The Third Mysterious Monolith Has Been Torn Down, Replaced With Wooden Cross

Another mysterious metal monolith recently appeared in California, near the town of Atascadero, but has already disappeared.

If you haven’t been following this peculiar story, the California monolith is the third metal installation to mysteriously appear in 2020, only to be torn down upon discovery. 

The first monolith stood quietly in the Utah desert for years, until it was officially discovered, making headlines around the world and attracting curious tourists; the thing was quickly dismantled by a group of men, who seemed concerned about the environmental impact of visitors.

The second appeared in Romania, appeared to be more crudely constructed, and was removed almost immediately after discovery. The third (which appears almost identical to the first), was torn down by a group of young men, who replaced the metal structure with a wooden cross.

In a video, which was live streamed, posted online, then deleted, the group of men drive from southern California to tear down the structure, apparently threatened by its sudden appearance. 

Dressed in camo gear, armed with night-vision goggles and energy drinks, the young men chose to make their move at night – they tore down the structure while chanting “Christ is king!” and “America first!” One of the men even states: “We don’t want illegal aliens from Mexico, or outer space.” 

After demolishing the metal monolith, the men plant their seemingly homemade cross on the ground, with one announcing: “This is what I think about pagan cringe.” 

During the video, the men make plenty of offensive comments while referencing Donald Trump (shocking) and the QAnon conspiracy theory (even more shocking), and state that their mission is to demonstrate “how much we love Jesus Christ.” 

Perhaps we should be grateful they didn’t set fire to that cross.

While the men’s grievances seem a tad confused (are they angry at pagans, or extraterrestrials?), their intent seems aggressively territorial. Whatever the mysterious monoliths represent, they don’t seem to like it.

The appearance of the monoliths has yet to be fully explained, although the first is suspected to have been an abandoned art project, while the two new structures seem to have been inspired by the discovery of the first. 

Either that, or this is all part of an extremely elaborate marketing scheme.

The discovery of the original monolith sparked joking comparisons to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the appearance of mysterious black monoliths coincide with leaps in human cognitive evolution. If these shiny metal monoliths are intended for the same purpose, humanity seems to be doing a poor job at receiving otherworldly enlightenment – well-intentioned aliens must feel more than a bit frustrated at this point. 

But the story has made for a fun distraction during a particularly difficult time, and seems to be slowly blossoming into a global art project (t remains to be seen if the monoliths are about to compete with a sudden abundance of wooden crosses).

We’re about to say goodbye to the surreal horrors of 2020; covering the world in weird metal monoliths feels like an oddly appropriate tribute.