[FPSPACE] from Holocaust denial to Apollo denial

[Dwayne Allen Day]

On Sat, 30 Sep 2000, KEITH GOTTSCHALK wrote:

> 1. No one denied Apollo between 1969-71. It is only three
> decades later that an Apollo denial cult is starting to
> crank out books / websites, just as few denied a holocaust

That isn't really true.  There were a few nuts around at the time who
claimed that it was not true.  Indeed, I believe that the New York Times
even ran an interview with a member of the Flat Earth Society around the
time of Apollo 11.


> Only when the generation that was contemporary is elderly /
> deceased, do nuts not born at the time start to come out of
> the woodwork. It seems "The Dark Side of the Moon" is merely
> the 1st of a new fad / cult.

I would not argue that there are more Apollo nuts today than there were 30
years ago.  I think the one key difference is that now, even a nut can
find a forum on the Internet.  But there is a book, dating from the
mid-1970s, I believe, titled "We Never Went to the Moon."


> 4. But some US organizations have won massive punitive
> damages against the authors & publishers of holocaust denial
> books. In effect they make defamatory claims that Anne Frank
> family survivors etc are liars, & have been earning a public
> reputation, or earning a living as speakers & authors, by
> lying. These court cases got books withdrawn, & websites
> closed down.

I'd like to see evidence of this.  In the United States, proving libel is
extremely difficult--as it should be.  It is easier to prove in some of
the Crown countries.  But in the US, anyone can say just about anything
they want to say--as it should be.


>     Conspiracy theorists can never be nipped in the bud, any
> more than millenarian beliefs. But a thumping good class
> litigation  suite by the lunarnats & NASA workers suing for
> eg, the price of a trip to Mir :)   would at least both get
> their books withdrawn by amazon dot com  &  physical
> bookshops, & get a great  media headline for the court
> verdict. 

In other words, censorship.


>    Which will be a good education in History, & in Pop
> Science, for a generation born after Apollo, & raised on
> UFO, X-files & astrology with their mothers' milk.

This would be a truly horrific education in history, for it would
establish that any opinion can be suppressed by the courts.  And that is
what we are talking about here--claims that man never set foot on the moon
are merely opinions and the people espousing them have just as much right
to them as you or me have the right to hold political beliefs.  The best
way to fight lies is in the open, with truth, not in the courts, with the
power of the state.



DDAY