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Rise of a 'master' woo myth of our history


Hanslune

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Returning from vacation and Jason C. had penned an interesting observation - noted below:

 

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I will confess to sometimes being dumbfounded by the sheer breadth of fringe claims. This week alone, I ricocheted from the geological evidence for mammoth extinction in Alaska to medieval accounts of Sphinx lore to conspiracy theories about the Knights Templar. What is fascinating, though, is the way these disparate fields are gradually congealing around a master myth that is still incomplete but taking shape roughly around the outlines laid down by Theosophy—that extraterrestrial beings (whether space alien or supernatural is still in dispute) came to Earth in the distant past and inspired the first and lost civilization of Atlantis, which was destroyed (whether by comet, flood, or UFO is in dispute) and whose remnants seeded historical cultures and founded an undying occult brotherhood (whether it is good or evil is still in dispute) to preserve knowledge of the past; and these extraterrestrials are going to return. One you recognize the overarching master-myth, all the lesser claims start to make sense as little pieces of this larger, and fictional, puzzle. Jason Colavito

So that is his opinion but is that actually happening? Opinions? Are all the fringe and woo-masters actually coming up with a common narrative/timeline of an alternative history?

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My thought is there is something behind so many psychic disparate sources coalescing around some common narratives of the past. Through Occam's razor, acadamia gives us the simplest explanations for the facts, Whig is not necessarily the full story. Major unknown things which can't be objectively shown, may well be real. My belief is that these psychics sources are on to some true and dramatic stuff.

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Thanks for your comments Papageorge1 but as noted in the original statement there are some very contradictory ideas within it. So how does one chose which is the correct narrative?

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14 minutes ago, papageorge1 said:

Through Occam's razor, acadamia gives us the simplest explanations for the facts, Whig is not necessarily the full story. 

Occam's razor is not which explanation is the simplest, but which explanation has the fewest assumptions. You should use it sometime.

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32 minutes ago, Hanslune said:

Thanks for your comments Papageorge1 but as noted in the original statement there are some very contradictory ideas within it. So how does one chose which is the correct narrative?

I find sources judged by many to be of higher quality have much in common and I do not see the very contradictory ideas among them. That is what has impressed me in all this.

But, yes, at this point we have to use our own judgement and consider everything.

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3 minutes ago, papageorge1 said:

I find sources judged by many to be of higher quality have much in common and I do not see the very contradictory ideas among them. That is what has impressed me in all this.

It couldn't be because they copied each other, could it?

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2 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

It couldn't be because they copied each other, could it?

You beat me to this. It is so much easier for the woo to copy each other than to come up with new ideas.

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Just now, Carnoferox said:

It couldn't be because they copied each other, could it?

I do not see that as a likely explanation. The sources are quite disparate and without much reason to copy or in some cases not even knowledgeable about or interested in the other sources.

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1 minute ago, papageorge1 said:

I do not see that as a likely explanation. The sources are quite disparate and without much reason to copy or in some cases not even knowledgeable about or interested in the other sources.

You mean they don't keep up with the latest balderdash?

It's extremely likely that they copy. When I see anything related to fringe I see copying. It is all about copying whether it reptilian overlords, UFOs, crop circles, RV, psi powers, Bermuda triangle, or any of the rest of this I just see copied ideas. So much less work.

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5 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

It couldn't be because they copied each other, could it?

There does seem to be some intellectual incest going on yes! I've noted that certain sites get 'fringified' and all the other woo masters jump on the band wagon while other sites remain neglected. Example lots of woo coming out about Gobekli Tepe but not much on Catalhuyuck. I would suggest this is because GT has less material on it and this leaves lots of room for, 'stuff to be made up', while CH has much better documentation.

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Colavito has documented that much of 'modern' myths about the Pyramids come from the Middle Ages (European and Islamic sources) and aren't new at all.

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One of the claims of fringies is that science does not accept new ideas and the scientists are in lock step. So when fringies pride themselves on being in lock step you have to scratch your head in wonder.

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7 minutes ago, stereologist said:

It is so much easier for the woo to copy each other than to come up with new ideas.

