cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/460817

All the greed, fraud, centuries of racism, and deteriorated llama skulls behind Mexico’s unboxed aliens.

Alas for truthers: These skeletons are not alien life forms. Instead, they are most likely a composite of pre-Columbian human remains and animal bones, all pieced together with some plaster.

But how they aren’t real is a story that’s frankly wilder than aliens.

In fact, these little guys appear to have been literally crowdfunded into existence in 2017 as part of an ongoing attempt to create the illusion that these hucksters are sitting on an ancient alien gold mine. And that’s just the tip of the alien scam iceberg. The full picture includes a long lineup of skeevy con men dedicated to passing themselves off as pseudoscientific “experts,” from media veterans to fake archaeologists and doctors with dubious degrees — all committed to insisting (even as a litany of real scientists line up to object) that their fake aliens are real.