Hm, belief in the existence of Bigfoot is up this year...

Started by JasonPratt, August 03, 2022, 10:48:28 AM

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JasonPratt

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-belief-in-sasquatch-has-risen-since-2020/ar-AA10dHPf?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=12d7014f7a5d466a9b823dbbb27234e2

I suppose the NE region is salted by the proportion of urban dwellers, although the relative percentage has apparently increased more among urbans/suburbanites while rural belief remains about the same as 2020. Interesting that the average spread by region is pretty small, only 15 to 11%.

Also interesting, the level of belief that aliens have visited our planet is a lot higher (on average) than I was expecting.
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Sir Slash

I think this goes along with the over abundance of shows on TV, some of them very sketchy and hilarious, promoting the ideas of the paranormal and the occult. I know, I'm a big fan of them. But you do need to take them with a considerable amount of skeptical thinking, not just blind acceptance. I'm not sure which came first, the shows or the interest in the subjects.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

That's true about having a skeptical eye on the shows (and more generally) -- although sometimes the scepticism cuts both ways! I know someone who was invited to be a guest analyst on one of the shows, who was told by the producer to declare a dark figure walking on two legs up a snowy mountainside to be a bear, when it was obviously a dedicated biped, not a bear waddling on two legs up a 50 degree slippery slope.  ::)

Also, while shows feed the interest, the interest had to be large enough to justify spending cash on the shows to begin with.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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Gusington

I admit that I love a lot of paranormal shows - it's a guilty pleasure for me. And I accept that 99.9% of all their content is total BS. It's that .1% that keeps me going.

But in the back of my brain, things like Bigfoot or ghosts, if real, would have been caught somewhere by some kind of camera by now.

I want to believe!!


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al_infierno

Quote from: Sir Slash on August 03, 2022, 11:59:42 AM
I think this goes along with the over abundance of shows on TV, some of them very sketchy and hilarious, promoting the ideas of the paranormal and the occult. I know, I'm a big fan of them. But you do need to take them with a considerable amount of skeptical thinking, not just blind acceptance. I'm not sure which came first, the shows or the interest in the subjects.

I disagree.  99% of people can distinguish between fiction and reality.  Paranormal and occult TV shows don't promote the belief in paranormal any more than the Lord of the Rings films promote belief in Middle Earth.
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I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
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Gusington

^Some do, like Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures, by claiming a desire to 'debunk' their findings and then narrowing it down to 'this can only be a demon that will eat your face.'

Shows like the above are dressed up as 'documentaries' - but the average person will never notice that they have script writers credited at the end.

Don't give too many people too much credit - I really wonder how many out there do believe that LOTR is history.


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W8taminute

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al_infierno

Quote from: Gusington on August 03, 2022, 12:53:38 PM
^Some do, like Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures, by claiming a desire to 'debunk' their findings and then narrowing it down to 'this can only be a demon that will eat your face.'

Shows like the above are dressed up as 'documentaries' - but the average person will never notice that they have script writers credited at the end.

Don't give too many people too much credit - I really wonder how many out there do believe that LOTR is history.

Good point, I assumed Slash was talking about stuff like American Horror Story but there's indeed a lot of "scientific" schlock out there like Ghost Adventures.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

Gusington

^I LOVE (certain seasons) of American Horror Story. Some just grossed me out.

Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of these shows despite the fact that they are mostly (or entirely) BS.

I have always wondered what, if anything, happens to us when we die. I am terrified that the lights just go out and that's that.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

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Sir Slash

American Horror Stories scares me too much to watch.  ::)  Yes, I was more talking about the, 'Reality' paranormal shows and Bigfoot hunts that never seem to find any. They are portrayed as being realistic but almost always end without evidence, convincing evidence anyway. But I do still like them, but just more as entertainment. A few shows do try to find actual answers to unexplained events, and do often enough, as well as admitting the things they cannot explain. I like those best. But nothing beats a team of Hill Billys out hunting monsters with weapons at night!  :2funny:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

Quote from: Gusington on August 03, 2022, 12:36:31 PM
But in the back of my brain, things like Bigfoot or ghosts, if real, would have been caught somewhere by some kind of camera by now.

