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A new Bigfoot documentary helps explain our conspiracy-minded era
- analog8374 7mo agoWhy are explanations so popular? You gotta wonder.
- emp17344 7mo agoSupposedly exposes the Patterson-Gimlin film as a hoax, which is a big deal in the Bigfoot community.
- cogman10 7mo agoIMO, that was done years ago. If you look up that film stabilized [1], it becomes really apparent that it's just a guy in a ape costume. The shaky camera is the only thing that makes it harder to determine what's going on. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPlRr_OfxZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPlRr_OfxZI
- MyHonestOpinon 7mo agoIt makes me a little bit sad, I knew it was very unlikely, but I still had hopes just because it would be so cool to find that big foot is real.
- adzm 7mo agoRead the comments on that video to see how many conclude the opposite!
- Braxton1980 7mo agoIs the number of people high enough to make them right? For example if one doctor says I have cancer but 100 electricians say I don't I'm cancer free
- dylan604 7mo ago9 out of 10 experts agree. It's that last one. That one person is just enough for people to latch on. Then, of the 9, 6 of them get tired of yelling at clouds and quit. The 6 get replaced with those that believe the one so that there's not 7. That goes on for long enough, you get people in charge that do away with vaccinations and measles has a come back.
- AnthonyMouse 7mo agoThat's not actually how the measles thing happens. What really happens is that the one nutter stands in the town square ranting about lizardmen and 99.99% of people ignore him, or an actual scientist gets bored and challenges him to a debate and then lizardmen guy gets trounced and further discredited, and everything is fine. Until someone with an authoritarian streak gets tired of winning debates with lizardmen guy and instead tries to shut him up, or starts suppressing data that doesn't actually support the crazy theory but is kind of inconvenient or complicated to explain. Then you're screwed because you're letting the conspiracy guy point to an actual conspiracy to suppress his views, which provides evidentiary support for the claim that their crazy theory isn't mainstream because it's being suppressed. Meanwhile you get free speech defenders concerned about a bad precedent coming out to oppose you, and then political lines get drawn over something that never should have been partisan, but now everyone is expected to pick a side. And a lot of people end up on the side of lizardmen guy. But once it's partisan, people are hopeless at being neutral. If you're on lizardmen guy's side then you're giving him the benefit of the doubt and on the lookout for any fault in his critics, which is how you get way too many people actually believing in lizardmen. The problem is fundamentally that censoring something discredits you rather than them.
- aleph_minus_one 7mo ago> That's not actually how the measles thing happens. > What really happens is that the one nutter stands in the town square ranting about lizardmen and 99.99% of people ignore him, or an actual scientist gets bored and challenges him to a debate and then lizardmen guy gets trounced and further discredited, and everything is fine. My observation (in Germany) is rather that many antivaxxer (and sceptics of forced measles vaccination) read the scientific literature quite deeply, but come to very different conclusions. Additionally, they often have marked "live and let live" personality traits, which authorities do not like. Because of their deep intellectual investment in this topic, they often have a much deeper knowledge about the whole topic than working doctors. The only people who are real counterparties for them are actual respected scientific experts on the topic. While these are clearly even more knowledgeable, these actual experts fear the well-read antivaxxers because the latter - love to show gaps in the whole theoretical frameworks, - ask really annoying and interesting questions - etc.
- garciasn 7mo agoIs it? Because plenty of other hoax-based bullshit, like Flat Earth Conspiracy Theorists and those who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old continue on in their bubbles regardless of how much evidence is provided to the contrary.
- vscode-rest 7mo agoThere’s no possible evidence against so called “last Thursdayism”, so you are certainly misrepresenting the state of affairs.
- jfengel 7mo agoThere's nothing wrong with Last Thursdayism. It's unfalsifiable. You're welcome to hold it. Most people find that it's more complicated to work with, since it requires a vastly more complicated set of initial conditions. But if you find that it works for you it isn't actually wrong.
