Wyoming Crack and the Art of the Freak Out

[Cannot think of a name]

So. An interesting thing happened if you're into geology. A crack in the Earth opened up in Wyoming and we know why, because we're smart and shit.

An engineer from Riverton, WY came out to shed a little light on this giant crack in the earth. Apparently, a wet spring lubricated across a cap rock. Then, a small spring on either side caused the bottom to slide out. He estimated 15 to 20 million yards of movement.

But we live in an information age. Which, sometimes, is a bit of a misnomer. Because a regular ol' geological explanation, where's the fun in that? Because I'm not into geology as much as I am the way information, misinformation, and stories spread in the modern world. I came across this story, then, in the best possible way--finding out it was trending on Facebook. I found the perfectly reasonable explanation buried under what was a gold mine of utter nonsense, of which highlights I present to you here, I can't figure out how to link to these people's facebooks because I don't know any of them and am not facebook friends with them, so it's all copy/paste.

It's not a spring, it's the revenge of the Native Americans!

Giant "crack" appears in the earth near Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains 750 yards long by 50 yards wide. Great sacred Native Indian site violated by the gov't for prospectors wanting gold 165 yrs ago. Mother Earth is now in a state of revolt. Prepare for more news elsewhere as humanity pays the price.

No, it's the Super Moon!:

"With a large coronal hole incoming (earth facing), Super moon, incoming Asteroid 2015 TB145 (due to flyby at 300,000 miles from earth) and its trailing meteors it will certainly be interesting and when I say "Interesting" I mean scientifically that an uptick of quakes, meteor showers, and volcanic instability will be quite present. The effects have already started on the West coast and Northwest with a rise in seismic activity and an extremely large crack opening in the Earth not far from Yellowstone. Will it be a spooky Halloween experience or just a great scientific shifting Phenomenon?" - Jerry Odom

A lot of people have this Jerry Odom quote, I can't source it. The people who quote it seem to link to a small article that contains the normal explanation and the only Jerry Odom I could find was an MMA fighter. Maybe someone with better google-fu can explain this one to me.

It's gas exploration!:

Geology in action. This huge crack wasn't there a few days ago. I wonder if this is due to oil and gas exploration in the area, or if it's natural? This is south of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, which is pretty close to Thermopolis. As the name implies, Thermoplis is famous for their hot springs.

Super Volcano!:

Wanna see something cool? Probably not, because it's about these cool giant cracks in the earth that appeared up in the Big Horn Mountains, which is North Central Wyoming. Most people don't want to read about how the Yellowstone Supervolcano is right there, the massive caldera that's like many times huger than something really, really big. Seriously. Now, now I mean seriously, as in this is some seriously crazy stuff!

China and nukes and...something?:

It has been commented earlier that China has ripped open earth. I guess it was a nuclear blast underground and somehow targeted Japan and the earthquake that formed the tsunami that destroyed the nuclear plants. Not something one would want to brag about for China though. Just one large crack and earth could split into two pieces: a possibly truth in Delores Cannon's videos of Earth actually splitting into two parts: one for the rising and one for staying here in this dimension??? If you don't raise your vibrational consciousness: you will stay behind. Time will tell. I just report.

Now, this isn't about the media. I want to stress that every one of these people linked to an article that gave them a completely reasonable explanation, and they all went with their own headlines.

The issue of misinformation is bigger and more complex than the idea of a monolithic lazy and/or incompetent media, even when presented with a truth there is still going to be this, this creation of an elaborate lie if the lie is a better story. Water running over a rock? Fuck that shit, that's science. It's Chinese nuclear testing cracking the world in half, that story is fucking sexy. It's got bad guys and good guys, a moral...it's got every thing we want in an event.

I will submit that this is inherent in us as a social species. We are story tellers by nature. We find meaning in our existence and define who we are and where we are going with stories. It's in our nature to have the things that happen become a story of why we are.

But that has a dark side, the royal 'we' can be more engaged by a good story than a good truth. Now, I say the royal 'we' but I want to stress here, the 'we' that's going to be the likely majority who spend more than half a second on this story is going to be the one who goes "oh, water over rocks, etc. I remember this from high school geology. Cool." It's a weird minority that goes, "Aliens" etc. But in the information age, maybe all I read is that headline from Jerry Odom and then go to the pub and go, "Hey, did you hear about this crack in Wyoming caused by the Super Moon or something?" "Really?" "Yeah" "That's crazy." And then perfectly reasonable people who don't necessarily care who haven't looked it up are carrying around this word virus of nonsense.

I think there has been a sort of internet anti-virus of sort for this kind of thing with the memes that mix and match quotes and sources or do ridiculous versions of 'phenomenon' posts like "This years is the first year in 666 years that Halloween will be on Friday the 13th"...

