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Why So Many Americans Believe in Bigfoot
MSN ^ | 2/19 | Laura Miller

Posted on 02/24/2024 9:09:28 PM PST by nickcarraway

John O’Connor’s The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster is a work of mourning. Bigfoot, as O’Connor, a journalism professor, illustrates, is thriving—if by “Bigfoot” we’re talking about the legend of Sasquatch and the communities that have sprung up to seek out the hairy, towering primate said to lurk in the depths of America’s few remaining old-growth forests. It’s that Bigfoot, the symbol, who, O’Connor argues, flourishes and does so because of how much we’ve lost. This Bigfoot is a black armband commemorating everything from the environmental devastation wrought on the continent to the dearth of solitude and quiet available in contemporary life to … the decline of the white working class? Yes, even that.

Before I moved to rural Maine, I regarded Bigfoot as a strictly Pacific Northwest phenomenon. Then a sublimely daffy Facebook group called Unexplained Maine informed me that quite a few Mainers believe Bigfoot stalks the forests of northern Maine, including the Hundred-Mile Wilderness, the last and wildest stretch of the Appalachian Trail. (“There’s nothing but trees for miles and miles up there,” a neighbor told me after driving through the area. “And that’s when you realize that too many trees can drive you insane.”) O’Connor hits the Hundred-Mile Wilderness on his cross-country tour of Bigfoot hotspots, soaking up lore from a grizzled hiker about Bigfoots that are said to have devoured some early European explorers. This man even claimed that Geraldine Largay, a hiker who starved to death in the wilderness in 2013 after wandering off the trail and getting lost, had been kidnapped by Bigfoots as a food source. “Why would they starve her before eating her?” O’Connor asked, but his source just moved on to the next hair-raising yarn.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Hobbies; Pets/Animals; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: bigfoot; cryptobiology; godsgravesglyphs; johnoconnor; lauramiller; sasquatch; skepticultists
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To: 21twelve
...and it gets dark on me it is easy to conjure up thoughts of Bigfoot! (And cougars.)

I’ve had the feeling that I was being followed out of the woods, but there was no sound...and a couple of times, I turned around and waited.... Small owls were following me. I was on game trails. I guess they were hoping I’d bump some rodents along the trail. They probably follow deer and elk, too.

41 posted on 02/25/2024 5:29:24 AM PST by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: nickcarraway

Homo sasqachious......... a sceptics view is that there is no reason to disbelieve that another Homo genus species besides sapiens exists in the habitable wilderness areas of the world.


42 posted on 02/25/2024 5:34:18 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Hamascide is required in totality)
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To: BradyLS

43 posted on 02/25/2024 5:34:27 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide
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To: nickcarraway

Maybe growing up watching the NFL it doesn’t seem all that unlikely.


44 posted on 02/25/2024 5:47:15 AM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: nickcarraway
But the Bigfooters, much as he vibes with many of them, also trouble O’Connor. They are almost all “old white guys, young white guys, middle-aged white guys.”
In spite of the source (slate), it's lefty writer and the lefty author of the book, I'm sure the book has its merits. /s
45 posted on 02/25/2024 6:09:40 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: nickcarraway

You may not believe in Bigfoot, but Bigfoot believes in you.


46 posted on 02/25/2024 6:19:07 AM PST by Flag_This (They're lying.)
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To: Dr. Franklin

I have always believed in Bigfoot because there was a creature called Gigatapithacas(sp?)in Asia.
So, it seems reasonable that it could have crossed the Bering Ice Bridge prior to real global warming 12M years ago.
Just like the native Americans did.

What I question is now EVERYONE has a game camera. They are cheap.
There are literally millions of game camera all over North America.

I personally have pictures of deer, coyotes, black bear, racoons, porcupine, bobcat, etc.
Others in NH have pictures of mountain lions.
Yet the NH Fish and Game states there are none living here. Maybe they only pass through on their way to NYC.

My point, is how come there are not dozens of Bigfoot pictures on game cameras?


