Update: My neighbor's rant about the moon landing actually made me look up the facts
He was going on about the flag waving in a vacuum, so I spent an hour checking NASA's archives and a few debunking sites. Turns out the flag had a horizontal rod to make it look like it was flying, which explains the 'wave'. Anyone have a favorite source for breaking down these common claims?
The flag thing is a classic. He also insisted the shadows looked wrong, saying they should be parallel. That one's about the lunar surface being uneven and the sun being so far away it creates nearly parallel rays, but our brain misinterprets the angles.
He once told me I was too trusting of people in general. It seemed like a strange thing to say at the time, because I always saw myself as careful. Over the years, though, I started to notice a pattern where I'd give folks the benefit of the doubt too quickly. It made me look back and realize he had a point, even if it was an odd way to put it. Changed how I approach new connections now.