As I said during the introduction to my interview last week with the folks from the daily Breitbart.tv B-Cast show, Rosie O’Donnell’s train wreck conspiracy theories were brutal on ABC’s reputation, but train wrecks attract gawkers, and when you’re the legacy media, you gotta do what you gotta do.
And her successor is keeping up the View’s proud tradition:
As if to prove [Ed Morrissey's] point about the relationship between lunar conspiracy theorists and Truthers, here’s how the idiot who replaced Rosie O’Donnell on “The View” celebrated Apollo 11’s anniversary.
I’m only sorry that Whoopi doesn’t believe the mission seceded.
Update: In the comments, Frank Martin writes:
In regards to conspiracy theories, William Manchester once said that people want a certain symmetry to exist in the affairs of the world; they see 6 million jews on one side of the scale, balanced by the criminals called the nazis on the other side and they see the symmetry of a measure of good counterbalanced by the certainty of evil. When they see John Kennedy on one side of the scale balanced with the hopeless waif of Oswald, they dont see symmetry, so they try to add a conspiracy to help return that sense of symmetry.
The latter is a topic I explored a couple of years ago here. More from Frank:
In the case of the moon landing conspiracies, I think that people find themselves missing the incredible majesty of that moment and hoping to fill that gaping hole in their pitiful and wasted lives, they replace it with the post-watergate “the government lied to us” meme, which lets them off the hook for having never accomplished anything of any real consequence in their lives. They counterbalance the moon landing success by painting it as a “government cover up”, and return the world to its symmetric certainty.
Indeed™. And it’s fascinating that someone like Whoopi, who is pro-Obama and presumably, on some level, would consider herself pro-JFK, (not to mention having guest-starred on numerous episodes of a long-running TV franchise that postulated future space exploration) would entertain theories that JFK’s most lasting achievement is a hoax.
Update: Jim Treacher tweets, “Whoopi knows the moon landings were faked. After all, she and Picard never really went into space either.”
In regards to conspiracy theories, William Manchester once said that people want a certain symmetry to exist in the affairs of the world; they see 6 million jews on one side of the scale, balanced by the criminals called the nazis on the other side and they see the symmetry of a measure of good counterbalanced by the certainty of evil. When they see John Kennedy on one side of the scale balanced with the hopeless waif of Oswald, they dont see symmetry, so they try to add a conspiracy to help return that sense of symmetry.
In the case of the moon landing conspiracies, I think that people find themselves missing the incredible majesty of that moment and hoping to fill that gaping hole in their pitiful and wasted lives, they replace it with the post-watergate “the government lied to us” meme, which lets them off the hook for having never accomplished anything of any real consequence in their lives. They counterbalance the moon landing success by painting it as a “government cover up”, and return the world to its symmetric certainty.
Sadly, it’s not just Hollywood retards (but I repeat myself) who believe in kooky conspiracy theories. I once knew a software engineer who thought the moon landings were faked, and others who believed in astrology, auras and tarot.
SEVEN TIMES! (Eight if you include Apollo…. Eight)
Seven times. Seven times they had to spin that conspiracy out, knowing it’s not gonna get blown, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the secret will stay secure. Seven times.
Imagine our evil gov deciding to destroy skyscrapers with planesfor its own ends….. SEVEN DIFFERENT TIMES!
Imagine setting up what looks like to be random crazy assassins (we know better!) to kill a US President….. and then a vice-President….. and then a Sec of State….. and then a House Speaker….. etc etc. “We’ll just make ‘em all look random… no one’ll know!” SEVEN TIMES!
We’re tired of that royal family and their problems. Let’s set up a car crash to kill one of them….. SEVEN DIFFERENT TIMES!
Maybe we really really are doomed. If people out there can pass themselves off as intellegent and still believe this unfathomable nonsense, maybe we are past the tipping point.
Andrew X, it’s the result of female-oriented “feeling” rather than male oriented logic/score-keeping. Women love to feel, indulge in their emotions, and cite their emotions as reasons for doing things. It’s a good thing to have wrt little kids, and small group cohesion. Un-constrained female culture is as bad as the unconstrained male variety seen in say, Iran or Saudi Arabia.
It’s no accident that Truthers and the Moonshot conspiracy nutcases tend to wallow in emotion, often have prominent female adherents (Marion Cotillard is a Truther), and exhibit among their male adherents a feminized outlook and set of behaviors. Logic and reason don’t mean anything to the audience or hosts of the View. It’s why Sherri Sheppard said she thought the world was flat and the live audience oohed and clapped, because it was about her feelings.
Thus the tragedy of an unbalanced society. One based on “feelings.”
Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t believe the conspiracy stuff. She is simply selling stupidity as the new cool thing. And she makes good money for doing it. I’m pretty sure she would denounce evil conservatives for not spending more to educate disadvantaged children, yet she devalues logical thinking and makes the job of sincere educators more difficult. Her problem is hypocrisy.