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-50 years ago, man first stepped on the moon,
but I'm not here to pay tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts.
-Oh, it's beautiful, Mike, really is.
-Instead, I'd like to celebrate a group of brave Americans
who haven't gotten their due.
[ Party horns blowing, fireworks popping ]
Without the moon landing,
we wouldn't have moon-landing deniers,
valiant theorists who've inspired us to see that science
is merely a suggestion.
-It is my personal belief, and I totally believe this
after all the years of research I've done on this,
that NASA never landed a man on the moon.
-If it were so easy to go to the moon 40 years ago,
there would be bases there by now.
-There's overwhelming proof that it didn't happen.
It's sometimes translucent.
You can see through it, right?
-As the scientist right next to the moon-landing denier
makes clear, there is room for doubt.
JFK gets all the credit for getting us to the moon.
-We choose to go to the moon!
-But we shan't forget the JFK of moon-landing deniers.
-Men have never landed on the moon.
-Bill Kaysing is an undersung American hero.
In the mid-1970s, Kaysing had the courage to assert
that we never went to the moon
in his cleverly titled book
We Never Went to the Moon.
The moon hoax theory exploded in 1978
with the release of the classic film "Capricorn One."
-This is Capricorn control.
We're at T-minus 15 minutes and still...
-Telling the story of a faked mission to Mars,
the film appeared on the surface to be mindless entertainment,
but astute conspiracy theorists
saw it as a documentary worthy of Werner Herzog.
The super-realistic special effects
and the acting chops of O.J. Simpson...
-These people, they're capable of anything.
-...made viewers absolutely certain
that we never went to the moon.
In 1980, the president of the Flat Earth Society
lent his prestige to the burgeoning moon hoax movement.
Now, you could argue that the flat-earthers
were just pissed at Apollo 11
for sending back pictures like this,
but moon hoax whistle-blowers remained unfazed.
In the 1990s, a new scientific invention
posed an existential threat
to conspiracy theorists everywhere...
-I took the initiative in creating the Internet.
-...the Internet.
Verifiable facts could now reach more people,
threatening the future of unproven speculation.
Luckily, moon hoax evangelists were able to share the gospel
faster than you can say...
-You've got moon.
-Bold voices were willing to question missing NASA footage
and other truth-adjacent theories,
eventually making their way to respected media outlets and Fox.
-For NASA to come out and say that all the tapes were erased,
I mean, you must -- It's incredible.
-There are a couple of questions
that I do have from time to time.
Who shot the footage?
-I see a lot of footage that gets doctored.
-How in the world do you erase the tapes
of the most historic event in 2,000 years?
I mean, it's not like it was a bar mitzvah.
-Full disclosure --
my parents did erase the tape of my bar mitzvah,
and adding insult to injury, this is what they taped over.
-We're in too deep to stop now.
-It's time to finally give
America's intrepid conspiracy theorists
the credit they richly deserve.
Blessed with the gift of cojones,
these deniers are bravely willing
to ignore scientific findings
and video evidence in favor of an America
where everyone is free to ask questions
until the science matches their feelings.
-My current opinion about vaccinations
is that they have never been safe.
-Evolution, Big Bang Theory,
all that is lies straight from the devil.
-I just don't think climate change is real.
-Climate changes. Asking question is good.
There are no dumb questions. -Right.
-In the face of mounting evidence,
is there ever a time to stop challenging accepted science?
For the final word on that,
I'll turn to supposed astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
-Why don't you swear on the Bible
that you walked on the moon?
You're the one who said you walked on the moon
when you didn't, calling the kettle black.
-Will you get away from me? -Saying I misrepresented myself.
You're a coward and a liar and a --
[ Cheers and applause ]
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