekinetic Native Americans. The book became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.
Hancock embarked a media tour, attacking archaeologists as “the pseudoscientists” and appearing on Joe Rogan to sell the book to N-Words"

Just a callback, right?

Mr. Opinion
12/28/2019 11:00:16 pm

Just finished reading your review of "Gods, Man, & War 2" and one paragraph caught my attention :

"Levenda has a penchant for mistaking his own experiences for a human universal. It’s probably why he uses his own limited and unimaginative experience of dreaming to discount the notion that abduction narratives are related to the waking dreams of sleep paralysis. He has never had a realistic dream, so he doesn’t believe it possible. I have, so I do".

I personally am not a believer in alien abductions, but one thing that I did noticed is that skeptics always ignore the incidents were there have been more then one person involved, sometimes while driving.

It would be very interesting to know what explanation were proposed for this.

An Anonymous Nerd
12/29/2019 10:54:31 am

I should hope, Mr. Colavito, that you know better than to expect rational thinking from anyone who refers to Ted Danson as the "God Emperor" of anything. And that's the least of it.

-An Anonymous Nerd

JIm
12/29/2019 11:18:21 am

" And that's the least of it."

Kent is simply here as a troll, to take the counter point and argue incessantly on points he is aware are wrong and to push the boundaries of decency as far as he thinks he can push them for shock value.

How long did Kent argue that Alaska was the easternmost point in America ?
Or that the U.S. invaded Greenland ?

Look at me !!! I an Kent, Look at me !

Responding to him is pointless.

Kent
12/29/2019 05:41:55 pm

Ted Danson wore blackface before blackface was cool. He made it okay for Governor Northam and Prime Minister Trudeau.

THREE times Mr. Prime Minister? RESPECT!!!

Northam: "What we'll do, you see, is disassemble the baby, then the parts can be FedExed to where they're needed."

He also pioneered the reclamation of "the N-Word". I don't care if rapper DaBaby uses it, Ted Motherhecking Danson uses it so it's okay for everyone to use it.

"NEW YORK (AP) _ Actor Ted Danson showed up in minstrel blackface and peppered his jokes with racial epithets at the Friars Club roast of his lover, comedian Whoopi Goldberg.

The former ″Cheers″ star offended Mayor David Dinkins, talk show host Montel Williams and others who said his performance was over the line, even for a function where the highest compliment is a crude, brutal insult.

Danson, appearing in a top hat and blackface with big white painted lips, used the word ″nigger″ more than a dozen times as he joked about his and Goldberg’s sex life and other topics.


With Dinkins about to arrive, Danson said, ″I was told, ‘The mayor’s coming, so be careful, don’t do any political jokes, just do nigger jokes.’ ″

Dinkins, New York’s first black mayor, was introduced by Danson when he entered the room. Dinkins offered a few political jokes, read a city proclamation to Goldberg - a New York native - and left.

Dinkins later told the Daily News he ″was embarrassed for Whoopi and the audience and felt a tremendous sense of relief when it was over.″

Williams walked off the dais seven minutes into Danson’s monologue and left with his visibly upset wife.

″When Ted made the jokes about the racially mixed kids, and everyone knows my wife is white and just gave birth to our child, I could see my wife start to cry,″ Williams told the News. ″If that’s what Whoopi and Ted find funny in their bedroom, it’s not funny to the outside world.″

Williams said he planned to send roses and a note of apology to all the black women sitting on the dais with him for what he said was like ″a meeting of the Klan.″

The women included Anita Baker, Shari Belafonte, Natalie Cole, Jasmine Guy and Vanessa Williams.

Goldberg sat on the dais and occasionally grinned during Danson’s performance in her honor.

She began her rebuttal by saying, ″Nigger, nigger, nigger, whitey, whitey, whitey. It takes a whole lot of (courage) to come out in blackface ... I don’t care if you don’t like it. I do.″

Bob Saks, chairman of the Friars Club, said he was surprised that people were upset.

″Whoopi knew and so did all the black performers what was going to happen. It’s always way over the line - it’s supposed to be,″ he said.

Black model Beverly Johnson also defended Danson’s performance.

