[I try to start my day writing 250 words on anything. I’ll post one every Tuesday until I run out of good ones.]
I once went to a small press expo to support young creators who self-publish comics and zines. I’d just bought something from a young woman, maybe 20, who saw my “NASA” baseball cap and jokingly asked if I were an astronaut.
“No, just a fan of their work,” I said. “I’m old enough to remember the Moon landings first-hand.”
“If you really believe they happened,” she laughed.
If I hadn’t already paid, I’d have walked away.
I don’t understand Moon-landing denial, and am dumbfounded by the arrogance that accompanies it. No evidence or reason can persuade true believers. They make the same foolish points, as if they’re the first to notice that Apollo photos don’t show stars (due to the fast exposures needed to photograph astronauts in white spacesuits in full sunlight). Overhead photos of Apollo landing sites by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) are dismissed because they’re from NASA, and similar images from Chinese and Indian spacecraft are dismissed because they’re from foreigners.
Worse, I see people online scoffing at the idea that humans have sent probes to other planets—photos from Mars, Jupiter or Saturn are “obviously CGI”—or that the International Space Station is orbiting Earth despite the fact that sometimes you can actually look up and see it.
The Internet really is a cesspool of idiocy and willful ignorance that, along with recent politics, tests my faith in the entire human experiment. Our tragedy is that we can be great, but so many refuse to try.
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2 comments:
My latest reply to "the moon landings were faked" is to ask if they've ever watched old "Lost in Space" episodes. One look at "Robot" and the interiors of the Jupiter ought to convince anyone that we didn't have the technology/techniques to "fake" space travel/low gravity. Through modern eyes, the old videos do look fake. BUT compare them to contemporary sci fi of the time, and suddenly they're very real.
Susan, absolutely, good point. The "state of the art" in 1969-72 wasn't anywhere near good enough to fake it. And don't even start on the state of CGI in that era (hint for the kids: it involved lots of ASCII characters typed in black ink on rolls of white paper).
Are you my old lab colleague Susan Smith? If so, I hope you're doing well with teaching, life and everything. All my best wishes, my friend! (And if you're a different Susan Smith, I still wish you well!)
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