{"id":909,"date":"2009-07-14T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=909"},"modified":"2009-07-15T08:07:37","modified_gmt":"2009-07-15T14:07:37","slug":"conspiracy-theorists-and-the-moon-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/07\/14\/conspiracy-theorists-and-the-moon-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"conspiracy theorists and the moon landing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The New York Times<\/a> ran an article yesterday about the ‘vocal minority’ of individuals who believe that man landing on the moon was all a hoax. All of this as many Americans celebrate the anniversary of that historic event…<\/p>\n

The Times reports:<\/p>\n

Forty years after men first touched the lifeless dirt of the Moon \u2014 and they did. Really. Honest. \u2014 polling consistently suggests that some 6 percent of Americans believe the landings were faked and could not have happened. The series of landings, one of the greatest gambles of the human race, was an elaborate hoax developed to raise national pride, many among them insist.<\/p>\n

They examine photos from the missions for signs of studio fakery, and claim to be able to tell that the American flag was waving in what was supposed to be the vacuum of space. They overstate the health risks of traveling through the radiation belts that girdle our planet; they understate the technological prowess of the American space program; and they cry murder behind every death in the program, linking them to an overall conspiracy.<\/p>\n

And while there is no credible evidence to support such views, and the sheer unlikelihood of being able to pull off such an immense plot and keep it secret for four decades staggers the imagination, the deniers continue to amass accusations to this day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And what does a sociologist have to say about this?<\/p>\n

Ted Goertzel, a professor of sociology at\u00a0Rutgers University<\/a> who has studied conspiracy theorists, said \u201cthere\u2019s a similar kind of logic behind all of these groups, I think.\u201d For the most part, he explained, \u201cThey don\u2019t undertake to prove that their view is true\u201d so much as to \u201cfind flaws in what the other side is saying.\u201d And so, he said, argument is a matter of accumulation instead of persuasion. \u201cThey feel if they\u2019ve got more facts than the other side, that proves they\u2019re right.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A law professor weighs in as well…<\/p>\n

Mark Fenster, a professor at the\u00a0University of Florida<\/a> Levin College of Law who has written extensively on conspiracy theories, said he sees similarities between people who argue that the Moon landings never happened and those who insist that the 9\/11 attacks were planned by the government and that\u00a0President Obama<\/a>\u2019s birth certificate is fake: at the core, he said, is a polarization so profound that people end up with an unshakable belief that those in power \u201csimply can\u2019t be trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The emergence of the Internet as a communications medium, he noted, makes it possible for once-scattered believers to find one another. \u201cIt allows the theory to continue to exist, to continue to be available \u2014 it\u2019s not just some old dusty books on the half-price shelf.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times ran an article yesterday about the ‘vocal minority’ of individuals who believe that man landing on the moon was all a hoax. All of this as many Americans celebrate the anniversary of that historic event… The Times reports: Forty years after men first touched the lifeless dirt of the Moon \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[39112,665,12],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-culture","tag-science","tag-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}