″If you can’t see the humor at a place where there’s supposed to be over- the-line jokes, then there’s something really wrong,″ she told the News.

″I was in stitches,″ she added."

Joe Scales
1/1/2020 11:39:49 am

Sad, isn't it Kent. That when you offer constructive criticism for our host, you're met with pure ad hominem. I feel your pain, as pointing out their lies and stupidity only sends them back at you even harder (and yeah... I mean that in a sexual sense). I've tried telling them I don't want to further engage with them, because quite frankly, it's rather disturbing at this point how far they'll go unable to control their compulsions. Then they believe it's because you can't beat their "arguments".

As if.

Hal
12/29/2019 09:24:53 am

Racist hate blog.

Reply
Kent
1/2/2020 12:41:45 pm

Sadly I now must agree with you.

Kent
1/2/2020 04:06:18 pm

^Fake post^

Who Is Watching Anyway?
12/28/2019 03:08:57 pm

Sometimes the politcal rants do get tiresome. If you can believe the website copied here, seems that far more Democrats enjoy Ancient Aliens than Republicans. So, how does that fit the theory of the show catering to white, ultra-conservatives?

https://blog.epollresearch.com/2019/02/04/favorite-programs-of-republicans-democrats/

Reply
Joe Scales
12/30/2019 02:15:03 pm

Jason doesn't like conservative politics and he doesn't like the Fringe. So he associates the two through confirmation bias which is lost on his imbecile partisan followers who foolishly buy into this rather divisive and unproductive rabblerousing. So much so, that should you challenge their biases, they see you as the worst in their political opposition. Mind-boggling how moronic these folks can be. Perhaps they think just coming here and agreeing with our host somehow makes them smart and morally superior.

I warned Jason long ago his embrace of a political side to intermingle with his debunking would make him sloppy and give him the appearance of ignorance. And yeah... that his comment section would become a cesspool. Hate to say I told ya so... but I told ya so.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
12/30/2019 08:06:16 pm

Mr. Colavito and, to a lesser extent, myself have demonstrated the special relationship between the Fringe and the Right. See another reply of mine in this thread for the particulars. It's not our fault that you won't accept it. The other Fringe types who post here won't accept it either.

It is the Fringe spreading bunk, of all sorts, who have downgraded this comment section.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Joe Scales
12/30/2019 10:46:59 pm

"It is the Fringe spreading bunk, of all sorts, who have downgraded this comment section."

Liar, liar, pants on fire. You are a lying liar.

rightist politics of the ancient aliens
12/28/2019 08:54:47 pm

Mainstream astronomers are just as bad, believing in the possibility of life on other planets - when life on earth is entirely accidental.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
12/29/2019 04:07:15 pm

It's not a belief, and has nothing to do with being "just as bad" as anyone, it's math. Near-infinite universe equals near-certainty there's life in at least one other place--accident or not!

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
QuantPizza
12/29/2019 10:08:36 pm

It's totally hilarious how elitist debunkers are so deep into spellchecking Daniken that they prefer to debunk the math instead of facing obvious facts.

The blind watchmaker? Let me guess, that missing link is still missing and the "crazy" guy who decoded DNA must be a conspiracy right-winger too, because he doesn't believe that life originated on Earth.

And why NASA is looking for that 12th planet? Oh, that's right, maybe they fell under the spell of the Sitchin's "cult?" Of course they did, which perfectly explains why they edit Mars pictures before releasing them to the public and have ended the live feed from ISS after "the gods" showed up several times.

The blind watchmaker? More like blind debunkers.

No one cares
12/30/2019 04:27:11 pm

"And why NASA is looking for that 12th planet?"

Because they couldn't find the 10th or 11th planets?

An Anonymous Nerd
12/30/2019 08:01:30 pm

NASA's not looking for the 12th planet in large part because the cosmology that leads to it existing does not match the evidence. One day they might find a distant planet that orbits our sun very distantly but they probably won't. Indeed the last time they changed anything was to take away from, not add to, the list of planets, because to NASA "planet" has an actual scientific meaning and definition.

And I guess the "blind watchmaker" is a reference to the book that's opposed to creationism, which I haven't read, but the better point to note is that there's no real evidence for creationism but plenty for evolution. I have no idea how it's relevant to the discussion though.

