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Short piece I found on a revived urban legend: Phantom Social Workers http://subscribe.forteantimes.com/blog/return-of-the-bogus-social-workers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_social_workers Basically, they show up at your door, flash some identification and demand to see your children, then act threatening or try to make off with your kids. However, their identity cannot be confirmed and local authorities know nothing of them. There was a rash of sightings in the 90s but apparently, they're back. Police investigations have repeatedly explained them away as rumours, misidentification, hysteria, and sometimes even genuine social workers. However a few genuine ones remain which "may have involved self-appointed child abuse investigators, or individuals seeking to make false accusations, rather than child sexual abusers." But "no arrests were made". And there's folkloric elements to it where people report the PSWs are looking or acting weird, wearing sunglasses or obvious wigs, almost like Men in Black.
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Apr 7, 2021 13:06
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I read the ancient astronaut stuff as a kid mostly because I wanted aliens to be real and thought it'd be cool if they visited us. Ties back to my previous post about how you had to go on faith the author was being honest with you because I remember reading about the Dogon and their astronomical knowledge and it turns out that's all bullshit.
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Apr 7, 2021 13:42
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:Since we're on the topic of pyramids I might as well point out one of my favorite bits of pyramid triva: Nicolas cage has had one premade for himself for when he dies. The weirder bit for me is that at one point he owned the LaLaurie Mansion on Royal St, which is a primo haunted building, and somewhere I'd love to see inside.
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Apr 7, 2021 17:01
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The_Doctor posted:The weirder bit for me is that at one point he owned the LaLaurie Mansion on Royal St, which is a primo haunted building, and somewhere I'd love to see inside. There's always a weirder bit with Nicola Cage.
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Apr 7, 2021 17:10
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The Ancient Aliens show does occasionally point its Idiot Beam at some of the more well-known european and euro-adjacent cultures outside of Stonehenge and other western european henges. Though I suspect that's because of grasping for material. They love bringing up Gobekli Tepe, and I remember a show recently talking about the Antikythera mechanism (which is honestly cool as hell and I get sad and angry every time I think about how we don't know where the workshop is that produced it, because imagine having that information about Hellenistic engineering practices, gently caress). (Confession time, my wife loves Ancient Aliens even though she knows it's bullshit. I mostly just read a book or watch something on my phone while it's on. It's largely for the reason I said earlier, you don't really get other TV shows about sites like Gobekli Tepe or Nan Madol, though there's a couple shows about abandoned structures on another network that we also like. But it's harder to catch.)
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Apr 7, 2021 21:58
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Just finished both of the Our Fake History episodes on Easter Island and they were pretty fantastic. Engaging and interesting in equal parts, bringing in lots of original sources and the histories of varied researchers over the years. After listening I went back and flipped through my old Easter Island issue of Fate and was surprised to find that they had a pretty similar take on the subject, explicitly calling out the colonialism, racism, and slavery that led to the Rapa Nui/Moai's mysterious reputation. Of course, it's the 1950s so it shows its own racial bias hand by the end, but at least they're miles ahead of a lot of the people we're talking about. Fate might get a well-earned bad reputation as a conspiracy rag, but as I've read through various issues throughout the 50s and 60s, fact-checking along the way, their bigger features tend to be more right accurate than you'd probably imagine. Phy posted:(Confession time, my wife loves Ancient Aliens even though she knows it's bullshit. I mostly just read a book or watch something on my phone while it's on. It's largely for the reason I said earlier, you don't really get other TV shows about sites like Gobekli Tepe or Nan Madol, though there's a couple shows about abandoned structures on another network that we also like. But it's harder to catch.) YouTube is your friend here, for sure. Tons of great, nuanced, and well-sourced history documentary channels. Unless you need a significant dose of entertainment in your historical information presentation. feedmyleg has a new favorite as of 22:20 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Apr 7, 2021 22:16
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I unironically love the Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural videos, and I'm sad Ryan and Shane have moved onto their own Youtube network. Hopefully they start working on similar stuff, because their new home is just godawful 'top 5 pizza chains' videos and the like.
