“Email Doesn’t Work” and Other Conspiracy Theories

I didn’t sleep well on Sunday. The news out of Pennsylvania spooked me. But the thing that spooked me most and left me sleepless: All the social media chatter that followed.

I made the mistake of getting sucked in.

Speculation piled on top of speculation piled on top of speculation. One uninformed person after another — on both sides of the spectrum — spouting heinous conspiracy theories.

“It was all staged.”

“The President arranged for the Secret Service to stand down and let this happen.”

“The shooter was a CIA operative.”

One Facebook jackass said, “The most elaborate hoax since that fake ass moonwalk.”

(Sigh!)

Speaking of “that fake ass moonwalk…”

Fifty-five years ago today, Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the first men to land on the moon.

Here’s the photo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took while he and Neil Armstrong were walking on the moon…

And here’s the “evidence” that it all was an elaborate fake…

I saw that photo (⬆) a few years ago on Facebook under a post that said, “…The U.S. Government faked the moon landing!”

That’s a picture of Neil Armstrong’s moon suit.

Look at the bottom of the bootie. No horizontal treads. It’s “SO OBVIOUS.”

Facebook Guy wrote: ““Hey…Neil Armstrong’s astronaut suit, preserved in a museum…doesn’t match up with his footprints on the moon!”

Which reminds me of Johnnie Cochran who once said (something like this):

“…If the boot tread don’t fit, you must admit…”

…this was a deep fake…

…as obvious as O.J’s innocence.

…

…

…

…

Or maybe not.

Maybe those boots on the right side of the photo above — the ones with the blue toes — are “overshoes.” Maybe the astronauts put those over their spacesuit footies. Maybe those overshoes had big horizontal treads that match the prints on the moon. Maybe Facebook Guy’s math doesn’t add up.

Smooth-bottomed bootie. That’s a fact.

Treaded footprint. That’s a fact.

1 + 1 = 2. The moonwalk never happened!!!!!

Ummm…

….not so fast.

Fact (smooth-bottomed bootie) + Fact (treaded footprint) = Ill-Informed theory.

Fact (bootie) + Fact (overshoe) + Fact (footprint) = theory debunked.

If you’re a moon-walk denier, don’t get your undies in a bunch. I know you have gobs of “evidence” to “prove” your case.

My point is not to debate whether the moon landing happened (even though it did

!). My point is to remind you:

Facts don’t always add up.

Facts are just building blocks.

Fact + Fact does not necessarily add up to Truth.

So it goes with a moon-landing denier. So it goes in business.

Fact: 25% of recipients opened your email.

Fact: 5% of those who opened clicked the link in that email.

Some people assume email marketing doesn’t work.

They take those building block facts and construct the following story: 75% didn’t open the email + 95% didn’t click = Failure

But here are some other facts:

Of those who clicked, three scheduled a meeting with you…

…and one converted to a customer…

…and revenue from that customer exceeded the cost of your email campaign by 10x.

Boom! Proof of failure becomes 10x profit.

The moral of these stories:

Facts neither lie, nor tell the truth.

The question is how we assemble and interpret facts.

Sometimes we compile facts to support an incomplete or ill-informed story.

Sometimes we compile facts to paint a complete and accurate picture.

In business, that can mean the difference between failure and success.