Not sure about ghosts (also easier to more convincingly fake or mistakenly interpret visual glitches); but there's an ever-increasing ton of (apparent) Bigfoot film/video footage, and new biometric analysis methods for checking the footage -- and the footprints, both recent and (in casts) going back to the 50s. (Photos, too, but not being movements those can be a lot easier to fake.)

Still a lot of chaff to burn through, and it's interesting watching the detectable hoaxes get more detailed along the way. It's possible that hoaxers have started learning how to fake a mid-tarsal break in active foot structure for example, but up until very recently hoaxers wouldn't have even known to try for that, much less be able to do it. On the contrary, footprint analysis has now started catching people as 2nd level hoaxers, falsely claiming to have faked footprints using methods which would absolutely not have worked to create the results! (Leaving aside how the original results were created in the first place, but definitely not those ways.)

But even the classic Patterson/Gimlin footage has a lot going for it in modern scientific analysis.

Worth noting that most of this analysis is NOT being done by the paranormal shows; and when they try, they often goof it up. A recent example was an episode of some show (I forget which) using LIDAR to scan the Bluff Creek area where the "Patty" figure was filmed, in order to work out geometrically the height of the figure, arriving at a conclusion of normal human height: a little over 6'. That's fine in principle (and doesn't necessarily prove a suit, though it allows a human-sized suit in theory of course); but the show didn't take into account a bunch of factors about where the current position of debris would be, compared to the 1960s footage, to verify whether or not the debris they were using to plot scale for the figure had moved, so its resulting calcs had to be invalid.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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Sir Slash

Locally here in rural SW Fla. there are many Bigfoot stories from hunters and ranchers who swear they are real and present. However nobody ever brings one in on the hood of their truck. I keep thinking if these people were aware of the monetary value of even a dead Squatch, they'd forget deer and hogs. This makes me more skeptical that the stories aren't real. But I keep an open mind.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

My (step-)grandmother on my Dad's side used to tell us stories when I was a kid, of dealing with occasional skunk ape raids and encroachment on their ranch (at the time) near Tampa; her timeframe would have been late 1950s to mid 60s maybe.

Mom made her stop, and told us firmly that Grandma liked to lie to us because she thought it was amusing; which to be fair to Mom, was plausible for that Grandma. ;) Still, she was clearly interested in the topic because she had a very impressive collection of paperback books for the late 1970s! (Our surprise at discovering this was what triggered the tales.)

The only detail I remember of the stories, was of them taking shots (rifle or shotgun, don't recall) at a tall ape lumbering off at a fast stride, after they caught it visiting one of the nearby stock areas (goats, chickens, can't recall) in the twilight after sundown. The detail probably sticks with me due to the stride-away, not running, which is typical for many stories. Also typical (even stereotypical nowadays) of the Patty film of course, which may be where she got that detail in making up her story, assuming she made it up. Still, Patty wasn't being shot at (with a gun, only with a camera), and most people, especially back then, would dramatically imagine the figure running away from being shot, not doing a casual fast-stride. Running isn't unheard of (even in other film footage -- there's some interesting recent footage of running and even leap-bounding figures from Russia for example), but fast striding is more common (including in other film footage).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

#13
My great grandmother, who spent her youth in Galway in the 1890s, was very serious about the "little people." They were not be mentioned or trifled with. She once scolded me for making a leprechaun paper doll for St. Patrick's Day. Making fun of them might bring "mischief" she said; after all how do you think the little guys get all of that treasure to put under the rainbow?

Probably a good thing that she died before "Lucky Charms" became a thing.

Before TV there were hearths and campfires where these stories were told; now we have the 'History' Channel and YouTube. So sure!  Why not Bigfoot?
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Quote from: Gusington on August 03, 2022, 12:36:31 PM
I admit that I love a lot of paranormal shows - it's a guilty pleasure for me. And I accept that 99.9% of all their content is total BS. It's that .1% that keeps me going.

But in the back of my brain, things like Bigfoot or ghosts, if real, would have been caught somewhere by some kind of camera by now.

I want to believe!!

Oh, that's me too; if it's not a history podcast, it's a paranormal podcast that I'm listening to while I'm working.