Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, one of the most prominent and enduring conspiracy theories is the idea that the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 was a hoax. It's a prime example of how conspiracy theorists won’t let facts be facts. Skeptics claim that it was all a theatrical event that took place on a Hollywood backlot. But do you know how many people would have had to keep quiet about this supposed hoax? In 2016, an Oxford University scientist calculated that more than 400,000 people would have had to be "in on" the conspiracy, and never utter a word about it.
It's not a hoax, folks:
- Oxford’s David Robert Grimes also tested his unique formula on other so-called hoaxes: for example, that climate change is a hoax, that vaccinations are unsafe, and that Big Pharma is hiding a cure for cancer.
- All four "conspiracies" would have been uncovered in less than four years, according to Grimes’ calculations. He says that NASA had 411,000 employees in the 1960s, and they would all have had to keep their mouths shut.
- “On a small scale, conspiracies always exist,” Grimes said. But he doubts that his mathematical analysis will sway any true consipiracy believers. He just wants to bolster public trust and offer a dose of reality to those discussions.