- default-kramer 7mo agoWhat's strange is that many people who believe in a Mature Creation (as I've heard it; "Last Thursdayism" is new to me) will readily accept it as the explanation for ancient starlight but then deny evolution and claim that the fossil record is actually evidence of the biblical flood. Which is an unnecessarily weak position to take when you have already accepted a perfectly unfalsifiable cop-out! The truth is that most of them don't want to think too hard about it.
- foxglacier 7mo agoOf course. It's not about being reasonable, it's chasing some emotional need that's unrelated to the truthfulness of the belief. But keep alert for the faith-based beliefs you yourself might find yourself defending with flimsy logic too. It's easy to get sucked into the belief that since all the authorities you respect tell you something is true, then it must be, and you don't have to bother much with how valid your justification is because you already believe the conclusion. A good self-test is asking yourself how you know the Earth isn't flat. Don't do any research, just try to work it out from what you've already observed and think what makes you believe that conclusion.
- joenot443 7mo agoI think the biggest thing in question when the Patterson film is discussed is who actually made the (supposedly) Hollywood-quality ape suit. Sounds like this doc might have a real bombshell though - > “Capturing Bigfoot,” premiering this week at the South By Southwest film festival, builds to a big reveal: freshly surfaced film that appears to show a woodsy dress rehearsal for one of the world’s most enduring hoaxes. In the new footage—from a Kodak reel dating to 1966—Patterson’s camera tracks a man in costume, his brother-in-law, moving in a similar fashion to the figure in the 1967 shoot This would be a pretty nice conclusion, to be honest.
- davidw 7mo agoThere's a Bigfoot trap in Oregon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot_trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot_trap I wonder if it gets a mention? It does get a mention in the recent Bruce Campbell movie https://www.ernieandemma.com/ https://www.ernieandemma.com/ - which looks to be even more poignant with his recent cancer diagnosis :-(
- darepublic 7mo agoObviously Bigfoot is too smart to fall for those traps
- jstanley 7mo ago> The trap's door has been bolted open since 1980 for visitor safety. "visitor safety" indeed!
- inkcapmushroom 7mo agoThey were baiting it with carcasses! Everyone knows Bigfoots are vegans and prefer chai soy milk lattes.
- aziaziazi 7mo agoAs soy is a nut, the chai soy milk lattes may have work. He's an Omnivore, not a Necrophage: > Bigfoot are omnivores, "They eat both plants and meat. I've seen accounts that they eat everything from berries, leaves, nuts, and fruit to salmon, rabbit, elk, and bear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot
- aaron695 7mo ago[dead]
- zyxzevn 7mo agoPhysics is needed to fully understand the demolition of 3 towers..
- II2II 7mo agoFunny story there: I was stuck with a conspiracy-minded high school teacher who insisted that some sort of flash lower down in one of the towers was proof of a demolition. I got fed up with listening to it each day, so I calculated how long it would take a shock wave to propagate through steel, from the crash site to the flash below. It pretty much worked out.
- nullorempty 7mo agoCongrats. You solved the puzzle.
- noman-land 7mo agoWhat was the teacher's reaction?
- II2II 7mo agoFrom my recollections, not much. I was on a practicum in his classroom, so it was different from the usual teacher/student dynamics. It was a great teachable moment though!
- aleph_minus_one 7mo agoConsidering how many surveillance laws were passed in the USA after 9/11 (independent whether it was a terrorist attack or some controlled demolition) and wars were started on Afghanistan and Iran (the latter having nothing to do with Al-Quaida or the attacks on 9/11), it should be obvious that at least from the political side there is/was a hidden agenda: - Conspiracy theory view: Some buildings were demolished. Politics seizes the opportunity to pass surveillance laws and start two wars. - Non-conspiracy view: Some terrorist attack event happened (but every actuary can give you estimates on how often such an event is to be expected, so nothing surprising here), so politics seized the opportunity to pass surveillance laws and start two wars. The only difference between these perspectives is what happened the three towers and some part of the Pentagon building to collapse.
