Wrong shadows, James Bond and a secret photographer – why half of our countries and 10% of US residents do not believe in flying to the moon
The progress of science and technology does not exclude the conspiracy picture of the world. On the contrary, the more complex the world becomes, the higher the demand for simplified models of its explanation. The theme of space is no exception. Much of what has to do with it is shrouded in rumors, speculation and myths.
We have selected the most tempting conspiracy theories about space since its exploration. They work on the same principles as any other conspiracy theory – they exploit the imperfections of human thinking. How exactly this happens, we briefly analyze for each of the theories. Read also:
- Who was the first to fly into space.
- How do stories of contact with aliens appear.
- Who and why believes in a flat earth.
First man on the moon
Spoiler: astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the moon
On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. Millions of people around the world watched the Apollo 11 mission live.
Andrew Chaikin, writer and science journalist, notes in A Man on the Moon that almost immediately rumors began to circulate that the US simply didn’t have the technology needed to get people to and from the moon.
There were also more cautious skeptics. They thought there might have been an Apollo 11 launch, but the risk of failure was too great. When the whole world watches the live broadcast, the prestige of the country is at stake. Therefore, NASA and the government allegedly decided to prepare a plan “B” and film the “landing” in advance on Earth.
The main thesis of the “moon skeptics” is this: what millions of people saw live was a staged shooting at one of the Hollywood studios. There was even the name of Stanley Kubrick, the famous director and author of the film “A Space Odyssey 2001”, which was released a year earlier, in 1968.
It’s funny that Hollywood also did not stand aside. In one of the Bond series, Diamonds Are Forever (1971), James Bond hijacks a lunar rover and escapes by driving through a set that appears to be recording the same moon landing.
Arguments in favor of the “lunar scam” have been heard for more than half a century:
For each of these questions, as well as for many others on this topic, of course, there have been answers for a long time. They are in the form of five-minute videos, detailed analyzes, including from astronomers, and entire reports with links to all kinds of materials.
However, the most concise and succinct objection to the “Moon scam” was given by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a well-known astrophysicist and popularizer of science:
“Have you even thought about what it takes to fake the landing on the moon? All the blueprints for the rocket and its launch, the hundreds of thousands of man-hours of well-documented engineering work, must be fabricated. It seems to me that it is much easier to just fly to the moon.
And finally, the participants in such a conspiracy should have been not only the US government and tens of thousands of NASA employees working on the project, but also their main strategic adversary – the USSR. But the “moon skeptics” are not confused by this either. That’s what they write: the USSR entered into a “lunar conspiracy” with the Americans. After all, they could have made public his own “space secrets”, including about “phantom cosmonauts” who allegedly had been in space before Gagarin.
Why do they believe it
- Echoes of the Cold War
The theme of the “lunar conspiracy” originally arose in the context of the technological race between the USSR and the USA, which the USSR eventually lost. Therefore, it is not surprising that in our countries it is still tied to relations between countries – the worse they are, the less one wants to believe in the merits of a longtime opponent.
Over the past 20 years, the number of our countries who do not believe that the Americans were on the moon has almost doubled. In 2000, there were 28% of them, in 2011 – 40% (while only 41% believed that there was a landing), in 2018 – 57%, in 2020 – 49%. In 2018, the Lunar Conspiracy became the sixth most frequently mentioned conspiracy theory in the Russian media.
- distrust of elites
In the US, the numbers are much more modest. Yet distrust of those in power is strong enough for some to question even a matter of national pride. A 1999 Gallup poll showed that 6% of Americans believed in the “moon scam” and 5% had no clear opinion.
In 2001, Fox aired the film Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, in which the voice-over of an actor from the X-Files series voiced conspiracy theories. The film was watched by 15 million viewers, after which, according to Fox representatives, the share of those who doubt the reality of the lunar landing rose to 20%.
In 2019, one of the American satellite Internet providers decided to conduct their own survey. According to them, the proportion of “moon skeptics” in the United States is 10%. Curiously, 75% of them believe that aliens have already landed on Earth.
How conspiracy theory works
The conspiracy theory, also known as a conspiracy theory, presents the events in the world as the result of the action of certain forces, usually mysterious and very influential. Conspiracies explain both simply resonant events, such as terrorist attacks, and global processes such as managing the world. In the conspiracy picture of the world, everything is filled with intent (usually unkind) and there is a certain puppeteer who pulls the strings for his own benefit. Why this happens, we analyzed in detail in the material “Why do people believe in conspiracy theories.”
Conspiracy theorists are increasingly calling themselves not conspiracy theorists, but skeptics. Their philosophy is to doubt everything. In everything except their own mental attitudes.