# People who Say the Moon Landing was Faked **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636 "2012-01-15T21:31:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/101 "2013-01-20T11:08:32Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > No, they haven’t. And you need to learn the difference between reality and ramblings of utter lunatics. The latter is what that supposed proof/evidence offered up by the Moon landing deniers happens to be. Well let me ask you this so I can attempt to understand what you are saying: Suppose John asserts that the moon-landing was faked and the way he knows it is that his uncle who worked for NASA told him so. Would you say John’s statement counts as evidence that the moon landing was faked? ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/102 "2013-01-20T11:26:53Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > I disagree . . . I think it’s useful to scrutinize their evidence and arguments. You keep saying this, but it’s unclear to everyone except you why this is so. I think it’s less than useless to scrutinize mentally ill people’s delusions. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/103 "2013-01-20T11:40:14Z")
I found the usefulness had diminishing returns - after evaluating five or six hoax claims and finding them useless, it is logical to decline further claims by default, _unless_ they start with something particularly novel or interesting. “My uncle who worked for NASA said so,” doesn’t qualify, in my book, even if it’s completely true that the claimant’s uncle said such a thing. Let the uncle present the claim directly, starting with his NASA credentials. That might get him 30 seconds of my time. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/104 "2013-01-20T11:58:47Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > You keep saying this, but it’s unclear to everyone except you why this is so. Nice to know that you are the spokesman for the board. Anyway, I provided an explanation in my first post in this thread. What about it did you not understand? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/105 "2013-01-20T15:25:00Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Would you say John’s statement counts as evidence that the moon landing was faked? If I present a photograph of Obama standing aside Adolf Hitler and giving a Nazi salute, does that count as evidence that Obama is a fascist? How about a world map with a dotted line around the border of India, and the word “India” replaced by a question mark? Evidence of the non-existence of India? Let’s say **Vinyl Turnip** knows a friend of a friend who camped out in the bushes outside **brazil84** ’s house with binoculars and saw him wearing a Tigger costume. Does **VT** ’s statement count as evidence that **brazil84** is a furry? If the definition of “evidence” includes “any claim made by anyone,” I would like to add these three pieces of evidence to the record for further investigation. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/106 "2013-01-21T00:15:11Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Well let me ask you this so I can attempt to understand what you are saying: Suppose John asserts that the moon-landing was faked and the way he knows it is that his uncle who worked for NASA told him so. > > Would you say John’s statement counts as evidence that the moon landing was faked? Lionel Hutz: “We have plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence” ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/107 "2013-01-21T10:50:42Z")
> [@42fish](#): > > Lionel Hutz: “We have plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence” Hearsay does potentially count as evidence as that word is normally used in courtrooms. Sometimes it’s admissible and sometimes not. Sometimes it’s strong and sometimes it’s weak. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/108 "2013-01-21T12:22:11Z")
Would hearsay be enough evidence in court to, say, convict NASA of a massive decades-long fraud? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/109 "2013-01-21T12:32:50Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Yes, you could fake a video or film of the event; Hollywood does that sort of spoofing regularly. > > But the official footage isn’t the only thing. Don’t forget the people who worked on the project, reported on it, observed it around the world, tracked the space vehicles, received the signals, listened to the conversations, including enemies who would have liked nothing better than to reveal a hoax. … Nah, all those people were faked too. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/110 "2013-01-21T14:33:07Z")
I’ve been fortunate enough not to have encountered any Moon Hoaxers in my real life, but I would tell them the same thing I tell the handful of 9/11 Truthers I’ve run across: In 1972, a couple guys broke into an office in a Washington hotel. The handful of people who knew about it couldn’t manage to keep it a secret, and it brought down a presidential administration. As conspiracies go, Watergate was pretty small potatoes, yet _the conspiracy failed_. What makes anybody think that a hoax on the scale of faking the moon landing or 9/11 could _possibly_ remain covered up after all these years? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/111 "2013-01-21T14:52:29Z")
Watergate was leaked on purpose just to make the idea of a lasting conspiracy unlikely in the minds of the sheeple, allowing the _real_ conspiracies to continue unchecked. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/112 "2013-01-21T14:57:22Z")
Even smaller, Bill Clinton couldn’t get a blowjob without it becoming a national scandal. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/113 "2013-01-22T15:11:00Z")
This thread has devolved into an argument about epistemology? I’ll agree with brazil84 that it’s useful to, at some point in your life, consider questions such as, how do I know India is real? How do I know that the Moon landings happened? Since there’s no evidence that a god _doesn’t_ exist, does it therefore warrant my belief in God? Then you use that and move on. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/114 "2013-01-22T15:17:15Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I’ve been fortunate enough not to have encountered any Moon Hoaxers in my real life, but I would tell them the same thing I tell the handful of 9/11 Truthers I’ve run across: > > In 1972, a couple guys broke into an office in a Washington hotel. The handful of people who knew about it couldn’t manage to keep it a secret, and it brought down a presidential administration. > > As conspiracies go, Watergate was pretty small potatoes, yet _the conspiracy failed_. What makes anybody think that a hoax on the scale of faking the moon landing or 9/11 could _possibly_ remain covered up after all these years? To be fair, that’s not really an iron-clad argument that conspiracies inevitably come to light. We don’t know about the secrets that are successfully kept, only the ones which aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/115 "2013-01-25T14:33:56Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > To be fair, that’s not really an iron-clad argument that conspiracies inevitably come to light. We don’t know about the secrets that are successfully kept, only the ones which aren’t. It’s not iron clad, but it’s a big indicator for how hard it is to keep a secret like that. If something only a few people knew about couldnt be kept secret, how can hundreds or thousands of people do it? The _head of the CIA_ couldnt keep an affair quiet. That’s how hard it is. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/116 "2013-01-25T15:35:30Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > To be fair, that’s not really an iron-clad argument that conspiracies inevitably come to light. We don’t know about the secrets that are successfully kept, only the ones which aren’t. That argument is useless: “There is evidence showing that there is a conspiracy!” “There is no evidence, which is evidence that there is a conspiracy” ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636/117 "2013-01-25T17:47:39Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > Their evidence is pathetic. It depends on the target not being familiar with some basics of science. It also depends on the hoax proponent not being familiar with some basics of science. Most of these conspiracy theories are examples of the [Dunning-Kruger effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect), in which “unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.” This is why the proponents are bumpkins with leaf blowers and not MIT alums. They don’t know how much they don’t know; they have no basis for how outlandish their claims are because they have no grounding in the field of study (engineering, physics, etc) they’re addressing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-say-the-moon-landing-was-faked/609636.md?page=5)