On the moon landing conspiracy...

I was duped today. I couldn't believe it. I was reading google news, and there it was, one of the headlines, with big marking of "the satire", about Neil Armstrong turning around and admitting to the conspiracy theory, and I thought it's true! I failed to notice the "satire" alert.

But of course, I was marveled, given how reticent and media-shy Neil Armstrong had been ever since he's been a national hero as the first man-on-the-moon. What I did after reading that satire was probably what most people would do, which is to find out more about the conspiracy theory on the moon landing, all the proponent and opponent arguments. I never put much stock into any conspiracy theory, hence even though the moon landing conspiracy has been around for so long, I never bother to look into the argument for such conspiracy.

My first stop was YouTube, since I want to see the actual moon landing broadcast in 1969. I want to see the real thing first, then all the arguments for/against it. There's no shortage of footage about all the arguments against the moon landing authenticity, including the impossibility of the rippling of the flag, to the footprint, to the man-in-shadow, and more. I must admit, the arguments sound pretty impressive. While I know how adamant conspiracy theorists are usually, I must say too, that I'm kind of taken aback by the great length these people went in proving their points.

So, I thought, there might really be some merits in the moon landing conspiracy. When my husband came home in the afternoon, I exclaimed to him that Neil Armstrong has come out supporting the conspiracy theory. When he got to his computer, looked in the news, opened up the article that I read it from, and asked me if that's where I read it from, I said yah. That had him fallen off his chair laughing at my gullibility. He said, "it's from The Onion!" And then, I realized I was duped. It's funny that normally he's the more gullible one, but this one I fell for it.

Judging by the user comments in those YouTube videos on moon landing conspiracy, I was not alone in getting duped. Quite alot of people thought they read the real article on Armstrong's change of heart. It's almost funny, but it also goes to show how easy something untrue can spread like wild fire on the web.