Wednesday 19 June 2024

"I Faked the Miami Aliens!"

 
See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/01/have-aliens-invaded-miami.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-footage-of-miami-aliens.html.
In my skeptics talk I bring up something I call "the CTCS- conveniently told confession story". Even though debunkers demand constant and detailed explanations for every claim made supporting any woo-woo subject, when a claim is made that supports their own position they instantly and instinctively accept it as fact without a moments hesitation or investigation. They never even use the word "claim" when referring to a CTCS; they say instead that it was "revealed", "proved" or "admitted". The notion that a confession can be falsified never occurs to them; even if you show them actual examples. Source: https://youtu.be/HpDqus5lsqo?si=NCwrFgG3TGxPGHli&t=7393. It is not often you get to watch a CTCS manifesting in real-time. Anthony Po is somebody I'd never heard of before. He runs a YouTube channel about himself playing various practical jokes on people; and a couple of weeks ago he posted a fifteen minute video entitled I Faked An Alien Invasion In Florida. In it he delivers a presentation to a live audience of his fans, all two dozen of them, in which he claims responsibility for the Miami aliens story, in which reports of strange beings were seen in a shopping centre in Miami, USA on New Year's Day, see background links above. He says that all the witness reports on social media were his own sock puppet accounts. He then tries to pull off more hoaxes with the help of a guy called Travis and Laura Banks, a minor actress from the '80's who is trying to promote her autobiography. The follow up tricks are more elaborate involving fake aliens, men in black, UFO's and crash-retrievals. The pranksters then go on to arrange a street demonstration, a "protest for truth!", a comedic equivalent of this one, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuaLed7Jnu4. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s9oZtvOoRE. These antics never made the news in a big way. That makes it very different to the Richard Branson's, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/12/bransons-ufo-hoax.html. I personally don't think Anthony had much of an influence on the incident in Miami and I'm not really annoyed at him. I think all he wanted to do was have a little bit of fun at the expense of social media users. What does annoy me is that the debunkers are now going to pick this up and run with it like a sprinter. They will swallow his Miami story hook, line and sinker. As I say in my skeptic talk, those who think themselves the most rational people in the world can be highly irrational.
See here for additional background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2024/01/epsteins-list-miami-aliens-livestream.html.
And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I personally think the 'take away' point from this 'confession' is proving how easy it is to fake UFO/Alien claims, not how easy it is to confess to faking anything.

Just like making a claim if someone confessed they are obliged to show how they fooled everyone which in this claim seems to be the case unless we are all missing something?

I'm reminded of the 'Cottingley Fairies' photographs that despite being faked and a confession some folks still adamantly refuse to accept.



Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Anon, I don't think it proves that because he did NOT fake the Miami aliens and he himself admits he is just a contributor to the creative chaos of the situation. The quote in the title is not a quote from Anthony. People who confess to hoaxes generally do not face demands for explanations.
The Cottingley fairies are a strawman because it's obvious they were faked long before the confession. You can even see by the waterfall in the background, one is a long exposure shot and the fairies are obviously pieces of paper. Today, nobody could get away with that, but in 1915 there was still this misconception that the camera could not lie. Another cultural reason for the ease of credulity was the Great War which was raging at the time. People were depressed and pessimistic for the future. They clung onto anything that might cheer them up.