Oh wait, yes I do: The more bunk you toss out the more time we have to spend trying to correct it if our time allows. And, therefore, the more you can toss.

-An Anonymous Nerd

AMHC
12/28/2019 11:01:14 pm

What Jason has ACTUALLY done by connecting the fringes of fantasy and sci find with rightist politics is simple: He decentered a SUBJECTIVIST rendition of existentialism on the level of political economy.

Is this play by play synopsis OBJECTIVE enough for everyone in this Marxist peanut gallery to reach consensus that this Year End Review has value?

Jason darling, keep writing. I will keep reading. Despite my advanced age of 40 something, I finally started an IRA this month. If I can find a way to save for retirement, I might be intelligent enough to find a way to support this blog next year with ACTUAL MONEY rather than project both Freud's Doppelganger AND MY OWN EGO (ahem) into every word YOU WRITE.

And as always, should 2020 be the year you finally decide to trade in your current spouse for different model, I must let you know that I'm currently available. Im prepared to negotiate on a few points on the pleasures obtained from mere appearance for a true upgrade in intellect.

Be well one and all. Remember, that during The Belle Epoque, Avant Garde artists were said to have developed a SYSTEMATIC TECHNIQUE OF SCANDAL to keep their ideas before the public.

Enter the NEVER ENDING SEARCH for Universal History and a Dichotomous Key.

Reply
QuantPizza
12/29/2019 04:16:42 pm

Jason,

Are you familiar with a concept of a reverse racism and elitism?

You're quick to point out that it's racist to attribute technological achievements of the ancient people to extraterrestrials. And yet you don't seem to think that it is racist, or at the minimum elitist, to claim that the same people who were smart enough to build the pyramids believed in total nonsense, i.e., what you call today "a myth."

They just made up stories about "the gods" and their interaction with them? The same people that supposedly created the writing, the calendar, numerical system, etc - these same people were just liars and so dumb that they didn't have anything better to do than to make up stories about what was going on around them and believing in them for thousands of years.

And it isn't just a small cult somewhere in a cave. All cultures around the world have pretty much the same story about "the gods" and how they interacted with them.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Not! Jason, you need to check yourself and come down from your elitist/racist horse and show some respect to your ancestors.

Reply
Hal
12/29/2019 07:51:15 pm

Jason can’t do what you asked. He is a racist issuing a hate blog. He hates everyone even himself. He’s angry at god for being born.

Reply
Mr. Sweet
12/29/2019 09:01:53 pm

There was a time when I would have argued with you but he is indeed an angry white man. Seven worlds, one cabbage.

An Anonymous Nerd
12/30/2019 08:16:33 pm

You're attempting to equate "these people had religious beliefs" and "these folks were creative storytellers" to "these folks couldn't possibly have built stuff there's specific evidence that they built?"

Wow, new depths of non-logic.

Just to start, there's specific evidence of the ancient peoples building the structures (we can see documents, tools, etc.), and telling creative stories (we can find written or pictorial records), and having religious beliefs (we can find written or pictorial records). And no real evidence of their having contact with aliens.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
TONY S.
12/30/2019 01:13:06 am


...fringe history stopped being fringe and went completely mainstream”

God that’s a depressing thought. Anti-intellectualism, lies, cranks, racist ideas, crazy conspiracy theories and just balls out buffoonery are overtaking modern day society.

Reply
Anonymous
12/30/2019 12:53:01 pm

I read your article 'who were the nephilim' you posted some years ago. In the end you wrote that we may never know if giants really existed unless we found their skeletons. But theres a new theory that the nephilims are actually white people. The first adam and eves were created as a black/brown slave human race there were no white people that time. When the anunnaki/children of anunnaki (sons of gods) mated with the black/brown slave human women they gave birth to white children. The annunaki were white and tall (7 to 8 feet) their genes were dominant thats why their children were white and tall. The black/brown slave humans were only around 5 to 5'5 at that time and thats why the whites looked like giants to them. Similarly in book of enoch it is said that the sons of gods mated with the daughters of men (black/brown adams) and gave birth to nephilims. The sons of gods taught nephilims metallurgy constellations technology etc.The nephilims are the mighty men, demigods. Thats why white people have rh negative blood and are advanced compared to other races

Reply
Lincoln Wilson
12/30/2019 01:23:58 pm

Calling that a “theory” is being overly generous.