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Apr 7, 2021 23:02
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I have terrible, relevant news. Ancient Aliens is getting a movie adaptation.
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Apr 7, 2021 23:21
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That sounds like a great drunk watch.
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Apr 7, 2021 23:30
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Phy posted:The Ancient Aliens show does occasionally point its Idiot Beam at some of the more well-known european and euro-adjacent cultures outside of Stonehenge and other western european henges. Though I suspect that's because of grasping for material. They love bringing up Gobekli Tepe, and I remember a show recently talking about the Antikythera mechanism (which is honestly cool as hell and I get sad and angry every time I think about how we don't know where the workshop is that produced it, because imagine having that information about Hellenistic engineering practices, gently caress). They also loooooooooooooooove to go on about Aliens and Nazis, which is just more on the pile of pop culture Nazis were actually super cool and superior, rather than a bunch of idiots who were actively working against their own interests at all times out of weird beliefs that anything not German was wrong, and everything German was automatically right. That and killing everyone who wasn't either Aryan or a Torchbearer was going to give Aryan's magic powers.
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Apr 7, 2021 23:36
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Yup. Here's the transcript of a secretly-taped conversation between captured top German nuclear physicists finding out about the atomic bomb for the first time. They talk candidly about how disorganized and barebones the Nazis were when it came to developing anything of massive scale during the war. It's pretty fascinating to read through: quote:KORSHING: That shows at any rate that the Americans are capable of real cooperation on a tremendous scale. That would have been impossible in Germany. Each one said that the other was unimportant. feedmyleg has a new favorite as of 23:55 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Apr 7, 2021 23:50
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feedmyleg posted:Yup. Here's the transcript of a secretly-taped conversation between captured top German nuclear physicists finding out about the atomic bomb for the first time. They talk candidly about how disorganized and barebones the Nazis were when it came to developing anything of massive scale during the war. For all of the transcripts, with annotations and explanations by Jeremy Bernstein, I recommend his book Hitler's Uranium Club. Really shows how full of poo poo they were in their post-war claims of having intentionally sabotaged the German bomb effort.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:12
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twistedmentat posted:They also loooooooooooooooove to go on about Aliens and Nazis, which is just more on the pile of pop culture Nazis were actually super cool and superior, rather than a bunch of idiots who were actively working against their own interests at all times out of weird beliefs that anything not German was wrong, and everything German was automatically right. That and killing everyone who wasn't either Aryan or a Torchbearer was going to give Aryan's magic powers. The Nazis did legit go on expeditions searching for religious and occult artifacts, but mostly for really racist reasons.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:17
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The_Doctor posted:The Nazis did legit go on expeditions searching for religious and occult artifacts, but mostly for really racist reasons. Yeah, Hitler really wanted to be able to do magic. He was not a smart man, his one skill was being able to say racist things loudly. Unfortunately being dumb and able to say racist things loudly is a very dangerous combination that appeals to a disturbingly large group of people.
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Apr 8, 2021 02:41
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I watched some doc on Fascism a little while back and they talked a lot about how dumb Hitler was which was honestly something I'd never really thought about. Honestly the parallels between Trump and basically every fascist leader they discussed (this was not the intent of the movie. It was made before Trump was pres and was a dry PBS kind of thing ) was alarming. I don't know why I hadn't really considered how dumb fascists were before that. Basically German equivalents of people riding around with Trump flags on their pickups.
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Apr 8, 2021 03:50
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The_Doctor posted:The Nazis did legit go on expeditions searching for religious and occult artifacts, but mostly for really racist reasons. Also a bunch of people like to claim that Schäfer 's 1938 expedition to Tibet was secretly a Nazi yeti hunt.  There's a freaky fake taxidermy creature in an Italian museum which is allegedly a stuffed yeti that the expedition brought back for Hitler but it's just a Himalayan brown bear with dog teeth. It comes up quite frequently in documentaries and Youtube videos. 
