Legendary Times said:
We are a strange society. The moment people in "authoritative" positions make a statement, the general masses accept it unquestioningly.
What frightens me to death is that you actually trust them that THEY will tell YOU the truth! Do YOU really think that they will volunteer the truth to the public? THEIR entire research branch is at stake!
What the heck happened to us as a society? Have all of us really become lemmings? It sure looks like it! Haven't you ever seen the movie V For Vendetta? You probably also think that this movie is great entertainment and merely based in fantasy.
Really? You're comparing the AIA to the oppressive, Nazi-like baddies from a movie? I mean, I can see that you may see them that way from your point of view, but they probably see you and the other supporters of the, uh, Classic Ancient Astronaut Theory as a bunch of wackos who pick and choose "mysterious" sites and artifacts throughout, and conclude an extraterrestrial influence . . .effectively taking a sledgehammer to Ockham's razor. I can imagine the mutual animosity. It just seems a little trite to compare them to a totalitarian government. Kinda like showing yourself dressed up like Indiana Jones for a 30 second montage beginning of your youtube videos, to be followed with claims that the Nazca lines were runways built for extraterrestrials and whatnot without any in-depth look at why the mainstream theories pointing to the identification of aquifers and the like are so woefully inadequate. I would think of some semblance of scholarly gravitas and objective thought would be more convincing, but maybe it would bring in less views.
Look, I agree that often we as a populace accept unsubstantiated claims too swiftly. The big example that comes to mind for me is the Bosnian pyramid debacle from a couple years back. Because it hit the big media networks before I had heard anything about it, I myself was initially intrigued by the story and did not question its' validity until the debunking scientists arrived.
But with all due respect, the ball is in your court. There's the majority of the archaeological community . . . and then there's the pseudoarchaeologists--the Ancient Astronaut Theory guys, the Atlantis guys, the dudes who think the lost tribe of Israel came to prehistoric Missouri and became the Mandan Indians, and so on. You may not like that label or the fact that everyone outside the mainstream is lumped together under such a label, but it's the label you have. And with such a label, you need to come up with a gigantic amount of evidence more than the "Pacal the Astronaut" sarcophagus lid and other similarly vague clues to get any credence from the educated community. I acknowledge the idea to question everything you read and hear, but I'd like to add that some things need to be questioned a lot more than others, and I think what is generally accepted to be "pseudoarchaeology" falls into the "needs to be questioned a lot more" category.
I can't possibly imagine that this rant/post will change your worldview nor shake your belief in any way, but I thought I'd regurgitate out my "sleep-deprived, recent college grad" opinion anyway. Utterly switching gears (and tone, for that matter), I listen/fall asleep to Coast to Coast AM just about every night and find it totally awesome that you've been on there.