Cause it's an extraordinarily simple symbol that can even be found in the cross section of certain trees. Behind the Bastards did a two parter on the history of this shape and all the names it has had.
Simple symbol? What craziness are you talking about? The next thing you'll tell me is that "humans" are able to come up with a shape of a 3d triangle on their own, in different places, without extraterrestrial help.
I've only seen that kind of innovation with children playing with blocks.
It's not even that weird a symbol for people to come up with independently. It's not as simple as a triangle, but it's still really simple. It's basically a level two shape after you use up all the basic polygons.
Preposterous. Humans are far too stupid to have come up with the triangle on their own. That's as ludicrous as thinking crabs could have evolved naturally. Sideways walking and eyes on stalks? Simple absurdity, they are clearly alien pets of some sort.
You are totally right, their argument has plenty of holes in it. Just pointing out the dumb "If transoceanic sea travel wasn't possible" they debunked themselves without realizing it.
I wonder if there is some unpublished study that shows that exposing people to absurd posts like this actually radicalizes them or causes them to be more susceptible to being influenced.
Are we MK ultra-liting ourselves by looking at all of this stupidity? I don't know, but I think it's possible.
Social media was weaponized in the 2010s and used to spread harmful social contagion ever since. I wrote my thesis on social media as a vector for radicalisation and social contagion.
Thesis on social media as a vector for radicalisation and social contagion? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of social media? Localized entirely within your Lemmy user?
They mention transoceanic travel, not aliens. Their mistake is assuming the popular presentation of Columbus being the first transatlantic traveller is accepted as fact by historians.
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, parallel development of the swastika as a symbol is very possible. It is also possible that individuals or small groups travelled much greater distances than we typically imagine and shared information such as symbols with others around the world.
What is this ancient symbol? How did so many primitive cultures without writing or trade routes or brains or cell phones create such powerful art? What alien culture could have gifted humankind with this incredible sign of divinity?
The oldest instances can be found with Ancent North Eurasian descendants and both Indo-Europeans and Native Americans are like 50% descended from ANE. We know that many myths have been proven to go back to them, so why not symbols too.
Memes stick around for way longer than most people think, at least when you look at it through a phylomemetic lens.