Tonight I made the mistake of watching one of the live streams replaying the first human exploration of the Moon in real time. The moment itself, of course, remains momentus even 50 years on; but I'm deeply saddened by the ignorance displayed in the commentary stream, where it seems perhaps 40 or 50 percent of people have signed on simply to decry one of humanity's greatest achievements as a hoax.
Some days I weep for us all.
I just took a look at some of that commentary, and you are right, it is disheartening. On the other hand, this is one of the few venues these cranks have to flaunt their deranged, unprovable theorems and to disparage any opposition as ‘govt psy-ops’, so of course they will push their arguments to the limit, vilifying anyone who dares to ask for a rationale or evidence to support their views.
ReplyDeleteIntellectually, I accept that such a hoax might be possible, but pulling it off would have required more effort than the actual landing! And so, most of us refrain from engaging with these demented trolls, and console ourselves with the knowledge and satisfaction that our narrative, even though it is not universally accepted, is taken as truth for a vast majority of reasonable sentients, and an even wider majority of those whose decisions have an impact on the world.
It’s a bit like faith, strangely.