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Apr 8, 2021 03:55
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The_Doctor posted:The Nazis did legit go on expeditions searching for religious and occult artifacts, but mostly for really racist reasons. Yup, they were desprate to prove that Germans were behind everything. They rejected any science that was from a Jewish person or a gay or anyone on their "kill all of them" list which lead to them embracing a lot of wacky rear end ideas. Space Cadet Omoly posted:Yeah, Hitler really wanted to be able to do magic. He was not a smart man, his one skill was being able to say racist things loudly. Unfortunately being dumb and able to say racist things loudly is a very dangerous combination that appeals to a disturbingly large group of people. It was like near the end of the war Hitler was looking for cheat codes to win, either through wunderwaffen or magic or just by murdering a lot of people. Thing is the Occult aspects of Nazism are pretty out there and weren't even largely believed by a majority of people. Hitler was lukewarm on a lot of it, it was mostly Himmler though honestly though that magical artifacts and rituals would bring about victory. He's the one who had all the Nordic symbology brought in, envisioned the SS as a modern order of knights and all kinds of wacky ideas. BTW, I posted some videos from Quinton Reviews earlier and he's got a great one about Bad Nazi Docs and he makes the point that needs to be made all the time that if the Nazis were as brilliant and competent as these docs make them out to be, they would have won the war. He also talks about the Hunting Hitler series and how the people involved are in clear awe of Nazis, and kinda want Hitler to be still alive. Like there is a scene where they get their hands on a nazi coin and are all "OMG A NAZI COIN!". Yea I'm sure those are super rare, it wasn't the currency of a major European nation for 12 years. But the best part, after harassing locals in South America and Spain and when no one wants anything to do with them they claim "these people are scared", is when they get their hands on a man who is said to be Adi Wulf that is actually HITLER. They take it back and put it through MS Paint and say "yes this is totally a picture of an old Hitler". But if you GIS the image its a picture of MOE, the leader of the Stooges. Yes one of the most famous Jewish entertainers in history looks like old man Hitler.
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Apr 8, 2021 04:03
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feedmyleg posted:the enigmatic footprints purportedly left by the Himalyan yeti (recently and convincingly theorized to be solved) Whooo, look what just arrived in the mail this morning:  Culled from the shelves of the Deschutes County public library so apologies to anyone from Bend OR who may have been interested in reading up about cryptid debunkery, it's mine now!
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Apr 8, 2021 04:14
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:Also a bunch of people like to claim that Schäfer 's 1938 expedition to Tibet was secretly a Nazi yeti hunt. The Seig Heil pose is how you know it was a Nazi Yeti 
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Apr 8, 2021 04:39
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The_Doctor posted:The Nazis did legit go on expeditions searching for religious and occult artifacts, but mostly for really racist reasons. Norway actually hid a lot of artifacts, including a vikingsword, from the nazis.
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Apr 8, 2021 05:57
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Asterite34 posted:The Seig Heil pose is how you know it was a Nazi Yeti Oh haha I can't remember if it was Abominable Science or Hunting Monsters but one of those books went into how one of the Nazi scientists in the Himalayas was totally down on the yeti as folklore/misidentified bears ... while he wasn't busy trying to prove the sacred Aryan roots of Germany in a mystic mountain past. Win some, you lose some I guess.
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Apr 8, 2021 06:14
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Alhazred posted:Norway actually hid a lot of artifacts, including a vikingsword, from the nazis. That documentary had the glowing cube thingy they hid.
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Apr 8, 2021 18:35
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I'd prefer it if this thread didn't die so I thought I'd post about one of my favorite motifs from traditional folklore, the ghostly black dog. Most common in British folklore, ghostly black dogs also pop up in the folklore of France, Germany, the Low Countries, North and South America, and even as far away as the Middle East where they're sometimes described as the mounts of Jinn. My personal favorite specific manifestation of the motif is the Shug Monkey of Cambridgeshire, which supposedly has the body of a huge black dog and the face of a monkey. Incidentally, the idea of the ghostly black dog as an omen of death from the Harry Potter series is based on real folklore. I've heard several stories that state that if you see one you have to keep silent about it for at least a year, if you tell anyone before the deadline it will return to kill you. Not really related, except for the canine aspect, but I also enjoy the fact that dog headed humanoid creatures have gone from obscure, mostly ignored Midwestern cryptids like the Michigan Dogman and the Beast of Bray Road to seemingly hugely popular creatures on creepypasta and cryptid youtube channels.
