MYTH DEBUNKED IN VEGAS: The Alien Perpetrators Resurface with Another Monolith Mystery
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Back on June 16, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced via Twitter that a strange monolith was discovered 16 miles north of the city center.
Naturally, this news sparked some familiar reactions online.
"Extraterrestrial signal," opined Facebook user Tony Johnson. "It's a marker for an interdimensional gate."
"Absolutely a transportation device," concurred Maria Garcia. "I filmed peculiar objects in the sky during dusk, and I have the footage to prove it."
"Alien navigation tool," mentioned Bob Wilson.
Time for some Clarification!
The initial assumption about the newly discovered object - which was removed from the site four days post-discovery due to safety and environmental concerns - is that it was new.
However, according to the online community Monolith Hunter, it had already made its appearance right before Christmas 2020, as confirmed by this YouTube video.
This places it firmly within the period that future historical researchers might refer to as the "Era of Monolith Mania."
The first reported "strange monolith" came from a Utah wildlife agency's helicopter survey team in the deserts of Moab, who happened upon it on November 18, 2020. Interestingly, satellite images from Google Earth suggest it was installed sometime between mid-2016 and October of the same year.
Just a week later, another pillar cropped up in Romania's Piatra Nemat. A week afterwards, one landed atop Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.
What's particularly intriguing about the Las Vegas monolith is that it’s the first, and still one of few, to be found in an urban setting. (Another interesting find was uncovered outside Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop in Pittsburgh, though its creator soon confessed to creating it himself.)
It's also important to note that the image of this monolith circulating in news outlets was taken and shared by the Fremont Street Experience's PR team. Additionally, the structure bore a striking resemblance to a mirror column from Old Navy.
Since 2020, approximately 244 metallic or reflective slabs have been discovered worldwide, as tracked by the online community Monolith Hunter. After peaking in popularity, the number of new additions dropped off, yet continued to appear intermittently.
In March 2021, one was found by construction worker Scott Davies in Powys, Wales. Davies shared a TikTok video of his discovery, claiming it was not there before and that there were no nearby roads, tire tracks, or footprints that could possibly explain any human presence near the structure.
A Hoax of Cosmic Proportions
Similar to the monolith introduced at the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey," the monolith was portrayed as a teaching aid designed by an exceptionally advanced extraterrestrial civilization.
Its purpose was to guide and facilitate human evolution, ushering development in tools, weaponry, and eventually, interstellar travel.
In reality, monoliths are made of stone by definition. The film monolith looked like it was constructed from stone, but for convenience, prop designers used much lighter materials like Plexiglas to depict it.
Since the monoliths that surfaced in 2020 were metallic, they technically don't qualify as monoliths. (Just sayin')
Bitter Disappointment
In December 2020, a video claiming responsibility for removing the Utah monolith was uploaded to YouTube by a group of four Moab slackliners. It showed them taking apart the structure to inspect its composition. Eventually, they handed it over to the federal Bureau of Land Management, who still reportedly possess it.
It turns out, its materials were nothing to write home about - common Earth materials such as metal, wood, and Perspex (shatter-proof acrylic used to manufacture mirrors) were used in its construction.
A majority of scientists do believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.**
Yet, whatever the objects recorded in the U.S Navy's encounters with seemingly faster-than-possible aircraft were, it's extremely improbable that they were constructed by highly advanced extraterrestrials who happened to create replicas of monoliths inspired by 1960s science fiction and manufactured using materials readily available at Walmart.
The Like-minded Conspirators
The monolith in Atascadero, California, was actually the creation of local metal artists Wade McKenzie and Travis Kenney.
According to an interview with the New York Times, the two artists were inspired to produce their 400-pound structure, consisting of a steel frame covered in stainless steel, after reading about the first two monoliths.
In the cold light of reason - utilizing the logical part of your brain (the one that doesn't cross the street to avoid black cats or ladders) - it's clear that human artists were behind the creation of every monolith. They had access to the necessary materials, skills, and, above all, the strongest motive.
Creative souls often give up their comforts and sometimes even their health, for the sake of chasing their artistic dreams.
Few of these talented individuals will get global recognition during their lifetime, mostly after their death, turning their lifework into a prized collection.
Although this realization might seem harsh, it holds a grain of truth that should not be overlooked. Disregarding this fact disrespects the hardships that Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Cézanne faced before they crossed the great divide.
During the Monolith Craze, almost any improvised structure standing in an isolated area could have given an unrecognized artist publicity through the news.
To everyone's surprise, Wade and Travis even made it to the front page of The New York Times!
Debunking Vegas Legends
This marks the 100th Vegas legend we examined for this special series. For all the previous 99 legends, we provided concrete evidence before debunking them. However, for this one, as it's impossible to prove that none of the mysterious metal columns scattered around are of alien origin, the onus of proof falls on those who truly believe.
It's up to them to demonstrate that extraterrestrials constructed, at least, one of these non-monoliths. It's not science's job to prove that its theory doesn't apply to every shining object in the desert.
As science communicator Carl Sagan stated in his 1979 book “Boca’s Brain,” “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Actually, that sentence was first published in a 1975 "Parapsychology Review" article by skeptic Marcello Truzzi as “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.”
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