YouTube is full of massively popular videos from self-professed “time travelers”
The scientific possibility of time travel has been dismissed over the years by one simple line of rhetorical questioning: If time travel is possible, then where are all the time travelers? Why haven’t they made themselves known? Why aren’t they warning us about the future? Well, according to a recent article on Mel, if the time travelers are here then they are all on YouTube, racking up millions of views.
In the past year, there has been a sharp increase in the number of videos featuring self-professed time travelers like the one above. The content of these videos and the apocalyptic warnings therein differs from case to case, but they all share a few common elements. The time traveler is always white and male. His face is usually blurred and his voice digitally altered. And, perhaps most importantly, his acting is terrible and his story is inconsistent. But that hasn’t stopped sci-fi junkies and conspiracy theorists from binging these videos like there’s no tomorrow. This 25-minute “confession”—in which a man who is clearly wearing a rubber mask and doing a fake southern accent divulges the details of his secret trip to the year 2118—currently has over seven million views.
In addition to looking fake as hell, Mel reports these videos all share another suspiciously common trait. Namely, they’re all produced by the channel ApexTV or its sister channel Paranormal Elite. Up until about a year ago, both channels were focused on such thought-provoking content as “One Direction Without Autotune” and “TOP 10 STRONGEST DOGS IN THE WORLD,” but now it’s almost entirely videos of time travelers providing “proof” of their journeys, giving monotone warnings of the future, or meeting their “future selves.”
It’s unclear if the millions of people watching these videos really believe what they’re seeing and hearing, or if they’re just waiting for these anonymous figures to be outed as hoaxes like so many supposed time travelers before them. But one thing is for certain: Being a YouTube time traveler is good business.
You can read Mel’s full report here.
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