- axiolite 7mo agoWhat does bigfoot have to do with conspiracy? Doesn't bigfoot qualify as folklore/urban legend/pseudoscience/hoax/mythology? Is there widespread belief the government is actively covering up its existence for some reason? Nothing in the linked story explained it. Did someone make a whole documentary and couldn't get the most basic info right? Or did the reporter mangle the article write-up?
- tokai 7mo agoCryptozoology is pretty big in the conspiracy mediascape.
- smohare 7mo ago[dead]
- phendrenad2 7mo agoI'm pretty sure almost everyone who believes in UFOs also believes that bigfoot is some kind of alien. So that's a lot of people.
- mikert89 7mo agoI used to look down on conspiracy theories, now I think many are actually true, or are mixed with truth. Its really unlikely that a theory circulates widely but has no basis in reality
- mkoubaa 7mo agoThey're all on a spectrum between flat earth and Epstein didn't off himself, with some clustering at either end
- BatFastard 7mo agoWasn't Epstein a conspiracy theory once? Epstein cover up has made me believe that cover ups DO happen, and if this one was covered up, what else has been cover up?
- mkoubaa 7mo agoIt still is, and it is plainly a true conspiracy. Hence its placement at the top end of the spectrum. What else has been covered up? Oh boy...
- andrewflnr 7mo agoI don't understand the Epstein thing. In particular, I don't know why everyone doesn't agree "Epstein had help offing himself". That's the most natural inference from the evidence I'm aware of, and also satisfies the conspiracist urge for drama. Everyone should be happy with this, but I've hardly ever heard anyone else put it forward. What am I missing?
- lp4v4n 7mo agoA few years ago, the "tinfoil hat crowd" had this absurd claim that Ghislaine Maxwell was a reddit powermod: https://www.vice.com/en/article/incoherent-conspiracy-suggests-ghislaine-maxwell-is-a-powerful-redditor/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/incoherent-conspiracy-sugges... The article above is from 2020, and later the FBI itself used the user maxwellhill as evidence in Ghislaine's investigation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Epstein/comments/1qsf6y6/reddit_post_by_user_maxwellhill_used_as_fbi/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Epstein/comments/1qsf6y6/reddit_pos...
- Detrytus 7mo agoConspiracy theories arise from the natural tendency of human brain to look for patterns even where there are none. That being said, nowadays it seems that a difference between conspiracy theory and confirmed fact is 12-24 months
- zdw 7mo agoGiven that a large portion of the population has a HD or higher quality camera in their pocket most of the time these days, most cryptid style conspiracies seem pretty well debunked at this point.
- Animats 7mo agoMandatory XKCD.[1] [1] https://xkcd.com/1235/ https://xkcd.com/1235/
- stevenhuang 7mo agoIf the phenomenon is itself intelligent..
- Supermancho 7mo agoThe documentary does not, in fact, help explain the conspiracy zeitgeist. Human nature has been reason enough through modern history. This MSN "article" seems oddly out of place on HN.
- garte 7mo ago> This MSN "article" seems oddly out of place on HN. Maybe there's something sinister going on: I suspect the shoe sole industry what with these huge foots and all. It'd make sense since Covid people are walking less. Maybe the sole industry caused the lab leak? I'm just asking questions.
- Animats 7mo agoThere are more conspiracies. Here are some well-verified ones: - Epstein and way too many important people. - The big one from the 1970s onward to increase the return on capital by lowering living standards, the "Powell memorandum".[1] That's the founding document of the modern conservative movement. - Facebook/Meta being behind schemes for age verification.[2] [1] https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/ https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/ [2] https://techoversight.org/2025/07/29/bloomberg-meta-google-lobbyists-fight-to-pass-the-buck-on-kids-online-safety/ https://techoversight.org/2025/07/29/bloomberg-meta-google-l...
- gdulli 7mo agoI wouldn't say that Epstein is a vindication of conspiracy theories, at least not the "Bigfoot" type. Epstein was already in trouble with the law for trafficking over 20 years ago. The pedophilia in the Catholic church was known decades before that. It's shameful that these stories didn't get more attention sooner, but the general veracity of them wasn't in question. The prototypical pedophilia conspiracy theory we didn't believe at all is the Comet Ping Pong one, which was appropriate.
