...if you're that ignorant of something, you have no right being so vocal against it.
That is exactly what I think, and probably other members do too. But that's the trouble: the ignorant
are very vocal.
If there's one word I would use to describe most hoax-believers, it's that one: Ignorant. Not overall, of course, but as ignorant about Apollo as I am about embroidery. And often, sadly, they don't know what they are ignorant about and we don't know what we are ignorant about.
I used to buy every issue of the Australia/New Zealand edition of
Nexus magazine for years, but not any more since I learnt about logical fallacies, thanks to the Bad Astronomy Bulletin Board and ApolloHoax. There were a few people who taught me, and the best was JayUtah. I looked and looked for a Beginners' Logic website that started with things like answering the question, "Why would I want to think logically?" but never found one. All those I looked at were for advanced learners. I want one to which I can send beginners.
It was through
Nexus that I corresponded with Ralph Rene. They published an article about his Apollo claims and I sent them my debunking of it but they didn't use it.
Then when I heard Marcus Allen of the British edition speaking, saying he was a photographer and rubbishing the Apollo photos, I was astonished at how ignorant he was of photographic principles that were quite basic to me, and probably part of many of the beginners' and advanced courses I taught. He didn't seem to be much more knowledgeable than Rene, who was not a photographer.
I was keen to contact Allen, but other circumstances kept me from doing it.
I guess it is in the monetary interests of the
Nexus publishers to keep the conspiracy and "alien spacecraft" and mystery stuff going, and to occasionally publish only the mildest dissent in the letters column to keep up appearances of being balanced.
Certainly, if Allen publishes details of his recent epiphany in
Nexus I will be thrilled, and would want to congratulate him as a good, honest fellow-photographer who has integrity. He owes it to his readers, but will it only come in a book costing the UK equivalent of US$39.95?
I hope not, and shall wait and see with interest.