We generally hold that it is bad when the worlds of reality television and the American government meet. (We can’t think of any immediate instances where that exact confluence of American ambitions is dragging the entire country screaming toward the mouth of hell, but we might be missing one!) For instance: It feels just a skosh like the universe is starting to break down in our brains when the secretary of transportation, and acting administrator for NASA, feels moved to correct Kim Kardashian about whether Buzz Aldrin and “the other one”—her words—actually walked on the moon.
But, hey, here we are, with Trump appointee Sean Duffy directly responding on social media to a recent clip from The Kardashians, in which Kim Kardashian told an apparently receptive Sarah Paulson that she does not believe man has ever walked on the moon. Kardashian says she has seen “a million” articles debunking the 1969 event, and specifically cited an interview that Aldrin gave where he supposedly stated that footage of the landing was staged. (Kardashian is presumably referencing this video, where someone at a Q&A asks Aldrin what the scariest moment of the journey way, and he responds that “It didn’t actually happen”—clearly referencing the hypothetical scariest moment, and not, say, the most impactful moment of his entire life. Although debunkers also like to cite this 2000 Conan O’Brien interview where Aldrin notes that people’s memories of actual footage of the landing have been muddled up with various TV recreations and animations.) Kardashian’s game willingness to take actual facts about the scientific and technological capabilities of the human race as just so much hearsay and rumor will, of course, affect each person exposed to them in different ways; if you find yourself staring wearily off into the middle distance for extended periods of time today, though, simply know you’re not alone. (“The other one”!)
In any case: As Duffy notes in his tweet, man has, in fact, landed on the moon 6 times. He also suggested that we’re going to go back there soon as part of the Trump-backed Artemis program—and since you can’t fact-check the future, hey, who knows? We just hope someone gets the relevant information to Paulson—who’s co-starring with Kardashian in Ryan Murphy’s latest show, All’s Fair—because Kardashian apparently sends her “conspiracies all the time,” and that feels like something we need to keep in check.
[via Variety]
