Not to be confused with Dipsy's Hat, which contains untold powers.
February 21, 2019 12:58 PM Subscribe
Ong's Hat: The Early Internet Conspiracy Game That Got Too Real "On a sunny morning in early 2000, Joseph Matheny woke up to find conspiracy theorists camped out on his lawn again. He was making coffee when he noticed a face peering in a ground-floor window of the small, three-story building he rented in Santa Cruz. Past the peeper, there were three other men in their early 20s loitering awkwardly. Matheny sighed and stepped outside. He already knew what they wanted. They wanted to know the truth about Ong’s Hat. They wanted the secret to interdimensional travel." (Ong's Hat previously.)
What a trip. To think that conspiracy theorists reading this would see it as Matheny's continued cover-up of the truth is kind of mind bending.
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:16 PM on February 21, 2019
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:16 PM on February 21, 2019
i think almost everyone’s brain is kind of porous and if you continually expose yourself to weird ideas even with ironic distance, there’s a small chance you will move closer to believing them.
it’s a small chance for any specific individual but if you have a community of lots of people all playing along with the joke, there’s probably a very good chance of producing a few true believers. even higher if you account for people who may not be 💯 in their ability to process reality.
posted by vogon_poet at 2:34 PM on February 21, 2019 [6 favorites]
it’s a small chance for any specific individual but if you have a community of lots of people all playing along with the joke, there’s probably a very good chance of producing a few true believers. even higher if you account for people who may not be 💯 in their ability to process reality.
posted by vogon_poet at 2:34 PM on February 21, 2019 [6 favorites]
I remember running across Ong's Hat online, so this is interesting to me but not new. But wow, I didn't know Hakim Bey was a fan of NAMBLA.
posted by gryftir at 6:54 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by gryftir at 6:54 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yeah, if your big statement where you reveal that it was all a hoax involves a phrase like "the gateways are now open," you deserve to have weirdos camped out on your lawn.
If you're someone who "likes fucking with people," but doesn't like the results, reexamine your life and ask yourself if you're not a sociopath.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:38 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you're someone who "likes fucking with people," but doesn't like the results, reexamine your life and ask yourself if you're not a sociopath.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:38 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
That's a good recap of the story, with updates on Matheney's current status and thinking.
Gorgeous photos.
I keep wondering what ARGs will mutate into as a new storytelling form.
posted by doctornemo at 8:17 AM on February 22, 2019
Gorgeous photos.
I keep wondering what ARGs will mutate into as a new storytelling form.
posted by doctornemo at 8:17 AM on February 22, 2019
This story reminds me of nothing so much as Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Incunabula sounds a little like Abulafia, even. The tendrils of other conspiracies commingling and closing the epistemological loop is a recurring theme that we're seeing in public discourse around all sorts of topics these days
The inclusion of twins named Dobbs, to me, seems like a huge giveaway and I was not at all surprised to discover Matheny was a fan of the Church of the Subgenius later in the article.
What about the SCP wiki thing that people do now (http://www.scp-wiki.net/)? That seems like a similar project, but maybe it's more self-aware? I haven't heard any stories about things getting out of hand, but the only difference from the Ong's Hat story seems to be the number of people involved in creating the lore.
posted by dbx at 11:39 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The inclusion of twins named Dobbs, to me, seems like a huge giveaway and I was not at all surprised to discover Matheny was a fan of the Church of the Subgenius later in the article.
What about the SCP wiki thing that people do now (http://www.scp-wiki.net/)? That seems like a similar project, but maybe it's more self-aware? I haven't heard any stories about things getting out of hand, but the only difference from the Ong's Hat story seems to be the number of people involved in creating the lore.
posted by dbx at 11:39 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
They covered this on a Slate podcast not too long ago.
posted by koucha at 1:29 PM on February 22, 2019
posted by koucha at 1:29 PM on February 22, 2019
What about the SCP wiki thing that people do now (http://www.scp-wiki.net/)? That seems like a similar project, but maybe it's more self-aware? I haven't heard any stories about things getting out of hand, but the only difference from the Ong's Hat story seems to be the number of people involved in creating the lore.
the main difference it's all clearly understood to be fiction and as far as I know exclusively posted on their site. They don't do any of this ARG type stuff, trying to seed the real world with fake documents.
posted by vogon_poet at 1:50 PM on February 22, 2019
the main difference it's all clearly understood to be fiction and as far as I know exclusively posted on their site. They don't do any of this ARG type stuff, trying to seed the real world with fake documents.
posted by vogon_poet at 1:50 PM on February 22, 2019
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posted by SansPoint at 1:08 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]