Our world is full of hoaxes these days.
An insurgency of these started back in 2016. Yes. That is when the big trouble began. When I speak of this windfall, I mean we all heard the word “hoax” come out of the president’s mouth on a daily basis.
In all the presidents before that time, we simply had straightforward views of the world and a high regard for journalism. And. Today, for the record, we still do, for the most part. Most major networks report the facts as they happen. However, I have noticed a lot more “editorial” type remarks from “desk” reporters.
A “hoax,” as defined, is “a humorous or malicious deception,” per the folks at Webster.
However, since 2016, the word “hoax” has taken on a meaning closer to “lie.”
“Lie,” by definition, is “an intentionally false statement.”
Regardless, prior to eight years ago, our world saw the occasional hoax. Maybe the biggest was Orson Well’s “War of the Worlds” broadcast in 1938.
But another occurred some 100 years earlier. That is when “The Great Moon Hoax” was published in the “New York Sun.”
Yes. It is the truth. Hard to believe, but on August 25, 1835, the NY Sun began a series of six articles. The series, was solely created to announce the supposed discovery of life on the moon.
Known collectively as “The Great Moon Hoax,” the articles were said to be reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The byline was Dr. Andrew Grant. Grant was described as a colleague of Sir John Herschel, a famous astronomer of the day.
According to the story, Herschel had, in fact, traveled to Capetown, South Africa, in January 1834 to set up an observatory with a powerful new telescope. As Grant described it, Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon. The “species” there included such fantastic animals as “unicorns, two-legged beavers and furry, winged humanoids resembling bats.” The articles also offered vivid descriptions of the moon’s geography, which included “massive craters, enormous amethyst crystals, rushing rivers, and lush vegetation.”
From the day the first moon hoax article was released, sales of the paper shot up considerably. It was exciting stuff, and readers lapped it up.
The only problem was that none of it was true.
The truth was this. The Edinburgh Journal of Science had stopped publication years earlier. And this guy “Grant” was a fictional character. The articles were most likely written by Richard Adams Locke, a Sun reporter educated at Cambridge University.
The whole thing was intended as satire. The articles were written in order to poke fun at a popular science writer named Thomas Dick. He had written about speculations about extraterrestrial life. He had claimed in his bestselling books that the moon alone had 4.2 billion inhabitants.
Anyway, readers were completely taken in by the story. But there was one small problem. They failed to recognize it as satire. The craze over Herschel’s supposed discoveries even fooled a committee of Yale University scientists, who traveled to New York in search of the Edinburgh Journal articles.
After Sun employees sent them back and forth between the printing and editorial offices, hoping to discourage them, the scientists returned to New Haven without realizing they had been tricked.
On September 16, 1835, the Sun admitted the articles had been a hoax.
People were generally amused by the whole thing, and sales of the paper didn’t suffer.
So. You see. People will swallow anything whole. That was true 200 years ago. And it is still true today. You would think that in the 21st century, we, as a human race, would be smarter. But people still believe the Earth is flat. They still think that NASA is just making movies for us to watch, and that astronauts do not travel into space. And they still believe dumb things like the supposed “stolen” election in 2020.
Stay tuned, folks.
More stupidity is on the way.
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“Hoaxes are the handiwork of people who are skilled at weaving illusions and are often driven by a desire for attention or gain.” — Anthony Miller
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“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” — Charles Baudelaire
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“In the age of information, ignorance is a choice, and hoaxes thrive on it.” — Peter Grant
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The hoaxes. And how they come. And when.