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Apr 12, 2021 09:13
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The Usborne Ghosts book had that wonderfully evocative illustration of Black Shuck, who apparently roams most of Eastern England, but most accounts spring from around Norfolk. I have to assume there's some Shug/Shuck crossover there, considering Cambs is so close. 
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Apr 12, 2021 09:21
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Oh this is kinda sweet, it's like they're resting I picked up Fingerprints of the Gods from the discount rack a long time ago because I thought it was a history book. It's compelling. Hancock goes on about astronomy and the equinox and the possibility of the Sphinx being far older than the pyramids https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_correlation_theory#Leo_and_the_Sphinx I got excited reading about it all, especially as I didn't have internet access or other books to read at the time. But I don't think I ever believed the aliens or the primogenitor civilisation bits. Actually, there's a part where Hancock says a South American stone carving looks like a fellow flying a spaceship, which I thought was rubbish even when I was ready to believe some of the other things  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_Venta_Stele_19_(Delange).jpg
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Apr 12, 2021 09:31
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My first car was a stick
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Not really related to anything, but I've always liked this sculpture, which forms the entryway of Shennongjia Forest Reserve, about 6 hours west of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China. It commemorates a cave that's locally famous as the home of the Yeren, the Chinese version of Bigfoot. I just think it's a cool sculpture.
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Apr 12, 2021 10:32
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bandaid.friend posted:
Wasn't a Incan carving of an "astronaut" trotted out by Von Daniken? A lot of these fringe experts seem to reuse or repurpose each others ideas. Which reminds me of something I read years ago about Von Daniken. A long time ago he was interviewed and asked directly about the truth of his work and research. He gave this slightly cagey answer that there was a tradition in German literature of tall tales, and presenting them straightfaced and with supporting "evidence". He didn't say he was doing that, but ... Makes you wonder if it all started as some sort of unspoken joke and went from there.
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Apr 12, 2021 12:46
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Someone made a short documentary about the town of Evergreen which proclaimed itself to be the Bigfoot Capital of Alabama in 2017, here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60LnoxZkak Small towns have playing up their bigfoot sightings to pull in tourist dollars for many many decades, here's a David Letterman segment from 1978 poking fun at this exact thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tuWa60GbM
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Apr 12, 2021 15:00
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:Someone made a short documentary about the town of Evergreen which proclaimed itself to be the Bigfoot Capital of Alabama in 2017, here's a trailer: Also the plot of the godawful movie Pottersville, for if you ever wanted to see Michael Shannon as a milquetoast nice guy, Tom Lennon doing a bad Australian accent, and Ron Perlman in a fursuit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqf8h5Uip6U
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Apr 12, 2021 15:07
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Oh boy I just found this youtube review for what is apparently the worst bigfoot documentary ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i3jNneYwRI The documentary itself is also on youtube if anyone wants to experience the wonder that is 'Bigfoot Girl' but it's genuinely terrible, the review about it is way more entertaining. The doco is monumentally incompetent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIHb8wDKlMM There's an absolute boatload of bigfoot documentaries out there if people want to dive into them, seems like there's a new lovely doco every week. Amazon Prime has a whole bunch if anyone has an account. If anyone is interested in the neverending avalanche of bigfoot videos that are constantly being posted to youtube then here's a page which has hundreds and hundreds of links: http://squatchable.com/news.asp?page=1 Randomly chosen sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKFgD9QZjGQ
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Apr 12, 2021 16:31
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nonathlon posted:Wasn't a Incan carving of an "astronaut" trotted out by Von Daniken? A lot of these fringe experts seem to reuse or repurpose each others ideas. I'm pretty sure every ancient astronaut idea comes from Von Daniken and Zecharia Sitchin. Graham Hancock's stuff is interesting in terms of the marketing because his publisher made them look like "legit" books. Most supernatural books have cheesy design but his looked like serious pop history books.
