Here we are, a matter of hours away from the exact moment 50 years ago when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and the idea that the whole thing was a hoax seems as popular as ever. Why?
It seems like the trope of “people in power lying to you” is a very attractive one to certain personality types. One might even say it is addictive. The trouble is, it tends to lead them to being sucked in by multiple conspiracy theories, not just one.
For example, the crossover between those who believe we never landed on the Moon with those who believe an alien spacecraft crashed at Roswell is, I think, quite high. Which gives an opportunity to those of a scientific mindset, like myself, to play the good old Consequences game, aka “collision of the conspiracies”.
Namely, if the US Government really has access to advanced alien technology that is capable of crossing the light-years, then surely the job of ferrying a few men to this little rock that is, by comparison, just a hop, skip and a jump away from us, would be a piece of cake?
Because this is how science works: every idea has consequences. Every theory has to be part of the same reality, because there is only one reality. Nature does not divide itself up into compartments; the compartments exist only inside our heads.
Of course there are real instances of people in power lying to us. But in the real world, they are more on the scale of the Panama Papers, or the NRA trying to undermine Australia’s gun laws, than trying to fake the most wondrous technological achievement in the history of humanity, in the full view of the entire world.