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I finally caught myself believing a fake moon landing photo after 20 years
I was in a Facebook group last Tuesday and someone posted a picture of the Apollo 11 flag with no stars in the background. I was ready to jump in and agree it was proof it was faked. Then my buddy pointed out the camera exposure settings would wash out faint stars, and I realized I'd never actually checked that detail myself. How many other obvious explanations have I just skipped over because the conspiracy felt right?
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kai7791d ago
and the funny thing is once you start looking for that boring real world explanation it gets kind of addictive. i was in a rabbit hole last week about the olmec heads and how people say they look african but turns out the basalt they're carved from is local and the helmets match mesoamerican ballgame gear. same kind of thing where the dramatic story feels right until you actually check the simple stuff. its like a muscle you gotta exercise though cause your brain naturally wants the cool answer over the mundane one. i caught myself doing it this morning thinking my neighbor was being passive aggressive with his lawnmower timing but nope he just works different hours now. the boring truth is almost always the truth and that kind of sucks but also makes you feel less crazy when you accept it.
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terry_mitchell1d ago
yeah man that's the thing about conspiracy stuff, once you find one "gotcha" detail that actually has a boring real world explanation it makes you wonder how many other things you've been wrong about. i mean i catch myself doing that with loads of everyday stuff too, like thinking someone's ignoring my text when they just forgot to reply, or assuming a store clerk is being rude when they're actually just exhausted. it's way easier to jump to the dramatic or suspicious story because it feels more interesting than the plain old truth. once you start questioning your own knee jerk reactions though, it kind of ruins the fun of being outraged about stuff. but idk, maybe that's a good thing in the long run.
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