Sasfooty is either crazy or lying or both. There is no nuance about it.
If you read the pinned thread at BFF it seems fairly obvious Brian Brown is making the **** up as he goes. It is, in his words, a total lie.
Ketchum it is now obvious was a scam from the beginnning, bilking a fool out of hundres of G's.
The BF world is rife with hoaxes and money plays.
Just what is so complex about the world of BF?
I did not say such elements do not exist in Bigfootery. What I said is that you can not reduce the entire phenomena to lies, mental impairment, or money motivations. To do so is to "refute" it or "explain" it too easily.
I do not know Sasfooty but I do not think she is experiencing what she claims, or thinks, she is.
I have challenged Brian Brown at BFF myself. I know what he is claiming. If he is lying, then shame on him. Reading what he claims to have experienced in his own words, I am more inclined to believe
he believes. He is a Believer, and that makes him blind to certain obvious explanations for what he is experiencing.
Likewise, Ketchum may be a scam artist, or another true believer who is blind to what the data tells her, and what hoaxers have shown her.
I would like to emphasise this: True Believers gravitate to what validates their beliefs. This is true of Bigfoot enthusiasts, devoutly religious people, political junkies (Fox News, anyone?) and so on and so on. This is one level of complexity that is ignored when you reduce the issue to lying, nuttiness, or money grabs.
Another level of complexity is the formation and continuance of folkloric beliefs. I used to think cryptozoology was valid and should be formally declared a branch of zoology. Now I see it as neo-folklore, a creation of a new bestiary to replace ancient beliefs in dragons, unicorns, and the like. If modern knowledge and understanding have not killed off fanciful bestiaries, then there may be an innate need to believe in monsters. This added complexity is not even entertained or considered if you reduce the issue to lying, nuttiness, or money grabs.
I think most Bigfooters are motivated by discovery. They think they are part of an intellectual and physical pursuit that will lead to advancing our knowledge of the world. They are fooled, I think, by the apparent grounding of the phenomena in the element of wild life and nature. As an imagined natural event, Bigfoot is almost palpable compared to ghosts, UFO's, and other more mystical things. One would get no sense of this part of the Bigfoot story if it is reduced to lies, nuttiness, and money grabs.
