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That week the 'missing town' hoax went wild on TikTok
About two months ago, a video claiming a whole town in Kansas vanished overnight got millions of views. I spent three days tracking down the original source, which was a creepypasta forum from 2017. The 'news' sites reporting it just copied each other without a single fact check. Has anyone else had to debunk a story that was clearly just recycled fiction?
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wren2302mo ago
Yeah the "recycled fiction" thing is so real. My buddy got caught up in one last year about a "ghost train" that was supposedly seen on security cams. He was telling everyone about it, totally convinced. I found the original story was from a writing prompt subreddit from like 2015, and the "security cam footage" was just a clip from a student film. He was so embarrassed he'd shared it. It's crazy how these old stories get new life and people just run with them.
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margaret8792mo ago
Remember that old story about the guy who found a safe in his new house? That one blew up on like five different platforms last year. People were making whole videos about what could be inside, lost treasure or whatever. Turns out it was a reposted story from a forum in 2012 and the OP never even opened the thing. Watched a YouTuber spend 20 minutes talking about it like it was breaking news.
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nina_taylor8d ago
Yeah, the 'recycled fiction' thing is real and it's not just online. I see it all the time in real life too. People at the hardware store will tell me some wild story about a neighbor's shed that 'mysteriously fell over' and everyone acts like it's a big deal. Turns out it's the same old story from three years ago, just repackaged. It's like we all want the drama more than the facts. Nobody bothers to check if it's real because the mystery feels better than the boring truth. It's just how people are now, chasing the next thing that gives them a little rush.
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