I finally got my uncle to see the holes in that moon landing documentary

We were at a family cookout in Austin, and he was going on about the flag waving in a vacuum. I had just finished a deep dive into the Apollo 11 mission archives for a personal project, so I calmly asked him about the specific experiment with the solar wind and the foil sheet the astronauts put out. He didn't know about it. I explained how that simple test, which they filmed, actually proved the lunar environment. I could see his face change from sure to maybe. It wasn't about winning, but about showing that asking a good, specific question can be better than just saying 'you're wrong'. Has anyone else had a moment where one solid fact made a big talk shift gears?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice2692d ago

That foil experiment was actually for the solar wind composition, not just proving the environment.

charles4422d ago

Man, that's how you change minds, not with a shouting match.

wadem892d ago

Watching someone's whole argument fall apart because they didn't do the reading is a special kind of satisfying. You went for the quiet fact instead of the loud fight, and that's the real move. Charles442 is right, shouting just makes people dig in deeper. Next time your uncle brings up the "studio lights," ask him about the laser reflectors they left up there.