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September 20, 2005
What do you mean, return to the moon?
I'm an unashamed space-nut. I'd fly on a shuttle tomorrow if I had the chance. I mentioned a few days back that congress had approved funding for the return to the moon. This attracted the attention of someone who snidely said "Return? We never went there". When pressed for more details, he mentioned a TV show and a few documentaries, but couldn't remember any details.
I'm no stranger to conspiracy theories. I worked in a capacity that required me to deal with irate, confused and strange members of the public on the phone (nutters) and in person (3D-nutters). Invariably, once a week, someone would have a theory. These ranged from the paranoid ("the neighbours are trying to kill me by pumping an invisible gas into my house through the ventilation ducts, I can't tell the police, they're in on it") to the convoluted ("I can prove Bill Clinton's hair dresser was involved in the JFK assassination, here's all the links between people on a graph" - this one was later expanded to include Queen Elizabeth's drug trafficing) and the anti-semetic ("I am not a jew-hater. But nor am I a jew-lover" followed by the most diabolical ranting).
There were also the regulars. One, Mr Simmons (not his name) had a penchant for explaining things and saying "Take it in. Take it all in. Like an injection." whilst miming shooting up, had managed to combine several traits. And eventually, I drew the short straw and had to go out and usher him out of the building with as little disturbance as possible. This involved humouring him for a few minutes.
He offered vast folders of collected clippings, evidence of the Zionist conspiracy. Foolishly, I then let him speak. They faked the holocaust, controled the government, set up puppet organizations (Templars, Freemasons) and all the other usual stuff. I thanked him kindly (by name) for such information, told him it would be checked and acted upon immediately.
And then introduced myself as Abraham Lipovetski (not actually my name, but nicely zionist sounding). Strangely enough, at that point he left with speed and did not return for quite some time.
So, the old "moon landing was a hoax" came up. I'd not seen the show, which aparently aired on Fox some time ago, but there are plenty of sites on the net that give the same sorts of ideas bandwidth.
They are all so deeply convinced of the 'truth' that they start with a conclusion and shoehorn evidence into it. Anything not fitting into the theory is discarded as a NASA fabrication.
Most have simple explanations, especially the one about the absence of stars in lunar photographs. Anyone who has ever taken photographs at night (or knows of shutters and exposures) should be able to work out why.
Detailed rebuttals can be found at the excellent site Bad Astronomy (there are a host of others debunking out there as well).
The upside of reading more about the 'hoax' is that I discovered a few interesting (debunking) sites, and the entertaining Buzz Aldrin-Bart Sibrel video clip.
Sibrel is a hoax theory proponent with a history of hounding astronauts. In this case he cornered Aldrin and his neice, stood in their way as they tried to leave the area and shouted directly in Aldrin's face, shoving a Bible into Aldrin's ribs several times, calling Aldrin a "a coward, a liar, and a thief". Dr Aldrin (72 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches, 160 pounds) punched Sibrel (37 years old, 6 feet, 2 inches, 250 pound) in the face, claiming that he felt forced to defend himself and his companion.
Buzz has a great right cross. (I have no sympathy for harassing nutters).
As the X-files say,
The truth is out there. The lies are in your head.
Or something like that.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at September 20, 2005 02:40 PM
Comments
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