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Conspiracy theorists are frustrating to regular people. I can't tell you how many arguments I've had with family members who believe humanity has never made it to the Moon, but I can tell you it's probably more times than humanity has actually gone to the Moon.
There's only so many times you can patiently explain that though the flag appears to be waving in the wind, this is the result of the astronauts rotating the flag in the lunar soil, and it keeps its bent shape once that movement stopped. There's only so many more times you can tell them that if you look slightly below the flag, crucially, you can see the actual Moon.
It must be even more frustrating when, as well as all of the evidence that humanity has actually gone to the Moon, you were the one who got out of your Moon rocket for quite a well-documented bounce around on the Moon, and people still doubt it. Enter Buzz Aldrin, looking mad as hell.
A video of Aldrin, the second person on the Moon, has gone viral today. It's unclear why, as it's incredibly old footage, but nonetheless, it has been shared again widely because of how he dealt with a conspiracy theorist. It's been trending on Twitter under captions such as "Buzz Aldrin lands one on the loon".
In the video, he is confronted continuously by a man who asks him to "swear on the Bible" that he walked on the Moon, before telling him that he didn't and calling him a coward and a liar.
The video is actually from 2002, and the pursuer was well-known conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel, whom it transpired had lured Aldrin to the hotel under the pretense that he would be interviewed for a Japanese TV show.
Although we don't condone violence, we also don't condone harassment. Aldrin's lawyer said at the time that Sibrel had pushed Aldrin against the wall, refusing to let him leave the hotel, and that he had acted in self-defense. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office agreed that he had been provoked into punching Sibrel and that it wasn't filing charges against Aldrin.
"I was very surprised that he hit me. I thought it was very foolish of him to do it in front of two video cameras," Sibrel told the St Petersburg Times of the then 72-year-old, after being filmed harassing Aldrin. "He has a good punch. It was quick, too. I didn't see it coming."
