Graham Hancock's "Ancient Apocalypse" Nonsense

[Orphia Nay]

Jack of Twitter fame endorsed this series last week, embarrassing himself, and ensuring a new generation falls for Graham Hancock's pseudoscientific nonsense.

Couldn't find a thread on it, and thought we should have one in the public section.

I was into debunking Hancock about 20 years ago, and fear I may have to write something up. Anyone found any good debunkings to save me the effort?

 

[junkshop]

I can't vouch for the quality, but the quantity is impressive.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

It's a name I had not heard for a long time. Apparently he has a wonderful new "documentary" on Netflix.

It has has been received loud cheers from the loony science deniers. General approbation with those with brains.

The BBC TV Horizon show, Atlantis Reborn Again, is apparently a pretty good take down of Handcock's "theories" but I'm having trouble finding a site that will play it for me in Canada.

 

[Puppycow]

The Ancient Absurdities of Ancient Apocalypse

 

[Orphia Nay]

The Ancient Absurdities of Ancient Apocalypse

Thanks, I was just reading that. I like this bit:

"Oddly enough—and I know journalists might bristle at what I say—Wikipedia is the very best source. It’s maintained by nerds, and archaeology Wikipedia is maintained by archaeology nerds, and the articles on it are good! I have a feeling they’ll get even better because of this series, because people will want to make sure the information is in there for viewers who may be Googling it."

 

[Stout]

Jack of Twitter fame endorsed this series last week, embarrassing himself, and ensuring a new generation falls for Graham Hancock's pseudoscientific nonsense.

Couldn't find a thread on it, and thought we should have one in the public section.

I was into debunking Hancock about 20 years ago, and fear I may have to write something up. Anyone found any good debunkings to save me the effort?

Just watch it yourself and do your own debunking, it's a fun game. I've been watching this, it's well made, and going to university of Google just to see what Hancock is making up. Today it was Bimini Road as his offering of proof that the stones were artificially leveled is especially hilarious.

Not only did I not know Göbekli Tepe even existed I just had to question Hancock's claim that it was artificially buried, which turned out to be true.

Think of it as entertainment, like Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real

 

[Orphia Nay]

Just watch it yourself and do your own debunking, it's a fun game. I've been watching this, it's well made, and going to university of Google just to see what Hancock is making up. Today it was Bimini Road as his offering of proof that the stones were artificially leveled is especially hilarious.

Not only did I not know Göbekli Tepe even existed I just had to question Hancock's claim that it was artificially buried, which turned out to be true.

Think of it as entertainment, like Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real

You make it sound fun! The annoying part is when you have to convince someone with logic when they don't accept logic.

 

[theprestige]

The annoying part is when you have to convince someone with logic when they don't accept logic.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've had to convince someone with logic when they won't accept logic, and still have five fingers left over.

I guess maybe if I were imprisoned by a totalitarian state, and my interrogator was trying to prep me for a show trial, and my best and final hope lay in subverting his loyalties... Nah, I'd still use emotion and bias, with a thin veneer of logic, in that case.

What exactly is your situation? Are you Lady deWinter, trying to convert jailer Felton to your cause? Your efforts seem rather desultory, for a "have to" scenario.

 

[Stout]

You make it sound fun! The annoying part is when you have to convince someone with logic when they don't accept logic.

It is fun, the researching part that is however it would be a lot of time and energy to put together your own arguments as to why Hancock's basic premise of a super race travelling the world teaching people how to carve stone and pile up rocks is pretty stupid.

I haven't looked but I highly suspect Jason Colavito will take this series apart down to a molecular level like he did with America Unearthed.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

The Ancient Absurdities of Ancient Apocalypse

There's a scary little bit in that where Hoopes, the archaeologist being interviewed, describes being leaned on by his university management to remove a negative review he wrote on Amazon of a book on Atlantis because of some vague threat (he says he thinks there was a threat of legal action, which is why I say vague...).

 

[Vixen]

Jack of Twitter fame endorsed this series last week, embarrassing himself, and ensuring a new generation falls for Graham Hancock's pseudoscientific nonsense.

Couldn't find a thread on it, and thought we should have one in the public section.

I was into debunking Hancock about 20 years ago, and fear I may have to write something up. Anyone found any good debunkings to save me the effort?