Reply
Anonymous
12/31/2019 01:15:06 am

Everyone including the white call it a theory. They removed the book of enoch and claim they are descendants from Japhleth ! Thats why we are forced to accept it as 'theory' . Your not gonna find any giant bones the giants are walking with us even today.

C. Cockburn
1/1/2020 06:01:08 pm

Yes, they walk among us, and lead the Big Ten conference in rebounds and blocked shots.

Kent X
12/30/2019 04:34:33 pm

It's well known that the white race was invented by the Mad Scientist Yakub.

Reply
Anonymous
12/31/2019 01:18:35 am

Yakub is was made to calm down black people from getting angry bout whites

T.L. Moore
1/13/2020 07:31:30 am

I would love to gain clarification regarding how a reasonable statement admitting to a lack of physical evidence possibly being an obstacle in solidifying proof of the existence of giants compares to that theory new or otherwise.

Not only would the theory suggested require skeletal remains, it would require skin samples, proof of identity and proof of intimacy leading to issue described above, evidence of social classes and the absolute elimination of whichever genetic line produce the ignorance displayed here.

That skeletal remains may possibly be an obstacle to proving giants existed is realistic and at least gives hope to the contrary.

Congratulations on removing all risk of possibly validating a theory based solely on blind ignorance.

Reply
Kent
1/13/2020 11:17:31 am

You do talk some cobblers don't you?

Gary
12/30/2019 01:20:30 pm

Slate has a year-end article on UFO’s that touches on TTSA and some of the issues discussed on this blog.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/12/2019-year-in-aliens-ufos.html

Reply
Jim
12/30/2019 09:14:17 pm

Wolter is still at it.
In a new interview he has tried to tie Poverty point (1700 BC -1100 BC) to the Newport Tower. Yikes
He made up a completely nonsensical alignment from the Newport tower to Poverty Point.
So,,, from the center of the tower you draw a line to a rock in the rock wall from there the line extends to Poverty point.
He tries to make a big deal that this particular rock is white quartz as if that has some meaning but that shit is common as hell. (about the 40 minute mark)
Sounds like he may be trying to tie the Templars to prehistoric America (1700 BC -1100 BC) to fit all his other nonsense.

One other thing I found funny, he revealed the name the Cherokee bestowed upon him,, lol, apparently the Cherokee named him, in Hebrew no less, Big Moses ! Bwahahahaha

Other than that, not worth the time, his son is in the interview as well and is a chip off the old block. He can deflect with the best of them.

https://audioboom.com/posts/7465432-ep-19-scott-wolter-from-the-hit-tv-show-america-unearthed-with-his-son-grant

Reply
TONY S.
12/30/2019 10:08:26 pm

I can see it already: America Unearthed: The Next Generation. Lovely. I wonder if the kid is just brainwashed or is a deliberate bullshit artist like his old man.

Reply
Jim
12/31/2019 10:24:53 am

Well, the host asked him, (and I paraphrase) as an engineer, was the Newport Tower built strong enough to support the stresses of being a windmill ?
His response was that the the arches built into the tower were unnecessary in a windmill, so why did they build in arches if it was merely a windmill ? When pushed on it he said it was built very strong so, maybe, but he is not a windmill engineer.
He also parroted his father and complained about archaeologists not using science, or "hard science"

Gunn Sinclair is Anthony Warren in "Picnic at the Stone Holes"
12/30/2019 10:49:53 pm

Cherokee is the go-to dime-store brand that most fake injuns glom onto. Dhyani Yhwahoo up in Vermont is one.

Reply
P.G. Grenadine
12/30/2019 11:00:26 pm

I'm one too but I'm fake Shawnee not fake Cherokee, and I'm like 11 fake feet tall.

T. Franke link
12/31/2019 11:28:29 am

The year 2019 had been rather quiet concerning Atlantis. The theme was there but not prominent.

