There seems to be a lot of new threads from people claiming that the moon landings never happened and then only offer one or two questionable “facts” to back up their claim. They also don’t bother looking at the other threads on this same subject so the knowledgeable posters on boards have to keep repeating themselves over and over. They refuse to try to support other posters that believe in the same thing – rather than continuing an existing thread they will create a new one and say the exact same thing. Are these the same couple of people using different names? What caused this sudden interest? Was there a rerun of the Fox hoax show or a new one on cable or something? How many times does The Bad Astronomer have to give his web page: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html. How many times does each “flaw” in the Apollo story have to be explained and shown to be no flaw? Can this subject ever be laid to rest?
I am interested in finding out what is going on with these doubters and not just flaming them, so I didn’t put this into the pit.
PS - This is my first new thread, so I finally got off my duff to stick my toe into the waters of the Teeming Millions.
Lately there seem to be quite a lot of newbies starting threads that have already been done to death. They also seem to think that they’ve absolutely scooped all of us in the process.
What? Somebody already started an abortion thread in Great Debates?
It was pretty much the Fox special, yup. Where the magic talking box goes, a small but noticeable number of people will follow.
You also have to keep in mind that quite a few folks were disappointed that the world didn’t end on the eve of 2000. Most conspiracy theories that get media time were pretty old hat by then–alien-government-cover ups-Secret Master hegemony is mainstream now, no one really cares anymore that a quantum indeterminate number of shooters capped JFK, and so forth. Reviving Moon Hoax theories gives an outlet to that need for a new Hidden Truth. In a handful of years, it’ll be something else.
Ah, the Greatest Government Cover Up of them all! The Y2K Bug really did end civilization as we know it…but They are covering up The End of the World!!!
I heard that the paranoid conspiracy theorist webserver went down because of the CIA black helicopters full of UN troops swarmed over the webserver complex stamping everything with the mark of the beast while filming coverage to be used in next week’s fake invasion of Kreplachistan.
Somebody knocked out the power cord and the aluminum foil shielding shorted out the works, starting a fire.
It’s the lack of new news (or maybe it’s a conspiracy!! /me runs to my basement w/ a 2 month supply of food and enough ammo to shoot the red-neck local cops when they inform me that I have to pay my taxes and that no, I’m not on territory of an Iranian colony…)
Well, I’m working on a different computer today than I usually do, and it doesn’t have my bookmarks. So to find the SDMB this morning I searched for it on Google and noticed it was filed in the category:
Science > Science in Society > Skeptical Inquiry > Hoaxes > Lunar Landing
That stood out because I figured SDMB would be classified as a message board (it’s not, that’s the only category it’s listed in). Perhaps that is how these people are finding us.
Well, Jet Jaguar, that might explain where some of them are coming from. But I always thought of “Skeptical Inquiry” as meaning that the person is doubtful but willing to look at the evidence and only then make a final decision.
The problem is that the event is beginning to fade from living memory. Crap, many of you will say, but aside from the real nutjobs, most of these inquiries are coming from younger people who don’t know jack shit about history and only slightly more about the world around them.
It was in the mid-1970s/early 1980s, or about thirty years after the fact, that the disgusting Holocaust deniers started gaining purchase beyond the lunatic fringe, for the same reasons. I think part of the “reasoning” for both stems from the same mistake, which places the past in the context of the present:
“We don’t efficiently execute millions of people today, so how could we have possibly done it then?”
“We’re not running around on the moon today, so how could it possibly have happened before?”
Yes, the Fox program definitely blew the smoulder into a full flame, but this moon hoax crap was something well known to lots of us bullshit spotters long before then. On a related note, I give it another ten to fifteen years before a Reagan Conspiracy gets significant air time, fifteen to twenty before the Challenger was deliberately exploded (and yes, ignorant fools are putting that argument together right now), and twenty to twenty-five before Slobodan Milosevic’s gang of executioners claim their exploits never happened.
On the other hand, the Internet and the voracious appetite for controversy and the sales it now generates may speed that timetable up significantly. One thing I can guarantee is this phenomenon won’t go away.
It’s one of the main reasons why we’re here, and why people like us will continue to do what we do. We’re trying to keep the history of the world from slipping back into the morass of ignorance and myth. Thanks to all of you for doing your part.
The scary thing sofaking, is that I think you’re right. People didn’t see it with their own eyes so it didn’t happen.
I actually had a run-in with a true-blue flat earth believer a while back. I cannot understand these people. Min you, this woman got as far as grade 8.
Fox’s special “debunking” the moon landing was disgusting, and may have given new life to the deniers’ cause, but let’s face it: Rupert Murdoch was merely PANDERING to those idiots- he didn’t create them. He fed their fantasies- he didn’t instill those fantasies in the first place.
I blame (if “blame” is the right word) the Internet, more than anything else. Before the Internet, there were only a tiny handful of nut jobs who doubted the reality of the moon landing, and those few nuts were isolated from each other.
Today, the Internet ensures that no fruitcake need ever be isolated. He can easily find kindred spirits, and recruit more.
Sofa King’s right - the more time there is between then and now, the easier it is for these nutjobs to convince the vaguely ignorant common person that their crackpot theories have some kind of credence. As more first-hand witnesses grow old and die, more “holocost hoax” crap will abound. Same with the “no moon landings” people, unless we load all the conspiracy theorists in a rocket and show them the landing site.
Hmmm…not a bad idea…
