Monday, July 26, 2010

Behold a Pale Horse: Hoax in the Internet Age

The Internet appears to be the perfect medium for anyone wanting to create a splash in the paranormal field, make money or have a few laughs the old fashion way: Hoax!
In the old days (pre-internet) you had to write a book or an article, get published and manage to create a buzz, a process which took months at best, and then it  took someone else whole years to debunk, if ever.
Now this can happen in a matter of days.

The case reported in length by forgetomori is the case of a UFO over Hanghzou, China disrupting flights and generally being seen.

image

As the author states, the image is clearly a long exposure of an airplane, seen many times before. It didn’t take long for others to start posting similar images, allegedly from the same incident, and even videos, all fake, all crap.

The sad part is just that: Anyone with a minimal knowledge of a given subject and a basic knowledge of the Internet can muddy the waters, create a stir, point to all the wrong directions and generally fuck up a potential investigation, devaluating evidence and witnesses and making the whole thing look ridiculous.
Any pimple-faced teen can do that, just for the stir, the limited fame, the rants, the flames..

Or not?

You know where I am going with this. If there was a debunking section of any Government, that is what they would do. It used to take them time and effort and lots of actors. Now they just need some guys over computers. Or maybe not. They can just rely on the random idiot who will think it’s a good idea to post an image of a night light in his bedroom and label it as a UFO. There are lots of those out there. 
If you are the Guy Who Wants It Kept Secret, you can just wait. Truckloads of morons will do your work for you. When they are finished, anyone seriously searching for evidence will not know which way is up.. Unless of course you start to see a pattern.

Ah, the price we pay for the Freedom that is the Internet. 

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