2018 was different. There was the Aquaman movie, and I am pretty sure, that this movie stirred up some free riders (or was it part of the marketing campaign?), such as the youtube hype about the Richat structure.

Reply
Kent
12/31/2019 05:34:02 pm

Maybe due to a critical mass of people understanding that it's just a made-up story told by Plato and not based on a real place, just like Spidermonkey Island or Valinor? Since the story only comes from a single source, Plato, the Fountain of Youth is more likely to be based on an actual place.

Reply
Jr. Time Lord
12/31/2019 11:25:44 pm

https://www.independenceks.gov/199/Park-Zoo

Monkey Island does exist.

Kent
1/1/2020 02:06:36 pm

Read it again idiot. Spidermonkey Island idiot.

T. Franke link
1/1/2020 05:38:37 pm

Kent, the Foutain of Youth is a supernatural wonder, whereas no such supernatural wonder occurs in Plato's Atlantis story. At least not going beyond the amount of myth Plato is assuming to be REAL from the perspective of his time. And this is the crucial perspective to judge whether there is a core of truth in it or not. For Atlantis as well as for any other real place. -- Or do you want to tell me that there is no Athens because ancient Greeks believed in a foundation myth of Athens involving Athena and Poseidon? No, you don't. So please do not repeat time and again this pseudo-scientific nonsense argument!

I want to see more respect before the power of argument from you. You always think that with a simplistic "it's just a made-up story" you are done. But no, you are not. This is far too simple! You really should consider ramping up your arguments beyond the usual urban myths why Atlantis allegedly is considered a fiction.

Concerning the critical mass of people "understanding that it's just a made-up story" I have to say that I doubt this. Haven't you read the numbers of Atlantis believers in the survey presented on this blog, and let us be clear: These are no rational and historical-critical thinkers than I am, but believers in the LITERAL meaning of Plato's descriptions. There is no dwindling number of believers. The numbers will dwindle when Atlantis will have been found. Not earlier. Then the whole story will be pinned down to one real place without any nonsense any more.

T. Franke Decoded
1/1/2020 07:02:02 pm

"Blah blah nonsense Atlantis more nonsense I want to see more respect leap of logic nonsense again blah blah."

T. Franke link
1/2/2020 12:43:21 pm

Decoder, your decryption key must be wrong. Especially, there is NO leap of logic.

Let me give you an example for a leap of logic: Concluding from the existence of foundation myths for a city on the non-existence of this city is a leap of logic. Or another example: Concluding from the fact that only one source talks about a city on the non-existence of this city is a leap of logic, too.

My humble decoding of your decoding is this: "Oh, I am lost, I have no arguments any more, so I just flee into ridiculing my opponent."

T. Franke Decoded
1/2/2020 04:01:27 pm

So just nonsense and blah blah then? Very well.

"And this is the crucial perspective to judge whether there is a core of truth in it or not. For Atlantis as well as for any other real place. -- Or do you want to tell me that there is no Athens because ancient Greeks believed in a foundation myth of Athens involving Athena and Poseidon? No, you don't."

You don't understand the distinction between an actual place and Spidermonkey Island.

"the Foutain of Youth is a supernatural wonder" That's what your extensive research tells you? But Atlantis is as real as Athens?

It's my experience that people who demand respect don't deserve it.

T. Franke link
1/3/2020 04:02:53 pm

Decoder, again, you omit any reasonable argument ...

And yes, Atlantis is as real as Athens, but to be more precise: Athens is as real the real Athens is compared to Plato's assumed primeval Athens. Athens is a real place, although different to what Plato thought.

You are simply caught in error as long as you do not accept that we have to consider what the ancients really believed to be real in error, of real places.

You always make your modern ideas the measure for ancient thoughts and you judge Plato as if he was some Graham Hancock guy. Hey, that's not how things work! That is not state of the art in science. When following your line of thought we had to declare Herodotus' Egypt a non-existing invented place because there exists no country which fits fo Herodotus' description of Egypt. Do you really want do declare such nonsense?!

T. Franke Decoded
1/3/2020 04:23:18 pm

"And yes, Atlantis is as real as Athens, but to be more precise: Athens is as real the real Athens is compared to Plato's assumed primeval Athens. Athens is a real place, although different to what Plato thought."

