Why People Wouldn’t Believe the Moon Landing

The 2000s was a wild time for my formative years. The iMac, iPod, and the iPhone had all dropped within the span of a single decade. I was already well versed in computers and the internet at a young age and so these technologies seemed like a natural progression. Having grown up with Star Trek and the Science Channel, I always prime for something like the latter two to become a reality. I just never thought it would happen so early in my lifetime. But some people aren’t as fortunate as me.

Now, imagine it is the early 20th century and radio was just invented. People are still dealing with the hardships of the Great Depression when suddenly the music is interrupted for a breaking news event. A meteor has crash landed and martians are attempting to take over the world. It is a radio play on War of the Worlds. Everyone was scrambling to figure out what to do because people at that thought Mars had sentient life. The only way to calm the masses was to take this new medium with a grain of salt. Now, fast forward to space race and those same people are watching NASA put man on the moon. Would they believe it? Would you?

This was the question asked by Reject Convenience when they replayed that exact broadcast without telling you it was War of the Worlds. I myself was almost fooled into thinking it was just an average broadcast until I saw the citations. I’ve only heard samples recorded later in the broadcast. And if I didn’t get at first, how do you think people in the 1930s felt? Honestly, I never would have put two-and-two together but it does make so much sense.