Bigfoot in a Freezer: Don't Get So Excited
R. Lee
August 22, 2008
Uber sketpics are currently undergoing a false series of euphoric episodes. Elated at the idea the Bigfoot community has been duped, fooled, and shown to be the nutjobs and gullible morons they believe them to be, they're pontificating en mass about the latest Bigfoot hoax.
Namely, Tom Biscardi, and what I call "Team Rickmat"Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two Georgia hunters who "found" a dead Bigfoot body deep in the Georgia woods. The cop with the bandaged hand. Those guys. As if we didn't know.
So calm down mega-skepties, it's not the joyful day you think it is. No one that counts in Bigfoot research believed this for a second, though some held out hope -- an extremely thin, almost invisible slice of hope -- that it could be for real. How about that; reserving judgement until the results are in? What a concept.
I admit I clung for to that nebulous bit of hope myself for a brief few moments, only because someone I trust -- Micah Hanks of the Gralien blog -- has a personal relationship with Biscardi. But overall, the story reeked from the beginning, and part of that was the sordid history of some involved, like Tom Biscardi.
Even if some Bigfoot researchers naively held out for a bit that, well, it could be the real thing, could be, maybe, couldn't it? --- that doesn't mean Bigfoot researchers are dumb, stupid, lame, idiots, or any of the other insults uber skeptics can't resist flinging.
It certainly doesn't mean Bigfoot doesn't exist. For those of us that accept the evidence as strong, supporting the very likely possibility Bigfoot exists, this sad hoax nonsense hasn't changed that. More to the point: for those who've actually seen a Bigfoot, well, no stupid hoax is going to change the fact they've seen a Sasquatch. For the hard core "real" scientist, proof is not a collection of data and anecdotal stories, it's a dead body. Fine. But most of us aren't scientists, and here's something that must be faced, must be dealt with head on: what do you do when you know someone, maybe a loved one, a close friend, who is adamant that they saw this creature? I've been faced with this very thing. People I know, I trust, I work with, I'm friends with, who I know are well familiar with the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, who spend their lives camping and hunting, insist they've seen a Bigfoot. Really, we only have a couple of choices: accuse them of lying or abruptly developing a mental illness that causes them to see things in the woods, or they're telling the truth. I prefer the latter.
All this hoaxing has made it harder for everyone genuine, everyone sincere and honest, the real researchers, to get back to work. It wasn't a fun, silly prank, it was a sick and stupid thing to do, it was a greedy, sleezy, cheesy thing to do.
The good thing about this is a reminder that Trickster is alive and well in all that is Forteana (something uber storage skeptoids don't get -- at all) and we should have expected this. Even me, who was, and is, disgusted. The whole thing put me in a bad mood; I'm still not over it. (Meaning the whole sordid thing to begin with, not that "Bigfoot isn't real." Calm down.)
It's also a little reminder that skepticism is a good thing. Don't fall down in a fainting fit yet; I mean real skepticism, not the brand the klassturian pathological skeptics wear so proudly on their little dried beans they call hearts.
Get over it skeptoids. No one got fooled, Bigfoot isn't "dead," -- nothing to see here. You can put the keg and tiki lights away; there's no party tonight.
Namely, Tom Biscardi, and what I call "Team Rickmat"Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two Georgia hunters who "found" a dead Bigfoot body deep in the Georgia woods. The cop with the bandaged hand. Those guys. As if we didn't know.
So calm down mega-skepties, it's not the joyful day you think it is. No one that counts in Bigfoot research believed this for a second, though some held out hope -- an extremely thin, almost invisible slice of hope -- that it could be for real. How about that; reserving judgement until the results are in? What a concept.
I admit I clung for to that nebulous bit of hope myself for a brief few moments, only because someone I trust -- Micah Hanks of the Gralien blog -- has a personal relationship with Biscardi. But overall, the story reeked from the beginning, and part of that was the sordid history of some involved, like Tom Biscardi.
Even if some Bigfoot researchers naively held out for a bit that, well, it could be the real thing, could be, maybe, couldn't it? --- that doesn't mean Bigfoot researchers are dumb, stupid, lame, idiots, or any of the other insults uber skeptics can't resist flinging.
It certainly doesn't mean Bigfoot doesn't exist. For those of us that accept the evidence as strong, supporting the very likely possibility Bigfoot exists, this sad hoax nonsense hasn't changed that. More to the point: for those who've actually seen a Bigfoot, well, no stupid hoax is going to change the fact they've seen a Sasquatch. For the hard core "real" scientist, proof is not a collection of data and anecdotal stories, it's a dead body. Fine. But most of us aren't scientists, and here's something that must be faced, must be dealt with head on: what do you do when you know someone, maybe a loved one, a close friend, who is adamant that they saw this creature? I've been faced with this very thing. People I know, I trust, I work with, I'm friends with, who I know are well familiar with the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, who spend their lives camping and hunting, insist they've seen a Bigfoot. Really, we only have a couple of choices: accuse them of lying or abruptly developing a mental illness that causes them to see things in the woods, or they're telling the truth. I prefer the latter.
All this hoaxing has made it harder for everyone genuine, everyone sincere and honest, the real researchers, to get back to work. It wasn't a fun, silly prank, it was a sick and stupid thing to do, it was a greedy, sleezy, cheesy thing to do.
The good thing about this is a reminder that Trickster is alive and well in all that is Forteana (something uber storage skeptoids don't get -- at all) and we should have expected this. Even me, who was, and is, disgusted. The whole thing put me in a bad mood; I'm still not over it. (Meaning the whole sordid thing to begin with, not that "Bigfoot isn't real." Calm down.)
It's also a little reminder that skepticism is a good thing. Don't fall down in a fainting fit yet; I mean real skepticism, not the brand the klassturian pathological skeptics wear so proudly on their little dried beans they call hearts.
Get over it skeptoids. No one got fooled, Bigfoot isn't "dead," -- nothing to see here. You can put the keg and tiki lights away; there's no party tonight.
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