1 minute ago, Hanslune said:

There does seem to be some intellectual incest going on yes! I've noted that certain sites get 'fringified' and all the other woo masters jump on the band wagon while other sites remain neglected

I like to call this effect the "cycle of woo stagnation" (COWS).

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Just now, stereologist said:

You mean they don't keep up with the latest balderdash?

It's extremely likely that they copy. When I see anything related to fringe I see copying. It is all about copying whether it reptilian overlords, UFOs, crop circles, RV, psi powers, Bermuda triangle, or any of the rest of this I just see copied ideas. So much less work.

Now you are covering too much ground above and too many types of sources for me to address. I was starting this with a discussion on past events on earth that seem to coalesce into a very similar narrative with higher quality disparate sources.

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7 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

I like to call this effect the "cycle of woo stagnation" (COWS).

Lovely!

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4 minutes ago, papageorge1 said:

Now you are covering too much ground above and too many types of sources for me to address. I was starting this with a discussion on past events on earth that seem to coalesce into a very similar narrative with higher quality disparate sources.

When it comes to the woo history stuff I see lots of similar themes (copying) that talk about the same places (copying) at around the same time in history (copying).

Sounds to me more like copying. Frankly, I have seen anything I would call high quality woo sources, or middlin woo sources, or bad woo sources. I think those grades are too much to ask the woo to attain.

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Just now, stereologist said:

When it comes to the woo history stuff I see lots of similar themes (copying) that talk about the same places (copying) at around the same time in history (copying).

Sounds to me more like copying. Frankly, I have seen anything I would call high quality woo sources, or middlin woo sources, or bad woo sources. I think those grades are too much to ask the woo to attain.

Well, I see many psychic sources I respect, and feel strongly they are not 'copying'.

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1 minute ago, papageorge1 said:

Well, I see many psychic sources I respect, and feel strongly they are not 'copying'.

Each to his own.

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Just now, stereologist said:

Each to his own.

Perhaps that is a good policy on this subject.

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I do like the idea of COWS. It certainly describes the mindless drivel posted by channelers, psychics, and the rest of the dubious faux history crowd. Besides those trying to fake it with psi claims there are also the lost civilization woo, the aliens did it woo, the lost high tech woo, the "energy" woo, the other planets "woo", the no evidence but it did happen disaster "woo", etc.

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A prime example of COWS is the idea of the lost continent of Lemuria. It originated as a hypothetical sunken land bridge between India and Madagascar proposed by zoologist Philip Sclater in his 1864 article "The Mammals of Madagascar". Lemuria was originally intended to explain the presence of lemurs (hence the name) in both Madagascar and India, but it became obsolete as the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift developed. However, it was then picked up by Helena Blavatsky in 1888 and has been recycled and distorted by the fringe community in the 130 years since. Many times these ideas start as legitimate scientific hypotheses that become outmoded, and then are reutilized by the fringe community.

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Probably est if the mod's shut this thread down. It serves no purpose other that to antagonise other posters.

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COWS, indeed. I think that pretty well nails it.

I have a lot of respect for Colavito and nearly always enjoy his articles, but I'm not sure how much I'd agree with his conclusions on this one. They might be a little too convenient or simple.

But I totally agree with COWS (cycle of woo stagnation). We should probably not assign too much cleverness to the fringe because, really, the fringe is not that clever. Creative, yes, but not terribly clever. We see it right here at UM. A new poster will pop in to espouse some earth-shattering idea that will change history, but doesn't realize how many times we've seen the same or similar claims before. So much of the fringe position is disingenuous ,recycled crap, to be blunt. The average high schooler is equipped to disprove most fringe claims in short order.

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6 minutes ago, Captain Risky said:

Probably est if the mod's shut this thread down. It serves no purpose other that to antagonise other posters.

We'll see. So far it's actually generated some useful discussion on how the fringe seed sprouts and grows.

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I see nearly a complete recycling of Nibiru claims in the current thread. These recycled ideas were the rage leading up to 2012. Haven't looked around myself but I have not heard about the sneaking up to the South Pole. I have not heard about the South Pole telescope. It' really the same old COWS.  Cherchez la vache!

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