You say "conspiracy", I say "poppycock"
The things people will believe in both scares me and makes me laugh.
Take the moon landings, for example. I'd say that I "believe" that man has been to the moon but I don't. I know that human beings have walked on the surface of our natural satellite. Why? Because it's a fact, one which is supported by all the evidence and observations available.
And yet, people persist in their belief that it was all a giant hoax and the idea that it may have been a hoax is so common that when people say "moon landings", the first thing everybody else thinks of is "hoax", whether they believe it was or not. Now, let's ignore all the "facts" that are reported as proof of this, since they've been fairly well debunked (the link is actually about a specific documentary but it goes over most of the big stuff). Let's look at what is actually proposed as the alternative to reality.
If man did not land on the moon, NASA must have faked it, is the main thrust (haha, "thrust" - I just got that. Rockets and stuff... oh, shut up) of all the arguments. It had to have been a conspiracy, in fact. The mission was hardly just three guys in a rocket and a room full of voices on the radio, so, taking every person involved into account, we're talking about a conspiracy of quite possibly thousands of people. And not one of those people has mentioned it, then or since. No experts beyond the "conspiracy" group noticed any discrepancies at the time and it seems that no actual experts have noticed any discrepancies since.
But, people still hold on to the idea that it was all faked. Why? That's a very difficult question to answer but it really comes down to just a few possibilities.
People are:
a) insane
b) idiots
c) attention-seeking jerks
d) all of the above, plus idiots again
My personal choice is (d). Insanity leads people to question reality, idiocy makes others believe them and then the attention-seeking jerks come along to make money out of further idiots who are willing to buy the books and see the TV programs made by everyone that came above them.
Stuff like this may well be my theme for the next couple of days, since I'll also have some words to say on the episode of Panorama that aired tonight. I'll watch the recording if I can stomach it but this should tell you about it.
I'll leave you with this thought. Most of the arguments for a hoax come from supposed "mistakes" made by NASA's prop department and location manager. In 1969, NASA had a budget of billions of dollars and many of the smartest people in the world working for it. If all those people and all that money became truly dedicated to faking something, they wouldn't screw up.
Take the moon landings, for example. I'd say that I "believe" that man has been to the moon but I don't. I know that human beings have walked on the surface of our natural satellite. Why? Because it's a fact, one which is supported by all the evidence and observations available.
And yet, people persist in their belief that it was all a giant hoax and the idea that it may have been a hoax is so common that when people say "moon landings", the first thing everybody else thinks of is "hoax", whether they believe it was or not. Now, let's ignore all the "facts" that are reported as proof of this, since they've been fairly well debunked (the link is actually about a specific documentary but it goes over most of the big stuff). Let's look at what is actually proposed as the alternative to reality.
If man did not land on the moon, NASA must have faked it, is the main thrust (haha, "thrust" - I just got that. Rockets and stuff... oh, shut up) of all the arguments. It had to have been a conspiracy, in fact. The mission was hardly just three guys in a rocket and a room full of voices on the radio, so, taking every person involved into account, we're talking about a conspiracy of quite possibly thousands of people. And not one of those people has mentioned it, then or since. No experts beyond the "conspiracy" group noticed any discrepancies at the time and it seems that no actual experts have noticed any discrepancies since.
But, people still hold on to the idea that it was all faked. Why? That's a very difficult question to answer but it really comes down to just a few possibilities.
People are:
a) insane
b) idiots
c) attention-seeking jerks
d) all of the above, plus idiots again
My personal choice is (d). Insanity leads people to question reality, idiocy makes others believe them and then the attention-seeking jerks come along to make money out of further idiots who are willing to buy the books and see the TV programs made by everyone that came above them.
Stuff like this may well be my theme for the next couple of days, since I'll also have some words to say on the episode of Panorama that aired tonight. I'll watch the recording if I can stomach it but this should tell you about it.
I'll leave you with this thought. Most of the arguments for a hoax come from supposed "mistakes" made by NASA's prop department and location manager. In 1969, NASA had a budget of billions of dollars and many of the smartest people in the world working for it. If all those people and all that money became truly dedicated to faking something, they wouldn't screw up.
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
10:48 PM
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