Seeing Cryptids: The Problems

[Mudcat]

Those "townhall" meetings are on the damn TV show, so yeah, they're owning up to it.

Finding Bigfoot townhall meetings don't count in my mind. How many of those witnesses are ringers seeded by the show? How many of those people that raise their hands actually 'seen' a Bigfoot? They only relate the stories of a relative handful on the show and 'investigate' two or three of those.

 

[Resume]

Finding Bigfoot townhall meetings don't count in my mind. How many of those witnesses are ringers seeded by the show?

They count. They're LARPing, but they count.

How many of those people that raise their hands actually 'seen' a Bigfoot?

None of those people have because no one has.

They only relate the stories of a relative handful on the show and 'investigate' two or three of those.

You mean they LARP.

 

[Mudcat]

They count. They're LARPing, but they count.

I'm not sure ringing (is that the right term?) is the same as LARPing. Is it?

None of those people have because no one has.

Well no one has actually seen a Bigfoot, because they don't actually exist, but some have definitely 'seen' them.

You mean they LARP.

No I don't mean that. If the RP in LARP is supposed to mean "role play", then what the Finding Bigfoot does isn't that since role playing isn't about misleading people.

 

[Resume]

No I don't mean that. If the RP in LARP is supposed to mean "role play", then what the Finding Bigfoot does isn't that since role playing isn't about misleading people.

Okay, they're BLAARGing.*



*Bigfoot Live Action Alternate Reality Gaming

 

[Resume]

Well no one has actually seen a Bigfoot, because they don't actually exist, but some have definitely 'seen' them.

I'd like to address this "seen" thing. A glimpse of fur or shadow isn't seeing anything; if you identify that as bigfoot, you're already being dishonest.

You're making **** up.

 

[William Parcher]

I'm not sure ringing (is that the right term?) is the same as LARPing. Is it?

Pretending to believe is still pretending to believe even if somebody asks or pays you to do it.

If the RP in LARP is supposed to mean "role play", then what the Finding Bigfoot does isn't that since role playing isn't about misleading people.

Yes it is if the role is that you are a believer or witness when in reality you are not.

 

[Resume]

The film school dropouts on Ghost Adventures are playing the role of ghosthunters. Inevitably each week, one of the three is possessed by some entity or the other. The intent is to deceive, much as it is on (not) Finding Bigfoot though if you asked the cast members of either program, they will express belief. Except for Renae on FB. Wait, she claims to believe in "spiritual bigfoot."

 

[Dinwar]

No I don't mean that. If the RP in LARP is supposed to mean "role play", then what the Finding Bigfoot does isn't that since role playing isn't about misleading people.

Calling looking for Bigfoot LARPimg is akin to calling creationists Creotards, or Catholics "bull worshipers"--a childish way to attack the people involved without addressing any substantive point.

 

[The Shrike]

^I'd call the substantive point the recognition that when engaging with bigfooters a sizable proportion of them are not likely to be honest with you in expression of their beliefs. Spend about 10 years mixing it up with the folks at the BFF and you'll see this too.

 

[tsig]

Calling looking for Bigfoot LARPimg is akin to calling creationists Creotards, or Catholics "bull worshipers"--a childish way to attack the people involved without addressing any substantive point.

Calling others childish is a childish argument.

ETA: what substantive point is not being addressed?

 

[AlaskaBushPilot]

Is that a problem?



Probably not as long, chronologically speaking, as some of the other posters here but I have been for a while.

Fine then. Just bring us an example of what you say. Your best one.

My belief is that you don't have one in mind. This is entirely based upon speculation rather than reading the alleged encounters themselves.

Right?

 

[Dinwar]

^I'd call the substantive point the recognition that when engaging with bigfooters a sizable proportion of them are not likely to be honest with you in expression of their beliefs.

This does not make it a LARP. This makes it fraud or simple dishonesty, depending on the conditions. Calling it LARPing is false, misleading, and does nothing to advance any aspect of the discussion. It is no different than calling them any other names: a childish taunt. You may as well call them boogerbreeath; the two are equally valid.

You are correct that the fact (if it is one, I simply don't know) that many Bigfoot advocates do not seriously believe Bigfoot exists, but at has nothing to do with the term under discussion in this sidebar, except that the term obfuscates and marginalized that point.

