You can’t fix stupid
Two men were found dead in a remote forest while searching for Sasquatch, also commonly known as Bigfoot, according to authorities in Washington State.
The two men from Portland, Oregon, were found dead after a three-day search was launched on Christmas Day after a family member reported that the pair had not returned from a trip to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to search for proof of the mythical hairy, forest-dwelling, bi-pedal primates.
See that’s just pointless. Not even a hike in the forest for the sake of a hike in the forest, but a hike in the forest in hypothermia-friendly weather for the sake of “finding evidence” of something that doesn’t exist.
The search involved over 60 volunteers searching with aircrafts and dogs in heavily wooded terrain and brutally-cold weather conditions, the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. “Both deaths appear to be due to exposure, based on weather conditions and ill-preparedness,” the statement said.
That’s a lot of people and dogs and resources put to work to search for people who had no good reason to be there in the first place.
Weather conditions in the Cascade mountains had been frigid in the days before and during the search, which included snow, freezing rain and temperatures falling below freezing.
So, if there were a Sasquatch, she would be hidden away somewhere avoiding the freezing rain, and evidence of her existence would be even harder to find than it usually is.
Rescuers also had to battle high water levels in rivers and fallen trees.
To search for two guys who thought it was the perfect time to lose themselves in the woods.
Would you volunteer for this rescue effort?
How many fans of Sasquatch, Yetii, the Loch Ness Monster, etc., realize that they are not simply positing the current existence of an individual, but the existence over time of an entire population, as well as the ecosystems upon which and within which they would have lived for countless generations. Not that this is entirely impossible or unprecedented; a number of whale species have been discovered relatively recently (though the fact that we came close to wiping out so many species of them before we knew much of anything about them makes this less surprising than it might appear at first). But human-size primates living in the Pacific Northwest of the US? A plesiosaur in a Scottish loch? Yetis in the Himalyas? Not bloody likely. Forget the blurry photos, bad movies, and “footprints”. By now, least some of their number would have long ago been turned into hunting trophies.
It seems clear that the two men were poorly-prepared for their expedition, and that lack of preparation and experience led to their deaths. I can’t imagine why anyone would think such a journey is trivial, but I guess you don’t always know what you don’t know.
Lots of people go fishing with little or no intention of catching fish. They like being out by the water. I have no way of knowing if these two men used the Sasquatch hunt as a justification for a pleasant walk in the woods, just as “fishing” might be a justification for a fruitless trip to the river. Given their lack of experience, probably not.
@Sackbut
Except that their indulgence in magical thinking was quite likely what led to their ill-preparedness. If you make a habit of ignoring reality in order to pursue your fantasies, ignoring reality will itself become a habit. And when reality kicks back you will be entirely unprepared and left surprised. Or dead.
Respect for reality needs to be instinctive – below the level of rational thought. What lies on top is another matter. That’s why religions have been able to survive and flourish. But these people are rational to the core, which in this case, means stupid to the core. They seek the “evidence” but since their stupidity leaves them with no idea what might count as evidence they just run around in circles looking stupid, or in this case they become the evidence (of stupidity) itself.