The most banal conspiracy of all time

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Conspiracy theories are like mushrooms: just when you begin to think they're gone, they pop up back again. Oh, and they're also kinda smelly. Case in point:

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Yep. It's the old tired Moon-hoax conspiracy. It has been debunked so many times, it's not even fun to contemplate it any more.

I know what some'd say now. "But, but, vids like these do have some valid arguments!"

I guess if some aliens are watching us right now, they must be dying of laughter. Speaking of aliens, I suspect we've come to a point where even the appearance of genuine aliens (heh!) would be met with apathy by the public (despite having all those Alien-Greeting U.N. Ambassadors appointed, and all that). It may well be that people have been so over-saturated with all sorts of conspiracy theories that we could end up in a The Boy Who Cried Wolf situation, if you know what I mean.

Well, if we're to be a tad more serious about all this (if possible at all), usually the most obvious explanation works. The Occam's Razor principle applies here, basically. The simplest possible explanation is the most probable one.

So you've got two options:

1) Scientists have followed decades and centuries of technological and astronomical progress, and used the laws of physics that they had expert knowledge about, to bring rocket science to its natural next level, namely the one that allowed them to put a spacecraft to the surface of Earth's satellite and bring it back, with living people on board.

2) The US government spent millions of dollars for a series of secretly made videos, bringing a few astronauts who acted as non-professional actors inside a cinema studio, and then used elaborate television montage technology that wasn't even available at the time, with the sole purpose of creating a series of fake videos showing those astronauts presumably walking on Earth's satellite; then all the world's governments conspired with all the scientists in the world to keep this in secret from the populace - and all these governments and all these scientists remained silent about it for many many years and decades - until the Internet gave some online junkies with great imagination and too much spare time on their hands the tools to uncover this hoax, much to the dismay and anger of said governments and scientists. But they still continued to deny it all, and not even one of them came out with the "truth".

So which is it? Let's use Occam's Razor, shall we?

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Gee. It says "science PROVES" so it must be true!

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I guess it's all about picking the right principle then ;)

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Sure! You could use logic, or you could... you know, use... magic, clairvoyance and all that jazz!

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Three words, I guess. Lowest common denominator.

After years of reading crap, watching shitty movies and listening to all sort of lunatics, you can't blame people for thinking that a discussion about Atlantis and the portals to other dimensions is scientific in some way. We are getting bombarded daily with stuff like that.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

You're too forgiving. People have heads on their shoulders, and presumably brains inside those heads. Stupidity is probably the one sin that's the least forgivable of them all. That, and hubris.

As Jon Stewart said in his farewell show, the best defense against bullshit is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I'm realistic. Doesn't mean I'm forgiving. But enough about me.

[garote]

One of the most amusing videos I saw about this was all about how the government used special lighting kits to try and generate the right shadows for everything as if it were on the moon, but they got it completely wrong -- with a shot-by-shot breakdown supposedly showing how the moon shadows "should be", according to some really bogus high-school trigonometry overlaid on the photos.

But maybe the influence isn't all bad ... I bet the video inspired some kids to learn more about the power of trigonometry...

Also: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-to-see-all-six-apollo-moon-landing-sites/

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Thoroughly fascinating :)

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

I have never met a Lunar Landing conspiracy theorist in the flesh.

I kinda wanna... so I could argue with them.

I think my line of attack would be something like...

"So, the Lunar landing was faked... how about the Lunar orbiters before Apollo?"

If *No*, then "Well, inserting a sizable package into Lunar Orbit seems like all the really hard work. Why is an orbiter believable, but a landing, not?"

If *Yes*, then "You're aware those orbiters purportedly took pictures of the Far Side of the moon, yes? The side never observed by humans, and, failing the discovery of some kind of vast cosmic mirror, in principle impossible for earth bound humans to see, yes? So, do you think they just made up those pictures? I think they would have had to. And that means, to prove that mid 20th century lunar travel was a fraud, all you need to do is go look at the far side of the moon NOW. If those pictures are inconsistent with the ones from the 50's and 60's, you'd have evidence."

"And you know, there is some very good data purportedly coming back from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It's pictures are much higher quality, but still consistent with, the pictures taken in 1959 by the Soviet Luna probe. So....

Is the conspiracy ongoing?
And is Russia in on it? "

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I kinda wanna... so I could argue with them.

You, Sir, are a masochist. :)

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

They'd just gloss over the hard questions.

Meaning all the questions.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

You want to cause people brain haemorhage or what!?

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

"I have never met a Lunar Landing conspiracy theorist in the flesh."

This makes me think that the existence of Lunar Landing conspiracy theorists is itself a fake, or at least way overstated. According to the polls, between 8% and 20% of Americans believe the landings were faked. My take is that between 7.5% and 19.5% of Americans will give smart assed answers to polling questions they think are really stupid. If one in five (or one in 12) Americans believed something this silly, I expect I'd have met several by now and had a chat about it. It's not like nutty people are shy about the things they think make them smarter than everyone around them.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

You may've met one, just never talked on this topic. Do you talk about the Moon landing with every 5th (12th) person you meet?

Hey, I've known a colleague of mine for close to 8 years now, and I only found out he was a Truther about two weeks ago. We just never happened to talk about it before.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

Actually, I probably have talked about the moon landing (or something else about the space program) with several dozen people to a hundred people. I've also gotten drunk with several hundred Americans and talked some pretty crazy shit. I'd expect it would have come up.

Not only have I met truthers, birthers, and young Earthers, I've met enough of each to know that I prefer the young Earthers over the other two.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

> several dozen people to a hundred people

LOL, this sounds almost like "between one in 5 and one in 12". Like, we've got a short walk left to the mall - somewhere between one and ten miles. :-)

Now imagine a birther truther Moonhoaxer Earther. Wohow! That would've made for a great drunkard's discussion!

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Usually, that sort of folks come along with the full package anyway.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan. This Saturday, I'm going to drink until I hear Obama admit the moon landing was staged while speaking form the other side of the young, flat earth in his native Kenya. I believe gin will be the right tool for the job.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I believe gin will be the right tool for the job.

Surely gin is too British or Dutch: you need proper 'Merican Liquor.

Though personally I'd always go for an Ardbeg Corryvreckan. After half a pint I'm normally senseless enough to rant at anyone or anything... the next three days, however...