So according to you Atlantis "is a real place, although different to what Plato thought."

And according to you the single-sourced Atlantis is real while the multiple-sourced Fountain of Youth is not.

I don't have to discount Herodotus or anyone else due to arriving at the conclusion that Atlantis is just a story made up by Plato. I might do so, but I don't have to, because I'm focused solely on your nonsense.

All you've got to back your argument is constant tiresome repetition of mouth noises and typing motions.

T. Franke link
1/4/2020 12:21:02 pm

Decoder ....

"I don't have to discount Herodotus or anyone else due to arriving at the conclusion that Atlantis is just a story made up by Plato."

=> Oh yes, you have to! You cannot have the cake and eat it, too! *giggle*

T. Franke Decoded
1/4/2020 05:54:41 pm

It's "You can't eat your cake and have it too" but native English speakers mess that up too.

Think:
If you have your cake, can you eat it? Yes.

But you're wrong. I don't have to discount Herodotus or anyone else due to arriving at the conclusion that Atlantis is just a story made up by Plato.

You can hire an infinite number of monkeys to make an infinite number of typing motions but that won't make you right.

Then you "giggle" like a child molester or Hilary Clinton talking about Ghaddafi's death by sodomy. But I won't tell you how to live your life.

T. Franke link
1/5/2020 11:38:28 am

Decoder ....

Quote: "Then you "giggle" like a child molester or Hilary Clinton talking about Ghaddafi's death by sodomy. But I won't tell you how to live your life." End-of-Quote.

I was always convinced that sound aesthetics and truthfulness go hand in hand. Seeing you coming up surprisingly with awkward associations like "child molester" and "sodomy" confirms my idea of you as a person in confusion and error.

Let me tell you: Change your life! Discover the beauty of truth! Embrace the rewards of straightforward rationality and let go your irrationalities and your pseudo-scientific dogmatism! Life is beautiful and full of treasures for everybody!

Life is beautiful and full of treasures for everybody
1/5/2020 02:26:06 pm

"When the Marine suggests that the barracks be searched for children, and that any policeman found to be engaged in pedophilia be arrested and jailed, the high-ranking officer insists what occurs between the security forces and the boys is consensual, saying "[the boys] like being there and giving their asses at night." He went on to claim that this practice was historic and necessary, rhetorically asking: "If [my commanders] don't fuck the asses of those boys, what should they fuck? The pussies of their own Grandmothers?""

Hal
1/1/2020 08:34:26 am

Don’t forget to support this racist hate blog by sending Colagayo your tax free donation. And keep those offers of marriage coming.

Reply
Charles Rector link
1/4/2020 01:15:42 pm

Why does it seem like every discussion of Jason's posts nowadays is the exact same thing as all the other discussions regardless of Jason's subject?

Makes me long for the days when In first found this website when I first discovered it when the discussions featured such commenters as David Bradbury, Nobody Knows, Over-Educated Grunt, Pam, Time Machine and others in addition to both Mr. Scales and Anonymous Nerd. They had their share of nonsense but overall it was pretty interesting and varied, not the same old tired rehash of the previous points,

Stuff like this is why I find myself coming to this website less and less.

Reply
Joe Scales
1/4/2020 10:04:42 pm

Jason went political and the place fell apart accordingly. Angry partisans who take you for their political opposition should you question their bias. They ruined the place, trumpeting and encouraging Jason's unnecessary political rhetoric. Terminal at this point, I'm afraid.

Reply
Jim is Anthony Warren
1/5/2020 12:15:57 am

As someone who thinks the Gospel is composed of incorrect stuff told to me by people claiming to be park rangers, I think everything is just fine.

Kent
1/5/2020 02:35:07 am

"Stuff like this is why I find myself coming to this website less and less."

I'd like to hear more about this. I'm sure I will. But just so you know, you sound like kind of a dick.

Reply

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          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • 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 >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • 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
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • 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
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • 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
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • 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
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • 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
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • 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
        • 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 >
        • 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 >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • 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
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • 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
        • 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 >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • 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 >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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