The Anti-Hoax

This is a deconstruction of a type of disinfo with which many members on this site aren't familiar and/or comfortable:

The easiest way to spot a certain type of hoax - the better-written, "new-agey," feel-good (fictional) alien encounter spiels in particular - is to look for (in either the OP or early enough in the thread) words along this line: "I'm not trying to prove anything..., but I feel that some people will find this type of encounter interesting..." Something WILDLY understated, in other words. They manage to subliminally or subconsciously get the truth in in that way. Real human reaction to such high fabulousness, IF any desire to publicize it to begin with, is to be as convincing of its authenticity as possible.

It's that plain old honest realization-connection that not all of one's readers are gullible. It's just common courtesy and respect. It's knowing that enough people know that total fiction can, with enough skill, be made to sound factual.

The hoaxer will definitely never say anything to this effect: "People, I swear, as any invisible telepathic being is my mind's witness, and may fire ants eat me alive if I'm lying or misleading, that I'm telling the truth." That's of course assuming the story teller can't provide any corroberating evidence. If I had my own website, I'd force everyone with a story of high strangeness to agree to a similar oath of truthfulness (barring evidence) before posting.

Unfortunately the web has become, to a significant enough extent, the new idiot box.

star and flag for you.

we need all the logical, critical thinkers we can to balance out the faith-based true believers here who care not about facts or proof when it comes to ufo's, psychics or faeries...

good on you for helping light the way.

[edit on 19-5-2009 by DohBama]

reply to post by Dean Goldberry


I totally agree. I for one do not believe in anything until i have experimented on my own or have the answer from within. If we believe, our mind is dominated by another mind. I do not let that happen. Thanks for your post.

Yeah... the hoaxers tend to use such simple psychological tricks to make their stories sound more legit. It works really well on ignorant ones and especially well on those "true believers", the ones who don't need any proof to believe anything..

[edit on 19-5-2009 by DGFenrir]

Most people say they aren't trying to prove anything because they have no evidence, and they don't want to be bombarded with requests for evidence. They come outright and say, "Hey, I have no evidence, and I'm not going to try to proof this - how can I? I have no evidence!"

If they were really hoaxers and wanted to fabricate evidence it's not hard to make a blurry picture or blurry video and throw in some artifacts to make it look like it all could be what they are hoaxing.

The hoaxer will definitely never say anything to this effect: "People, I swear, as any invisible telepathic being is my mind's witness, and may fire ants eat me alive if I'm lying or misleading, that I'm telling the truth."

Okay then, how about a combination of what you think reveals a hoaxer and what reveals someone telling the truth:

"I swear to MY GOD, MY FAMILY and MY LIFE, to ALL THINGS GOOD in the world, that I AM telling the truth; however, I have NO EVIDENCE so I WILL NOT TRY to prove anything. Do not ask me to prove anything. I'm just posting this because people might find it interesting, even though I have no evidence I SWEAR TO ALL THINGS HOLY that this is the truth!"

edit to add:

I've been a guest here for a long time, and finally decided to join up. I've also had experience with UFO's and at least witnessing what may have been an Alien. I've also seen a ghost on two occasions.

Should I be prepared to have my thread labeled a HOAX and be ridiculed up and down?

[edit on 19-5-2009 by Illuminatus I]

I am a fervent believer in seeing things for myself.
Unless I have seen or experienced something myself, I will always look at stories with an aire of skepticism.
As such, if I have a story to convey, I would expect the like from anyone listening to it. That would only make sense.
Hoax or not, It is nearly impossible to tell the truth or not, especially in this day and age of fakery and misdirection.
If I were to experience, oh let's say a close encounter of some kind, rest assured, the last place I would come to find answers is here.
While that may seem ill advised, if such a thing actually happened I would rather be anonymous.
I would seek the appropriate channels should I feel threatened.
Other channels still, should I feel like sharing.
Like it or not, something of magnitude, is something that must be handles delicately.
I may not even have the chance to do anything about it, before someone else does. You know what I mean.

So, more or less, anyone that has stories to tell, true or not, will always be stories, but somewhere in the back of my mind will always exist the possibility of them being real.

By the way, I have personally had a few stories to tell here, and I must say, that it is absolutely maddening, to have something to honestly say, and be interrogated. Proof not withstanding, I will in the future include the following:

"Put aside the burden of proof for a moment and assume that what I am describing is real, How should I proceed?"
That pretty much sums it up for me.
I would believe that more than, "Hey!! Look at me!!!, I am an alien!!!!"

l8r