Is Moon Landing Crackpottery Purely American?

Question

Good god! How many moon landing hoax questions can there be? Sheesh! Moon Hoax crazies, creationist crazies, Pi-is-rational crazies, and even "Einstein was WrOnG@!@!!!" crazies all seem to be staunchly American.

I wonder if there was a segment of the ancient Chinese population that who went around talking about how the Great Wall was all a fake government consipiracy...

...or ancient Romans who insisted that the aqueducts never existed.

...or medieval Christians who believed that the Gothic cathedrals were just too damn big and beautiful to have been built by men.

Or is it purely a modern American phenomenon?

Answer 1

Actually the rise and decline of ancient civilizations often led to the attribution of heroic qualities to those that came before, especially when the earlier generation had built structures and the knowhow forgotten. In the Iliad you see the warriors raise huge stones "such as ten men could not lift today, men such as they are now." It was assumed that they had to have been stronger to build the buildings they made. So it has been fairly common to attribute fantastic things to non-human agency, which we have also seen in recent theories of "alien construction" of the pyramids--though a French architect has recently proven it would take only 4,000 people to build a pyramid in a few years (was on MSN news on the web for quite some time).



The other side of your question has to do with the U.S. and here the situation is pretty dismal. Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is excellent and is as relevant today as when it was written (c. 1960).



The moon hoax theory's popularity is a direct result of the FOX film on the topic which continues to circulate in DVD form. FOX is the news station of (a) people that don't read and (b) people that vote Republican. Serious conservatives don't watch FOX. They read the Wall Street Journal. FOX is for the masses, and the theory that anything goes to get ratings is OK, and is certainly tolerated as giving the public "what it wants." In any case it's the masses that we get here, not the readers of the Wall Street Journal.



What makes me despondent about it is that the American moon program was our most outstanding civilizational achievement. The remains of the moon program will be on the moon long after all our problems and political disagreements are dust. Even when the metal in the moon landers turns to slag as the sun expands into its final phases, the pure artificial metal compound will still be proof that once there was a great nation that had brilliant people, and brave people, who did an immense thing that shows how powerful a force life can be. The moon program is our pyramids, our cathedrals.



So these people who believe these theories will lead impoverished lives where the full potential of what it is to be human will not be known. They could be out using telescopes and gazing at the heavens. They could be out fishing. They could be reading a book. They coudl be doing anything. Instead they are taking in FOX's latest merchandising technique for selling prime time ad spaces to the makers of toothpaste and car insurance.



And that's the way it is.....but do pick up Hoftstadter's book. Reading it is like therapy.



GN

Answer 2

GN's answer is extremely insightful - if you haven't read it, you should.



This came up a short while ago in a different forum and someone suggested that some people will disagree simply to reject whatever is mainstream. I agree with that assessment.



Other people, though, genuinely believe that the landings were faked and that they have evidence supporting their allegations. This highlights a pervasive educational problem in America. It's scary that Fox, with its flimsy, unscientific "evidence", was able to convince a lot of people that the Moon landings were hoaxes. To someone who is literate in science, the notion that the landings were faked is entirely laughable. Meanwhile, the conspiracy crowd is staunchly unreceptive to even the most conclusive and straightforward scientific evidence. It's a scary trend that doesn't bode well for a society that is becoming increasingly dependent upon science and technology.



Fox News has a well-earned reputation for being biased. So it's natural to expect some slant in their stories. But its documentary on the Moon hoax was an absolute disgrace, an ugly tapestry of lies, ulterior motives, and ignorance. It's disheartening that a major media entity would air such a tendentious and misleading program simply to boost its ratings - and profits.

Answer 3

The answers of gn, nick s, ZeroByte, clittlefield22 above (particularly gn's though), have finally shown me that intelligent people do pop into Yahoo Answers occasionally. Great thoughts people - I would feel quite comfortable to be stranded in a lifeboat with all of you. At least the conversation would be good, and thought provoking, and not riddled with opinion, idiocy and general 'untelligence'.



There are Moon Landing Hoax crazies down here in Australia as well. Which is even more pathetic since we had a significant role to play in the Apollo missions (Honeysuckle Creek tracking station etc), and in addition to this there used to be a lunar ranging station down in Ororral near the nations capital that used to bounce laser light off the mirrors left on the surface by the astronauts ("Maybe there's naturally reflective surfaces there??" was one crazies reason). But no - that's not enough to fan down the myriad of complete d**kslappers who are hell-bent on convincing everyone they see that it was all filmed in a studio.



But what ZeroByte said above is true unfortunately: "We're [the USA] the number 1 source of media in the world right now, and rolling out the idiots is one surefire way to get ratings." Those idiots roll their way right through the screen into our lives down here too. I can feel the population getting dumber by the minute thanks to that glowing box (or panel these days) in the living room. I'm just glad we don't get Fox news.

Answer 4

I think you can blame the media and the internet.



The media loves feeding the masses with hype and conspiracy - it gets audiences.



Then the whole thing is proliferated over the internet.



The internet is the most fantastic source of knowledge ever, but unfortunately it holds the record for garbage as well.



I don't think it is just American to believe the moon landing hoax, but there is a large proportion of them that believe it.



America has amazing contrasts. It is one of the most passionately patriotic countries on the one hand, but has a massive opposite element who think the government and other agencies are constantly out to get them and cover things up.



I guess freedom of speech has a down side.

Answer 5

Google's website didn't even post one of its famous "holiday google" graphs for the anniversary until a little while ago due to so many complaints for ignoring the anniversary. BTW, the idea of a faked moon landing is almost as plausible as 9/11 conpsiracy theories which is as plausible as hillary clinton have skinny ankles.

Answer 6

Great answer, GN. I'd like to add my own personal experience to your list. Just this past weekend, I was out setting up my telescope in my dreadfully light-polluted apartment complex in order to show my friend's nieces the planet Jupiter. A young woman walks by (probably 18-21 years old) and asked what I was doing. When I told her I was going to look at Jupiter, she acted like I was lying, and didn't believe that such a thing could be done. As if doing extraordinary things is only for those on reality TV or for rich or otherwise extraordinary people.



That's it in a nutshell to me. (You can't look at Jupiter!) Oh yes, I certainly can, and for a meager $250 at Wal Mart to boot! Too bad I had so much difficulty getting its allignment callibrated that she lost interest and left before I could show her. You can actually see all 4 Galilean satellites right now!



Also, on the other hand, I think we're getting an overdose of the bad side of our society. I think if you went 'round meeting regular people from all walks of life, you'd find them more reasonable, down-to-earth, and educated than the image you get on TV. We're the number 1 source of media in the world right now, and rolling out the idiots is one surefire way to get ratings. I have to believe that to use the media and entertainment views one gets of America is to rely on a skewed data set.



At least that's the only thought that keeps me able to cling to sanity. ;)

Answer 7

Hi. It is human nature to doubt the accomplishments of others when they do not understand how to do it. Not just an American thing.