 

[snoop_doxie]

I don't often wear cologne. Could you start a cult instead? k, thx.

Yeah, I don't wear cologne at all. Cult works much better.

 

[Castro]

Calling looking for Bigfoot LARPimg is akin to calling creationists Creotards, or Catholics "bull worshipers"--a childish way to attack the people involved without addressing any substantive point.

Do you prefer the term pretending? The comparison with creationism and catholicism looks slightly disproportionate to me. Bigfootery is roughly a mix of a big joke and a con game and doesn't deserve to be taken too seriously imo.

 

[snoop_doxie]

Do you prefer the term pretending? The comparison with creationism and catholicism looks slightly disproportionate to me. Bigfootery is roughly a mix of a big joke and a con game and doesn't deserve to be taken too seriously imo.

Yes, I do not see Bigfootery as a religion. Or as important as religion is to some, like it was to me at one time.

Bigfoot is complete BS.
The term we have been using here is BLAARG not LARP.
BLAARG is Bigfoot Live Action Alternate Reality Gaming.
I think it is very effective at describing the phenomena of Bigfoot and the
people playing the game.

Grown people acting as if Bigfoot is real, but they all know it is not real.
For some, it has turned out to be a way to make a living.
For others it seems to have led them down a dark road.

 

[Mudcat]

Fine then. Just bring us an example of what you say. Your best one.

I work with a man at school. To protect his identity I shall call him 'Steve'. He is former military, former police, former corrections officer, former hunter, and current conceal carry gun owner.

The story he relayed to me, as best as I can recall, is as follows:

It was August of 2003 and he was taking one step of the last hunting trips he would ever take. He was tracking deer into a clearing, but instead of that he saw something else. Something quite unexpected. A stone's throw away, standing over a fresh deer kill, was a Bigfoot.

It was tall, literally larger than life, bulky, and covered in saggy hair that was brown in color.

In disbelief he took a double take... And saw it was really another hunter in a ghillie suit.

This is entirely based upon speculation rather than reading the alleged encounters themselves.

Right?

I won't dispute that it's speculation but as speculations go it isn't as cold as the speculation is that they're all lying, or worse. Wouldn't you agree?

 

[Resume]

Calling looking for Bigfoot LARPimg is akin to calling creationists Creotards, or Catholics "bull worshipers"--a childish way to attack the people involved without addressing any substantive point.

It's not an attack; it describes exactly what many are doing. I've observed it in the paranormal community and I see it in the bigfoot community. You're the one not addressing a substantive point.

 

[Resume]

I work with a man at school. To protect his identity I shall call him 'Steve'. He is former military, former police, former corrections officer, former hunter, and current conceal carry gun owner.

The story he relayed to me, as best as I can recall, is as follows:

It was August of 2003 and he was taking one step of the last hunting trips he would ever take. He was tracking deer into a clearing, but instead of that he saw something else. Something quite unexpected. A stone's throw away, standing over a fresh deer kill, was a Bigfoot.

It was tall, literally larger than life, bulky, and covered in saggy hair that was brown in color.

In disbelief he took a double take... And saw it was really another hunter in a ghillie suit.

A hunter didn't recognize a ghillie suit?

BTW, wearing a ghillie suit during gun deer season is a good way to get yourself dead. And is illegal (in most states) without a certain amount of blaze orange. Story doesn't ring true.

 

[The Shrike]

Dinwar, LARP or BLAARG as we're more often using with respect to Bigfoot are not pejoratives. These terms represent our attempts to most accurately represent what many/most enthusiasts are actually doing. They're not childish taunts just because you say so.

 

[Resume]

Dinwar, LARP or BLAARG as we're more often using with respect to Bigfoot are not pejoratives. These terms represent our attempts to most accurately represent what many/most enthusiasts are actually doing. They're not childish taunts just because you say so.

The terms are an attempt to describe observed enthusiast behavior beyond the entrepreneurial hoaxing, odd attention whoring, and those in obvious need of medical help.

This certainly isn't a position I came to on a whim but after much careful thought as to what is going on with folks that seemingly go to lengths in pursuit of a cryptid for which there is no reliable evidence, where there should be much.

These terms aren't perfect.