It's a Conspiracy

It’s been a little over four months since I moved to New Zealand, and now that I’ve met countless people, I feel the need to share a rather alarming observation. Now, I admit that I didn’t come upon this on my own; Sara, my best friend and travel buddy extraordinaire, stumbled into it with me, as she does most things.

Let me bring you back to the second month of our stay, when we arrived in Waipukurau. A friend, let’s call him Tommy, was driving us around one day and we were running the gamut on topics. American politics (he was proud to know we had a Congress) led to Obama, led to George W. Bush, which inevitably led to the Iraq War until we ended up on September 11^th. I find it’s not uncommon to talk about the subject with foreigners – while devastating; it’s an important part of our history. It’s one that is so personal to Americans, and yet rather disconnected from many other people.

So far we weren’t in unfamiliar territory, until Tommy said (something along the lines of): 

“What do you think of the conspiracy theory? There was so much research done, and evidence that shows that those buildings should not have fallen down.”

Yes, we’ve all heard this before. I laughed it off, Sara shot it down, and Tommy remained convinced. Then he went on to say:

“And do you really think they landed on the moon in 1969?”

I never knew I had reason to doubt it! Really. I had never thought about it, though I suspected that I knew the answer. Tommy explained how there’s no way that flag could have been waving since there’s no air on the moon, and he took issue with the supposed footprints that they left behind. He ended by saying, “Do you really believe everything the media tells you?”

Well, no. And I don’t like to think that I do, but I do like to think that I read enough different sources that I get the best information available. So I did just that. I went home and researched the 1969 moon landing, only to verify that, yes, I do still believe that Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. Phew, I felt much better.

I sent Tommy my evidence – he claimed that he believed me, but I think he was just trying to placate me. In any case, I moved on with my life. Literally. Now in Raglan, different people surrounded me. 

Once again it was in a car, when a woman we’ll call Maggie told me that the moon landing did not happen.

I promise I didn’t bring it up, and I didn’t mention Tommy.

I mentioned that I had researched it, and given, you know, science, I believed that it had occurred as reported. She shrugged with an air of disbelief.

About two weeks later I get a text from Sara-best-friend-travel-buddy-extraordinaire: 

“Get me out of here. Pete doesn’t believe in 9/11 or the moon landing either.”

It’s one thing to meet a conspiracy theorist. It’s another to realize they surround you. It’s almost as if in an effort to fend off spoon-fed media, they have run in the opposite direction, to find the most absurd and outlandish. Or…

Wait, it’s almost as if they get all of their news from the National Enquirer.

So at this point, I think I need to begin a survey experiment, where I go around to the Kiwi public and ask their opinion on the moon landing. And maybe any other fact I never knew I should have doubted.

But I can’t help but think there’s something else going on here... Most Kiwis doubting important American events? Convinced that the government shammed and continues to fool Americans days after day? Every country knowing it, while Americans continue to blindly trust? …What if this has always been happening, but these Kiwis were the first to let it slip to Americans?

Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

P.S. While I researched the theories, Sara pointed me to New Zealand’s space quest, which seems to have begun and ended somewhere in the pacific.

Kiwi Rocket Scares Sheep, Reaches Space

Yes, you read that link correctly. As the article states,

“As the noise of the blastoff sent sheep running, the 18-foot rocket raced into the sky, reaching beyond […] 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, which is traditionally considered the dividing altitude between the upper atmosphere and real space.”

Good on them.

((To any and all Kiwi's in the audience, particularly those mentioned in this blog, I come in peace! But I really don't believe in these particular conspiracies.))