Sep 16th 2010, 9:34:21
So, I went out with a friend today to go and see a play. The drive to the theatre was about 45 minutes, and during that drive we somehow got into the topic of UFOs and how ridiculous the reasons a lot of people give for their views on the subject are. Then she told me why she's sure UFOs don't exist. Her reasoning went something like this:
Since there's video footage from the lunar landings that have images of UFOs, all footage of UFOs must be faked by the government just like the moon landings.
I almost pulled the car over so that I could facepalm properly without fear of crashing. As it was, I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't speak for a solid 2 or 3 minutes. I thought about pointing out the logical holes in her reasoning, but was worried that I may end up making her believe that UFOs are visiting aliens so I kept my silence on that and politely (by which I mean, without calling her a dumb fluff -- there's no way I kept the incredulity out of my voice) asked her why she thought the moon landings were a hoax.
She gave me some of the standard litany of reasons, then ended with one I'd never heard before. She said that she believed that moon landings were a hoax because "the President admitted it". I was curious and so inquired as to which President had said such a thing. She confessed to not remembering but said she would check for me. After the play (which was a solid mounting of The Tempest, for those who care) I drove her home she insisted that I come into her house so she could look up which President had admitted the moon landings were a hoax. She grabbed a conspiracy book about Roswell (apparantly here disbelief in UFOs is a new phenomenon) and showed me the page with the President's quote. It read as follows: "Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did you ever hear of the moon hoax?" and right after was the attributation which read: "President Harry Truman, July 10, 1947".
She didn't understand why this was a problem until I explained it to her.
-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.
Since there's video footage from the lunar landings that have images of UFOs, all footage of UFOs must be faked by the government just like the moon landings.
I almost pulled the car over so that I could facepalm properly without fear of crashing. As it was, I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't speak for a solid 2 or 3 minutes. I thought about pointing out the logical holes in her reasoning, but was worried that I may end up making her believe that UFOs are visiting aliens so I kept my silence on that and politely (by which I mean, without calling her a dumb fluff -- there's no way I kept the incredulity out of my voice) asked her why she thought the moon landings were a hoax.
She gave me some of the standard litany of reasons, then ended with one I'd never heard before. She said that she believed that moon landings were a hoax because "the President admitted it". I was curious and so inquired as to which President had said such a thing. She confessed to not remembering but said she would check for me. After the play (which was a solid mounting of The Tempest, for those who care) I drove her home she insisted that I come into her house so she could look up which President had admitted the moon landings were a hoax. She grabbed a conspiracy book about Roswell (apparantly here disbelief in UFOs is a new phenomenon) and showed me the page with the President's quote. It read as follows: "Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did you ever hear of the moon hoax?" and right after was the attributation which read: "President Harry Truman, July 10, 1947".
She didn't understand why this was a problem until I explained it to her.
-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.