What kind of idiot still thinks the moon landing and 9/11 are conspiracies when they've been debunked?

Answer 1

The kind of idiot about whom Groucho Marx once quipped:

"He may look like an idiot, he may talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you! He really is an idiot!!"

Answer 2

I take Karl Popper’s line in this: there is nothing wrong with speculation, no matter how wild and woolly it is. The only important thing is to look at the evidence and weigh it up. So I don’t think there is anything wrong at all with raising the idea that the Moon landings were faked. There HAVE been successful conspiracies before. But in the case of the Moon landings every piece of “evidence” purporting to demonstrate the fraud of the landings has been explained. From memory, here are just some of claims made and the explanations:
1.
Claim: The dust floats around like it was in air.
Answer: Dust is still very light, especially on the Moon. It will take a while for it to settle. That makes it look like it is floating in air.
2.
Claim: Similarly, when the flag is planted in the ground, it looks like it is waving in the air.
Answer: The flag was not waving in air, it was undulating just like a rope does it you hang one end from a height and move one end to and fro. A wave motion in the rope is formed which has nothing to do with air currents.
3.
Claim: Stars should look non-twinkly and be perfectly visible in the vacuum of the Moon.
Answer: The stars did not twinkle, and the reason they are not as bright as you might suppose is because you are looking at film of them, not the actual sky as the astronauts saw it. Night sky is notoriously difficult to film, and even today, few cinematic films manage to get good footage of starry nights. Usually the have to be faked.

4.
Claim: shadows should be pure black and white on the Moon, and be cast by only one light source – the Sun. But the footage shows some shadows that have grey tones, and various penumbras, which is what you would get if the scene was lit up by several light sources, as it would have been in a studio.
Answer: Lighting on the Moon is not as dramatically different on the Moon as some might suppose. The rocks all around the astronauts reflect light, providing secondary light sources, and there is refraction as well as reflection, and all this causes shadows with graduated tones, and the appearance of multiple light sources.
5.
Claim:You can see the flag shining brightly, even though the sun is on the OTHER side of it.
Answer: Yes, you can. But this is because the flag material lets light through. This was experimentally demonstrated from flags made of the same material in desert conditions at night using a powerful torch to simulate the Sun.

There are others but all have simple answers that completely explain the phenomena. For some reason it is rarely mentioned that the astronauts left crystal plates behind which, even today, are used as reflective devices for microwave beams aimed from Earth. The measurements of round-trip flight of a beam from Earth to Moon and back gives the Earth-Moon distance to within centimetres, and this in turn provides valuable data about the composition and shape of the Earth and the Moon.

I’m not sure if sceptics think EVERY moon mission was faked in similar fashion to the first. If not, they would have to explain why the footage from those missions look just like the first one does. If not, the whole thing becomes even more preposterous. It should be remembered that the Moon Landing was a great triumph over the Soviet Union, which was attempting to reach the Moon ahead of the Yanks. Don’t you think that the Ruskies would have blown the whistle on any US caper to cheat their way to success.

Nevertheless, I DON’T think the idea of conspiracy theories should be greeted with derision just because they hypothesise a conspiracy. Like any assertion, no matter how apparently silly, the evidence for it should be examined in a rational and scientific way. There have been government conspiracies in the past. The Contra / Sandanista affair under Ronald Reagan was one. Under this, there are innumerable scams and rip-offs by big business involving conspiracies, fraud, deceit, swindles and the like. Moreover, not all conspiracy theories are equal. I think that the Moon Landing one is demonstrably wrong, but does that mean there is necessarily nothing to the ones involving the assassination of President Kennedy, or the death of Princess Dianna? Each conspiracy theory should be looked at, claim by claim. The ones involving Kennedy and Dianna, for example, might not be true either, but they have rather more interesting “loose ends” than does the Moon Landing one. We should always keep an open mind. Tomorrow, there might be a conspiracy theory which is real, and whose consequences are of great importance to us. We should not pooh-pooh it just because it suggests that things are not always what they seem.

Answer 3

Some people just refuse to see facts, mostly because they don't understand the science involved. The moon landing was perfectly within our technological capability in 1969 and it was just a matter of wanting to bad enough. Some people believe that CD's and DVD's are outside the realms of human technology and therefore must have come from UFO's. This is nonsense since we've known how to modulate laser beams for decades now. The problem is that these people INSIST on being heard and only see one point of view - theirs. I always refer them to Occam's Razor - all things being equal the simplest explanation is the most likely one. Is it more likely that 9/11 was the actions of well-funded and highly motivated terrorists or a giant government conspiracy that would necessarily involve thousands of people keeping their mouth shut? Keep in mind they couldn't even keep Watergate a secret and only eight people knew. To keep a hoaxed moon landing secret would mean that the thousands of people involved in the Apollo program would have to keep quiet. If anyone seriously believes that then there's just no hope for them and arguing with them is futile.

Answer 4

It's terribly discouraging and an indictment of our educational system. As I read some of the conspiracy "evidence", I shake my head in disgust that our educational system has failed us so. To someone remotely literate in science, the conspiracy argument is laughable because it becomes clear that the very evidence that conspiracy theorists cite, like the black sky, only proves conclusively that we went to the Moon. Even more pathetic are the 9/11 conspiracy claims.

The problem is that people are not being taught how to independently evaluate both sides of an issue (be it scientific, political, or whatever). They blindly flock towards the sensationalized side, and do not understand logical reasoning.

But I'm starting to learn that there's no point in arguing with them. The conspiracy crowd, in general, doesn't want to hear that the government isn't lying to them. Hoax advocates don't research their allegations, and come across as fools because their claims contradict even basic scientific principles.

Answer 5

Personally, I think all the rumors out there that the moon landing was faked are being circulated by the Govermint to make Americans look stoopid, so other countries will underestimate us. In other words, there's a conspiracy going on by the Govermint to make people think that people believe in conspiracies!

Note-- tongue firmy planted in cheek. And, yes, I know how to spell works like "government" and "stupid".


Edit: DaPimp, I truly had not seen the episode of South Park you're referring to, but it doesn't surprise me. It's the kind of twisted concept that makes South Park great! I really didn't see that one, though.

Answer 6

The kind who like to be complete assholes in every phase of their lives. This stuff is beyond moronic but much easier than learning something. These ideas amount to little more than mental masturbation for those intellectually bankrupt enough to embrace them. Posting them in on message boards related to other topics (like this one) amount to vandalism, like spray painting or defacing an historic site or public park. The choice of a science Q & A board (as opposed to one dedicated to breast feeding or one stroke painting) proves the intent to annoy. These views are only going to be offensive to educated people.


It's easy to blame the school systems, but it's really just part of the general readvent of barbarism on a global scale (barbarism historically is what you get when you combine advanced technology with primative cultural values). Marshall Maclulan predicted the global village would result fro improved travel and communication.. Unfortunately this crap just logically follows.

Answer 7

Probably Tom Cruise

Answer 8

Rosie O'Donnell

Answer 9

They´re called Fox tv viewers.

Answer 10

The kind of idiots are qualified idiots.