I love Graham Hancock's books but I am always conscious that it is fantasy-based.

Thinking outside of the box. Good reading.

 

[Darat]

There's a scary little bit in that where Hoopes, the archaeologist being interviewed, describes being leaned on by his university management to remove a negative review he wrote on Amazon of a book on Atlantis because of some vague threat (he says he thinks there was a threat of legal action, which is why I say vague...).

Interesting to learn after all these years - were I'd hoped he fallen down the back of a sofa and was being lauded and praised by a lost tribe of sofa fluff - that he has pretty much dropped Atlantis and the "white" from his early super civilization - looks like he can learn after all.

 

[Hans]

Interesting to learn after all these years - were I'd hoped he fallen down the back of a sofa and was being lauded and praised by a lost tribe of sofa fluff - that he has pretty much dropped Atlantis and the "white" from his early super civilization - looks like he can learn after all.

Yes he took a lot of heat for those 'missteps' originally he located his lost civilization in Antarctic then around the Atlantic and in his last book he placed it in North America with native Americans and not white people.

Near the end of said book - which is the basis for the netflix series he stated

“My speculation, which I will not attempt to prove here or to support with evidence but merely present for consideration, is that the advanced civilization I see evolving in North America during the Ice Age had transcended leverage and mechanical advantage and learned to manipulate matter and energy by deploying powers of consciousness that we have not yet begun to tap.” Graham Hancock, America Before

 

[Trebuchet]

Apparently I've been fortunate in never having heard of him. But he's got a page at RationalWiki.

 

[catsmate]

Jack of Twitter fame endorsed this series last week, embarrassing himself, and ensuring a new generation falls for Graham Hancock's pseudoscientific nonsense.

Couldn't find a thread on it, and thought we should have one in the public section.

I was into debunking Hancock about 20 years ago, and fear I may have to write something up. Anyone found any good debunkings to save me the effort?

I mentioned it in the Jordan Peterson thread, as the cranks are attracted.

 

[Stout]

Yes he took a lot of heat for those 'missteps' originally he located his lost civilization in Antarctic then around the Atlantic and in his last book he placed it in North America with native Americans and not white people.

That's where the series ends up, in the Channeled Scablands of southeastern Washington state. There's a comet driven flood apocalyptic scenario, worthy of any one of those countless world ending apocalypse videos circulating out there in the world. Then the survivors, people of this supposedly super advanced civilization make it to the coast, build or jump on boats then decide to sail the seven seas and alight on foreign shores and introduce themselves with something like. "Hey guys, want to learn some really cool stuff"?

He says about a hundred times that this is a hypothesis he believes in and backs it up with traditional/ancient/Indigenous lore and the opinion of a few independent researchers.

As "conspiracy theories" and junk science go, the show is just kind of meh, whatever it doesn't hold a candle to the antivax crap.

What's hilarious is The Guardian, who obviously didn't watch the show raising the alarm about how DANGEROUS this show is and shrieking about NAZIS!.

Lol, Guardian.

 

[sackett]

He says the Atlantinoids were deeply, deeply spiritual people. Not just one deeply, b'god.

Has he identified any shallowly spiritual peoples? Or medium-deep spiritual? Maybe deep enough for swimming but No Diving?

 

[angrysoba]

Just watch it yourself and do your own debunking, it's a fun game. I've been watching this, it's well made, and going to university of Google just to see what Hancock is making up. Today it was Bimini Road as his offering of proof that the stones were artificially leveled is especially hilarious.

Not only did I not know Göbekli Tepe even existed I just had to question Hancock's claim that it was artificially buried, which turned out to be true.

Think of it as entertainment, like Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real

 

[Norman Alexander]

His family motto is: "FOR THE MONEY!"

 

[Lithrael]

He spent a good few minutes of his snake mound episode shouting censorship for not being allowed to film there, which I found a bit odd. I tried to google the issue but couldn’t come up with much. Public parks usually give film clearance if you jump through the correct hoops (whether or not you are a loony) and I couldn’t figure out any background for the letter he quoted in the show.

Mostly I was just annoyed that he kept saying mainstream anthropology is suppressing ideas about these sorts of sites possibly having astronomical significance, when every time I read about them, scholars are proposing possibilities for astronomical significance.