I saw the Fox TV show, and it made me wonder. So I looked into it in more detail. In my searches I found Bad Astronomy, and as I looked in more detail and studied more material it soon became apparent that one side was based on ignorance and misunderstanding.

The up side of all this is that it provoked me into looking into Apollo in far more detail, and I have been amazed by what I have found. There is so much material available it's incredible. It's sucked me in (much to my wife's frustration!), to the extent that whereas only five years ago I was reading library books on the subject, now I have a shelf full of books, all the Apollo DVDs from Spacecraft Films, model rockets, magazines and newspaper clippings from the time, and I've given presentations at my local astronomical society about Gemini and Apollo, and have been booked for one on the Soviet space program in November and the Apollo 11 40th Anniversary next year!

As to why I argue about it online, it's because for every hardcore HB who will never be convinced, there are a hundred people who may have been fooled by the convincing (to the layman) arguments they put forth. I argue to provide a rebuttal, lest the wrong view remain unchallenged. It works in two ways. We can provide the factual rebuttals (such as when they claim certain images do not exist or were never taken, and we provide the links to same, to give an extreme example), and we can provide the clearly framed arguments to display the attitudes of the HBs. Over on Apollohoax a thread has been started with some very specific questions asked of one semi-regular HB. The answers have consisted of claims of insufficient time and some vague handwaving, despite all we have asked for being the evidence and line of reasoning that led him to conclude it was faked. There could be no clearer illustration of the fact that they often search for something they can make fit a predetermined conclusion, rather than drawing a conclusion from a reasonable train of evidence and logic.

So, I argue to reduce the effect of the conspiracy theory rubbish and contain its spread as much as I can. For a lie to spread only requires those who know the truth to remain silent. I refuse to remain silent.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.