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Apr 12, 2021 18:24
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stereobreadsticks posted:I'd prefer it if this thread didn't die so I thought I'd post about one of my favorite motifs from traditional folklore, the ghostly black dog. Most common in British folklore, ghostly black dogs also pop up in the folklore of France, Germany, the Low Countries, North and South America, and even as far away as the Middle East where they're sometimes described as the mounts of Jinn. My personal favorite specific manifestation of the motif is the Shug Monkey of Cambridgeshire, which supposedly has the body of a huge black dog and the face of a monkey. Incidentally, the idea of the ghostly black dog as an omen of death from the Harry Potter series is based on real folklore. I've heard several stories that state that if you see one you have to keep silent about it for at least a year, if you tell anyone before the deadline it will return to kill you. The scandinavian version of this is the gravso (graveyard sow):  It also is an omen of death and is supposed to be extra dangerous if you're carrying a purse made of pig's blatter.
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Apr 12, 2021 20:11
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Groovelord Neato posted:I'm pretty sure every ancient astronaut idea comes from Von Daniken and Zecharia Sitchin. It all starts with HP Lovecraft and then people thinking HP Lovecraft was writing about things that actually happened. That lead to a book called Morning of the Magicians that was written by some French guy who combined that with the 19th century spiritual movements beliefs about Ancient Knowledge from the East that only seems to be discovered by white people. Stichin was able to exploit the fact that very little of ancient Sumerian texts were translated and what was translated wasn't widely available, so he could just make up whataver he wanted and no one could check what he way saying. So it was easy to go "The Annunaki came from Nibiru to mine gold, and created humanity to be their slaves" to be in the Epic of Gilgamesh when In reality its "And Gilgamesh slew the beast Tiamat in the name of Marduk and the blessing of Ishtar". Now that the translations are pretty easy to find you can't do that but they're still promoting it, trusting the lazy and ignorant masses to go "yea that sounds right". Von Danniken does the same thing taking academically known stuff and acting like it was a big mystery because at one point it was a mystery.
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Apr 12, 2021 22:08
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Early in high school I read Chariots of the Gods and a sequel and totally ate that poo poo up. Looking for something similar I ended up reading one called Crash Go the Chariots, which might actually have been the first thing I encountered to push back against all that sort of stuff. I barely remember it beyond the title and I think it might have been a specifically christian attack on those ideas, but even a little "ya know? Maybe it's not aliens" went a long way. But not too far of a long way, because that's also roughly when I read Whitley Strieber's Communion and that stupid book gave me a low key phobia about looking out windows after dark that lasted well into adulthood. a kitten has a new favorite as of 22:55 on Apr 12, 2021 |
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Apr 12, 2021 22:52
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https://i.imgur.com/hGF0IYn_d.jpg
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Apr 12, 2021 22:52
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Please don't post Small Boar. https://i.imgur.com/hGF0IYn.jpg
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Apr 12, 2021 22:57
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Have been watching "Paranormal Caught on Camera" occasionally on the "Travel" channel (somehow morphed into the paranormal/cryptid channel). Probably not a new idea, but if one is an oil prospector, your job is to find oil. Actual oil. If you don't find actual, real oil, you starve to death or find a different job. If your job is "Paranormal Investigator" though, your camera, made-up led thingy, and your computer are your oysters. Lord have mercy, how much do YouTube ads pay these days?
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Apr 12, 2021 23:10
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Knormal posted:Please don't post Small Boar. Thanks. Old iPad and Monday. 
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Apr 12, 2021 23:12
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Otteration posted:Have been watching "Paranormal Caught on Camera" occasionally on the "Travel" channel (somehow morphed into the paranormal/cryptid channel). ones job is to locate and unleash the sleeping essence of the dead to destroy the world the other makes up spooky stories
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Apr 12, 2021 23:35
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Hodgepodge posted:ones job is to locate and unleash the sleeping essence of the dead to destroy the world Yeah, I did like reading the original "Dracula" and would recommend. Gobs of folks probably scarfed it down as real then too, and Bram made some bank too. The circle of life (and death) is endless.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:57
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