I guess in a way to make this a question and not a blog post, I wonder if this is something that we have to wait to die off. To wit, I'm an old man on the internet. Or at least internet old. Are the aforementioned memes a sign that the new generation, you guys, are actually becoming savvy to this and it's just us geezers from Gen X and the Baby Boom who perpetuate it and it's just waiting us out and then you figure out your own problems with too much information and the formulation and manipulation of truth that bothered people all the way back to the Dadaists at the turn of the 19th century...or is this an inevitable consequence of information being a tidal wave, that information and the manipulation of truth will be a thing whether it's done by media magnates or your crackpot friends on facebook?

Or, you know, come up with your own stupid reason for this happening.

Another more thorough report that still doesn't really speculate except for the reasonable one.

[Fartsniffage]

My God you're optimistic.....

[Rusozak]

I thought this thread was to be about some new form of crack out of Wyoming that's making people act like zombies.

[Cannot think of a name]

My God you're optimistic.....

It's more of a 'half a glass' kind of thing. My generation is more media savvy than the one before it, and they were more media savvy than the one before them so it would stand to reason that at least on some level that these whipper snappers will in turn be more savvy than we are.

However, each evolution in savvyness (fuck you spell check, it's a word now) has tended to be about two or three steps behind the evolution of how information travels and how it is manipulated and read. So while maybe they are on top of this flavor of bullshit, there's another flavor out there they think is ice cream and their kids will wonder how they could be so stupid.

[Kaboomlandia]

Ugh. This isn't real. Get the facts right, media.

[John Turner]

People actually live in Wyoming?

[Cannot think of a name]

Ugh. This isn't real. Get the facts right, media.

Whether performance art or real, this personification of the issue at hand is kind of awesome.

[Dooom35796821595]

People actually live in Wyoming?

Of course not, that's an elaborate fabrication so that no one knows it is the location of a secret research facility trying to create a high functioning AI to assume control of the Russian nuclear deterrent. Duh.

[Frisbeeteria]

Subduction leads to orogeny.

Everybody knows that.

[Costa Fierro]

Subduction leads to orogeny.

Everybody knows that.

Is that part of the United States capable of having geological activity of that kind?

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

... Have you seen the sorts of ridiculousness the youth continue to come up with? No. No I don't think its getting better that way. Individuals are capable of being rational, logical, and all of that. But people overall? I think social media, mass disinformation, and a general laziness in critical thinking due to having everything spoon-fed to us is leading us down a rather dangerous path that way, tbh. Not that this is limited to any one age category or other, but this idea of 'being connected' and the like tends to take away from a lot when it comes to thinking, reasoning, dealing with, and a number of things I recall not being so bloody complicated prior to the world wide everything.

No, not a cynic. No, not a 'glass half full' type. I'm more 'what is in the glass happens to be toxic, so I don't want it anyways dammit' realist who is occasionally inspired by my fellow humans, but altogether disappointed more often than not by them all at once.

On the crack itself? That's pretty damned awesome. Glad it happened out and away from things, and not in the middle of town or some such. It's been nasty enough with some of the sinkholes that have been in the news over the years. Will be interesting to see how large this eventually gets. Those photos are pretty amazing.

[Cannot think of a name]

No, not a cynic. No, not a 'glass half full' type. I'm more 'what is in the glass happens to be toxic, so I don't want it anyways dammit' realist who is occasionally inspired by my fellow humans, but altogether disappointed more often than not by them all at once.

"A realist" is something a cynic calls themselves so they don't have to call themselves a cynic, because it sounds cooler. If you have to stress that your point of view is real, that's probably telling.

And I think that we get carried away with this whole 'individual/whole' thing. This really isn't people 'all together,' this is really only half picked for relevance of the randomly selected people on the trending feed of facebook. The others were impressed with the geological event as it was but weren't relevant to my overarching point so I didn't include them. I still maintain that the 'all at once' would reveal that most of the people would accept the normal, reasonable explanation.

I address this because I believe this kind of dismissiveness is in fact part of the problem. "I'm smart people are stupid" is a way to tap out. What's worse is it's an invitation to fall into the trap and be the conduit, because it walks hand in hand with the confidence that you're smart enough to know bullshit when you hear it and so when it doesn't come as smelly as the Earth taking revenge on behalf of Native Americans but in a way that conforms to your world view, perhaps relying on the perception that 'I'm smart and people are stupid," you're on the hook.

I used to work at a record store. Like everyone who has worked retail, I lived by the 'customers suck' credo. They were stupid, frothing morons with shitty taste who were not familiar with the alphabet and were spoon fed their tastes by a giant corporate machines whose dick I was forced to suck for my piddling pay in order to make rent.

But I would burn through hundreds of these people every day and yet would only have a handful of stories every week to support my perception that these were a zombie-like horde belly up to the soup kitchen that was our brains. The statistics didn't match my perception. Most of these people were just fucking people. We think "people are stupid" en masse because it's easy. Because it sounds good. It certainly absolves us of any participation. If we pull out far enough, I'm sure we can find enough assholes that we can decide represent the whole and go, "See? Just a bunch of assholes."

And just like that, we've given ourselves license to be assholes. Meanwhile, in the distance someone else is looking from afar going, "See that asshole? What a bunch of assholes..."

I don't buy it anymore. I can't ignore my own culpability in that cycle any longer.