Real or Fake: let's break it down
You’re probably beginning to wonder what the information presented in parts 1, 2, and 3 means for conspiracy theories. Let’s break that down along with a well known conspiracy theory: the moon landing. Its been around 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the moon. Theories surrounding the moon landing have been frequently debunked but there is still a small fraction of the population that believes in them. The evidence for these claims comes from the photo’s and video’s taken of the mission. There are 5 commonly cited sources for this, along with explanations as to why they aren’t viable.
First watch this short video that shows the astronauts getting off the rocket and beginning to place the American Flag.
Now lets look at the evidence from Rich Cohen's "How Stanley Kubrick Staged the Moon Landing".
1.
The waving flag: The moon exists in the vacuum of space, without wind the flag should stay in place but in videos people can clearly see the flag waving. This occurred because Buzz Aldrin had to twist the pole to put it in the soil.
2.
The sun: Some people say that the sun should be the only light source, but shadows of the astronauts go in multiple ways which indicates that there must have been other light sources. To some “other light sources” means lights from a studio. However, there were actually multiple sources of light to account for this. One source was the sun but there was also light being reflected from the earth, the rocket, and even the space suits.
3.
The rocks: People argue that there should be impressions and markings there should be markings on the rocks from when jets were used for the spaceship to leave the moon. This suggests that a special effects department was used. However, because the gravity of the moon is so much less than that of the earth, sending the rocket back into space didn’t require much power from the jets and so no scorch marks are present
4.
The stars: In the moon landing videos and pictures there is no evidence of stars. Given that the moon landing took place in space people question why you can’t see any stars. However the moon landing occurred in the moon's morning, you can’t see stars when the sun is out or in a light filled place (like a landing zone) just like you cant see stars on earth in those situations.
5.
The filming: People question who filmed Neil going down the ladder if he was the first person to step foot on the moon. This final piece of evidence is debunked in that there was a camera on the side of the lunar module to film.
Using the knowledge gained from the rest of this conspiracy theory exploration we can begin to understand how this conspiracy operates and why it’s still believed after so many years. First of all this conspiracy relies heavily on the “Us versus Them” phenomenon discussed in part 1. The Apollo 11 moonwalk occurred during an area known as the space race. Between 1955 and 1975 the United States and Russia were competing to send the first people to the moon. There is 2 different easy that “Us versus Them” can be seen. The first is the United State (us) versus Russia (them), this gives fuel to conspiracy theories because it provides an important motive for the United States to fake the moon landings: winning the space race. The second is the people (us) versus the government (them). Here the people are the innocent victims and the government is the manipulative deceiving entity that works against the people. Peoples skepticism in the technology and analysis of the government's motives give people reason to believe that the government created faked the moon landing.
Next we have “confirmation bias.” The explanation for how this comes into play involves people's belief about society as a whole. If people have doubts about the technology involved in going to space or if they believe that the government tends to deceive the public then the moon landing being faked fits into their world view. Via the confirmation bias phenomenon we know that people are more likely to believe things that already fit into their world view than they are to change what they believe.
Finally, we have how people interact with the moon landing conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are spread by those who believe in them. This comment was posted 5 months ago on the Apollo 11 moonwalk montage.
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By reading comments like these and engaging with videos that promote the theory, the conspiracy becomes more appealing. In order to avoid falling into the conspiracy trap it is important to consider the material carefully. For example, is it a little suspicious that the commenters friend refused to provide pictures of the set up? Currently NASA employs about 17,000 people, and it also employed a lot of people during the days of the space race. It is also necessary to read what these people have to say about the authenticity of the moon landing as well.
The information presented here demonstrates how the moon landing conspiracy plays on the brain's psychological shortcomings. It spreads through exposure to people who believe and promote such theories without acknowledging the ways they have been debunked.
Images to the right taken from nasa.gov (https://www.nasa.gov/apollo11-gallery)