47 posted on 02/25/2024 6:21:35 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: nickcarraway

Color me skeptical with respect to Bigfoot. Spoor. There are Hunter trackers in this world that would spot the signs easily. They wouldn’t t ever need to actually see the animal.


48 posted on 02/25/2024 6:22:53 AM PST by TalBlack (I We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: nickcarraway

47 posts and not ONE picture of Mooch.
Maybe because it’s Sunday morning.


49 posted on 02/25/2024 6:24:54 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: nickcarraway

Because the “history Channel” has devolved into the bigfoot-ghost busters channel.


50 posted on 02/25/2024 6:27:44 AM PST by pfflier
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To: nickcarraway

Bigfoot is more realistic than FJB getting 81 million votes!! 🤣


51 posted on 02/25/2024 7:04:18 AM PST by Deplorable American1776 (Guns don't kill people, LIBERALS DO!! Support the Second Amendment...)
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To: nickcarraway

People love to believe in weird unprovable things. I remember reading Ivan T. Sanderson’s books on Bigfoot in the early 1960s along with books about visitors from Venus and seeing books on the Lost Continent of MU.


52 posted on 02/25/2024 7:17:02 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: woodbutcher1963
What I question is now EVERYONE has a game camera. They are cheap. There are literally millions of game camera all over North America.
I personally have pictures of deer, coyotes, black bear, racoons, porcupine, bobcat, etc. Others in NH have pictures of mountain lions. Yet the NH Fish and Game states there are none living here. Maybe they only pass through on their way to NYC.
My point, is how come there are not dozens of Bigfoot pictures on game cameras?


They are probably less likely to be found in more densely populated areas of human habitation. They likely need for forest for living than deer. Also, having such pictures, and having them all posted on the Internet are two different things. Here's a trail cam photo from Maine of something huge gathering apples:



Why would someone have pictures and not share them? People may be afraid of being mocked or accused of faking the picture. Others may think they can sell the image for cash, and so not post it for free, or be afraid of people coming on to their property to look for Bigfoot. Government employees may be afraid of retaliation or lack of advancement if they share things contrary to the official line that these are all just bears walking on two legs.
53 posted on 02/25/2024 7:45:46 AM PST by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Dr. Franklin

*They likely need for forest for living than deer...


54 posted on 02/25/2024 7:48:08 AM PST by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: nickcarraway

Senator Fetterman.


55 posted on 02/25/2024 7:50:42 AM PST by Andy from Chapel Hill (Wind energy windmills remove the energy from the wind, which causes global warming.)
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To: Berosus

“We’ve seen enough footprints and fuzzy pictures, so if you want us to continue believing, show us the body!”

If a hunter were to kill one, would the prison time he could expect be worth the financial gain from interviews and book sales?


56 posted on 02/25/2024 9:08:07 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!)
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To: Mogger

Lack of photos is an issue with these creatures and UFO aliens.

All it takes is just one good photo, just one!


57 posted on 02/25/2024 9:59:15 AM PST by Rennes Templar (Come back, President Trump.)
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To: Rennes Templar
Lack of photos is an issue with these creatures and UFO aliens.
All it takes is just one good photo, just one!


Many will never believe it unless they can see one in a zoo, and that won't happen for a number of reasons.

58 posted on 02/25/2024 11:58:19 AM PST by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: nickcarraway

Because they’re abject failure at critical thinking.


59 posted on 02/25/2024 3:23:39 PM PST by Paal Gulli
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To: nickcarraway

Whenever I hear he term “Big Foot,” I am remined of a somewhat embarrassing incident from my younger days. I was dating a Chinese girl from Duke U. Sitting in her visitors’ room, another Chinese women there said, “Americans have big feet (ducks), (Mei Kuo Ren you da Yah-tse.).” I knew enough Chinese at the time that my reaction showed I understood, and she immediately apologized that she didn’t realize I could understand.


60 posted on 02/25/2024 4:12:19 PM PST by Hiddigeigei (.)
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