Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 10
About This Presentation
Title:

Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories

Description:

Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:85
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 11
Provided by: humboxAcU2
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories


1
Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories
2
Conspiracy Theories
  • Fenster discussion pp1-2
  • Two propositions about conspiracy theories
  • Margins (believed only by extremists, about
    secret cabals)
  • Centre (believed believed by almost everyone,
    about almost anything)
  • Argue that CTs are integral to modern life
  • Example of Da Vinci Code examine Moon Landing.

3
History of the theories
  • 1969 Some sceptical opinions were voiced at the
    time
  • 1974 Bill Kaysing, We Never Went to the Moon
  • 1978 Capricorn One movie (Mars)
  • 1992 Ralph Rene, NASA Mooned America
  • 1997 James Collier Was it Only a Paper Moon?
  • 1999 David Percy Dark Moon (and in Fortean Times)
  • 2000 Marcus Allen in Nexus magazine
  • 2001 Bart Sibrel, A Funny Thing Happened on the
    Way to the Moon (DVD)
  • 2001 Fox TV special Conspiracy Theory Did We
    Land on the Moon?
  • And, of course, the web (3.8m hits on 10/09)

4
How many disbelieve?
  • 1970 Knight poll found 30 Americans were
    suspicious
  • 1999 Gallup poll found 6 doubtful, 5 dont know
  • 2001 Fox TV claimed 20 disbelieved
  • 2002 Popularity from MSNBC News report
  • 2006 Ditmar poll found 26 of 18-26 yr old
    college educated Americans were doubtful 10
    rated it highly unlikely that Americans landed on
    the moon. Not what we might expect

5
Details and Evidence
  • Scenarios
  • Complete hoax, partial hoax, failed technology,
    impossible
  • Motives
  • Cold War prestige or distraction, JFKs promise
  • Evidence
  • Photographs are the most popular evidence
  • See Mythbusters photo test
  • High quality images Aldrin 1 Aldrin 2 Aldrin
    3
  • 1/6 gravity
  • wires vs Mythbusters moonwalk test
  • The web gives multiple expert vs expert

6
Reasons for such belief?
  • Part of the general decline of trust in authority
    since 1990s (not just in government, also science
    other examples?) As such is actually also a
    theory about the present
  • Reveals our era has profound doubts about
    technology (global warming?)
  • Probably also a result of the achievement itself
    (could we repeat it today?)
  • Is retro-active (has grown recently, looks
    backwards, re-maps history)
  • All that makes it more likely to come from young,
    educated and sceptical people

7
Rebuttals
  • At first few, as the theory was not considered
    worth dignifying with a reply
  • NASAs attitude was one of dismissal
  • 2002 cancelled book by James Oberg
  • Has been left to websites such as Bad Astronomy
    and and Clavius
  • 2006 Discovery Channel produced Moon Hoax
    Challenged
  • 2007 moonwalker Charlie Duke In the Shadow of the
    Moon coda said
  • "We've been to the Moon nine times. Why would we
    fake it nine times, if we faked it?"
  • 2008 Mythbusters special meaning?

8
Wider and wider
  • Now part of the general mass of conspiracy
    theories about US government
  • And bigger theories about space such as Richard
    Hoagland and Dark Mission
  • Subject of Spoofs The Onion and the result
  • Complexity - hoaxed hoaxes. See Fact or Fake
    about Stanley Kubrick

9
Final Answers?
  • Final answers?
  • NASAs return to the Moon in 2020 (if the Chinese
    arent first), more than 50 years later
  • The relics still on the lunar surface
  • New images of the landers
  • But does that really close the book?

10
Conclusions
  • What does the popularity of this conspiracy
    theory tell us?
  • About the actual subject (the moon landing)
  • About wider concerns (about technology, national
    self-confidence, achievement?)
  • About how evidence, belief and imagination work
    in CTs?
  • About how these relate not to the 1960s but to
    the 2000s?
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com