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cs702 5 hours ago

Originally meant to be aired on April Fool's day, this hoax documentary's broadcast had be moved to a different date, and, as a consequence, many naive viewers thought it was real.

Now, the hoax has taken a life of its own on the Web, with waves of naive people believing its silly made-up claims about scientists working in certain fields mysteriously disappearing.

The hoax has even made the HN front page.

Sigh.

monooso 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In fairness to HN, the debunking made the front page.

0xmattf 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This reminds me of a mermaid "documentary"* I watched as a gullible 15 (?) year old. It aired on Animal Planet, if I'm not mistaken. I thought it was absolutely real. _Mermaids are real_. I used to tell everyone to watch it...

Years later, I found out it was completely fake; the end credits even tell you it's fake (I missed that). I had a hard time believing anything after that realization.

* - Mermaids: The Body Found

giantg2 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Similar thing for Discovery or History channel show about Dragons. It went on about how they could breath fire by eating platinum rich ore from their dens or something. I was very confused - why would an otherwise reputable channel show absolute fiction, and if it was true why wouldn't this be all over the news. Then at the end they said it was fictional. What garbage.

defrost 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

* At least 10 people tied to sensitive US research have died or disappeared https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909942

* Conspiracy about missing/dead scientists from online forums to the White House https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47898228

* Comer and Burlison Seek Information on Missing Nuclear and Rocket Scientists https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877825

* FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858246

afpx 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

As far as conspiracies go, the media seems to be working extra to bury this one.

throawayonthe 4 hours ago | parent [-]

da dum tss

micromacrofoot 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

this certainly reinforces "waves of naive people"