Here’s a photo of the two astronauts on the Moon. Okay smartguys, who’s holding the camera now? Correct me if I’m wrong, but are those ceiling beams above them?
“Everybody knows the Moon is made of cheese” – Wallace
Ok.I could hold myself back for a few hours but I can’t help it anymore…
Those are moon beams! badum-ching
+1
Because these people vote. The moon landing is a pretty innocuous example, but research shows that people who believe one conspiracy theory tend to uncritically accept all conspiracy theories, and when it comes to something like climate change or MMR vaccines, those conspiracy theorists do have an impact.
Which Apollo mission was it where they found the corpse of Mrs Alice Kramden?
Along with a variety of dead cows who jumped but didn’t quite make it all the way over.
As for the several responses to my question (loosely paraphrased, “Why should anyone give a shit?”): Some good points there. Yes, to put is basically, there’s a dearth of critical thinking ability among those, and they still get to vote. We’ve learned that we can’t have intelligence tests for voter eligibility, but the absence of same has its problems too.
Wallace clearly faked it. The Moon is made of Cheddar, not Wensleydale.
Ignorance breeds ignorance.
Okay, first to dispel a misconception, it doesn’t take an idiot to believe in stuff. All it takes is someone given incorrect and incomplete information and being presented with a reasonable sounding premise from a supposed authoritative source. Or being inundated with a ridiculous premise from childhood so that questioning the sense of it has been beaten out by continual repetition of authority figures.
For example, consider the Moon Landing Hoax purveyors. They take situations that are not well understood or where misconceptions abound, and then they use the misunderstanding to build “evidence” that the existing record contains clues to its falseness. Like the shadow directions, or the stars not visible in pictures, or whatever. It gets presented in such a way to make an uninformed person give it credence, and that starts to shift that person’s worldview. Memes spread, and people begin to evaluate other situations based upon the impact of that belief.
A lot of people have curiosity about the world, about things that happen and things they experience. If false information is left unchecked, it continues to spread. People base their actions on their beliefs that are founded on nonsense, because they didn’t get factual information and instead were given nonsense.
And then they contribute to the social world we all live in. They vote. They vote for candidates that express their wackiness. They get active in school boards and determine school curriculums. They demand the government spend resources to find out the truth about alien visitations. They argue that vaccinations are a lie, and fight to get them abolished, or at least made optional.
A lot of it is ego gratification, the idea that they are smarter than the average person, they see through the facade to reality. And it’s also the conspiracy mindset, that spreads. Believe one conspiracy theory, your more likely to accept other conspiracy theories. It’s actually an interesting question for psychology what drives the conspiracy mindset. They can’t all be schizophrenics.
Don’t discount the social/psychological phenomenon that C. S. Lewis called “The Inner Ring”, the general human tendency to gather into choruses to sing Tomorrow belongs to me. Neither forget the simple fact that rational thought is hard.
I’ve spent quite a few years trying to deal with Shakespeare deniers, who see an earl in every dearly and the family de Vere in every ever, or very, and who base their lives on the idea (somehow inescapably obvious to them) that Hamlet is a Mary-Sue.