- vintermann 7mo ago"Bigfoot" isn't inherently a conspiracy theory. If you say that bigfoot exists, you're wrong, but not necessarily a conspiracy theorist. To be a conspiracy theorist, you also have to posit a grand conspiracy to conceal the existence of bigfoot. If you posit a conspiracy that only involves a few people who could plausibly coordinate to conceal the truth, that's also not a grand conspiracy, and we don't call people conspiracy theorist for believing in regular, everyday criminal conspiracies.
- throwup238 7mo ago> If you say that bigfoot exists, you're wrong, but not necessarily a conspiracy theorist. I’m not sure if “I’m just a cryptozoologist” is much of a vindication.
- antognini 7mo agoIn a similar vein I highly recommend Behind the Curve, which is a documentary about the flat Earth movement. It was a pretty fair film and tried to get to know the people involved in the movement and what it was that motivated them. It was interesting to see that one of the main figures featured in the documentary started out pretty generically wanting to get into conspiracy theories and started reading up on one after another until he found a particular one that clicked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve
- mukmuk 7mo agoSomewhat relatedly, there is a pretty plausible theory that some “find the Yeti” expeditions were in fact cover for operations by my country’s intelligence services to sabotage China. See e.g., https://topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/the-secret-history-of-bigfoot-and https://topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/the-secret-history-of-... (Btw the general idea that there are animals that we don’t know about is not remotely far-fetched. A new possum genus was discovered like a month ago.)
- razorbeamz 7mo agoBigfoot proposes the idea that there are animals we do know about, but just haven't found proof of, which is a little more farfetched.
- darkwater 7mo ago> (Btw the general idea that there are animals that we don’t know about is not remotely far-fetched. A new possum genus was discovered like a month ago.) I might be totally mistaken but I think most of the times when a new "species" is found is either a) some different genus which a non trained eye would not be able to distinguish from an existing one, or b) some species that lives only in a very difficult to reach place with some very specific conditions (i.e. underwater near volcanoes). Something so different with so many "sightings" as a Bigfoot? Almost impossible.
- mukmuk 7mo agothe word general in italics was intended to read as “in contrast to this”...
- IAmBroom 7mo agoFinding a variant type of possum is not at all the same as Nessie surfacing in front of humans for the first time in a century, or a bipedal ape on a decades-long walking tour, unseen.
- technothrasher 7mo ago> Nessie surfacing in front of humans for the first time in a century Wait, are you implying that Nessie used to surface in front of humans?
- metalman 7mo agoJust because someone is paranoid, does not mean that conspiracy's to do them harm go away. Capitalism is rapidly moving towards an open establishment of techno/fuedalism, or at least trying very very hard, but as usual it's the end game that tends to fail in these ill concieved plans. And running populations in circles to speculate about yeti, bigfoot, aliens, atlantis, and variations on the rapture, has served for millenia, but the end of scarcity is adding a new twist,hence the dusting off of old tabloid's in an act of desperation.
- irenetusuq 7mo ago[dead]
- Bender 7mo agoWhat happens when the majority of people assume anything that looks like bigfoot is some person in a hairy suit and then a scientist creates a human primate or monkey chimera hybrid for the purpose of harvesting human organs and it escapes? Do game departments and law enforcement ignore all the calls? Are we allowed to capture and tame it? Would it be treated as a human or a monkey? Does it get human rights or animal rights? Do the answers change if it speaks English?
- butlike 7mo agoThe organ harvesting purpose implies that the monkey chimera would have higher-order intelligence, right? Or are we to assume the organ harvesting is of the "rip and tear" variety as opposed to the "precision" variety? How very sad. The monkey chimera was fluent in English, but got subdued in India.
- johnea 7mo agoObviously, bigfoot hasn't been seen again because he went back to his UFO...