Flat earthers - what's that all about?

[itscallednickingbentcoppers]

I've just been watching a clip of Brian Cox discussing Jupiter's moon IO on Facebook and someone commented how the pictures are CGI. Well of course because it's not like Brian flew to IO with a camera man to take videos of lava lakes. But the comments lead on then to discuss how all photos ever taken of Earth are also CGI and the Earth is actually flat.

What is this all about? Is this a real movement now? Why do people believe this? Does it feed some kind of delusion of intelligence - the rest of us are sheep believing lies fed to us by the Government while they're clever because they watched a YouTube video type thing? Aren't people embarrassed to make these comments in public forums?

One of our friends apparently believes the earth is flat although he hasn't discussed it with us. Possibly because he knows what our reaction might be.

I have no idea how this has come about for him or indeed anyone. The pioneers of free universal education must be turning in their graves.

we have many members around the globe 😂

I thought flat earthers were just having a laugh, like the Pastafarians, or something. Surely no one actually believes it? Aren’t they just exploring a theory and seeing how it can be supported, however ludicrous?
Dear lord, in whose interest would it be to try and convince people, over many centuries, that the world is spherical if it were not?

Ridiculous.

I went onto the flat earth website to show my kid not to believe in information just because it's internet research.

They do quite a slick job and I can see why people (who don't live by the sea in particular! But who are sheltered generally) can get caught up in it. Shortly afterwards a young rapper was ridiculed for proclaiming flat earthism on social media. I felt for the guy.

I thought flat earthers were just having a laugh, like the Pastafarians, or something. Surely no one actually believes it?

Like most people of limited intelligence, flat-earthers can't even be consistent. You'd think at the least they'd be lobbying their MPs, and pushing for things like "falling off insurance" in case they fell off the earth when one of the dastardly airplanes gets it wrong.

I have a deep suspicion they're more about the attention than the theory. Like most conspiraloons. It's not Look at that, it's wrong, it's more look at me, I'm right.

Unlike the anti vaccine mob though, they're relatively harmless.

I wonder what the vibe on planet flat earth is today, when NASA have discovered something really big hiding under the moon ?

www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/11/mystery_moon_mass/

It's the relentless sticking to the script that is hard to take with holders of conspiracy theories.

They are not interested in shifting so I find the theory unchanged years after I've countered it to my own satisfaction but have forgotten the detail and cba to go over old ground.

Any new evidence put too them can be dismissed as "evidence,huh?!"

I must find out more, really, because I’m finding this quite funny.

What do FEers think Earth actually looks like though? A round flat disc skimming around in space, like a frisbee? What about the moon, other planets, space generally?
What would actually happen if you fell off (with or without insurance), given that gravity is a real, demonstrable thing?

Beyond ridiculous.

It's the relentless sticking to the script that is hard to take with holders of conspiracy theories

For me, it's more the invention and addition of increasingly ludicrous twiddles that become necessary to make the theory "work". Very much reminiscent of the little twiddly bits on old orreries (an appropriate metaphor for flat earthers, certainly ) ... eventually you end up with a sieve and innumerable plasters covering the holes.

How do flat earthers explain gravity ? Presumably the mathematicians are "in on it" too ? Maybe nature, I mean who knows how far "they" will go to stop us learning "the truth" ?

What do FEers think Earth actually looks like though? A round flat disc skimming around in space, like a frisbee? What about the moon, other planets, space generally?

Ever seen "The Truman Show" ?

Weirdly I was sat next to a really nice guy on a plane flying to Canada ( on my own) and suddenly as we were flying over Greenland, he leant over me and looked out the window and said - "how on earth can people think the world is round - it is so obvious it is flat! I laughed and called him a dickhead not my finest moment and he went on to explain that he was Jewish/Israeli and all the theories behind his reasoning that the world was flat ( something about 7 layers). I was respectful and listened, although I did switch off half way through! But what amazed me the most - was that he was clearly educated, really nice guy with his own successful business, children etc. Eye Opener!!!

I'm sure when you are flying the horizon falls away slightly at the sides as if part of a sphere. If it was flat it would be horizontal.

QueenBeee tried that argument! He wasn't having any of it. Even when I pointed it out - nope - couldn't see that!

There is a question as to whether it really matters - after all a devoted belief to something in the face of facts could just as easily be applied to religion. Imagine where this thread would go in that case ?

People are - and should be - free to believe whatever they want to believe. Whatever gets you through the night. The point at which they need to be stopped is when they force that belief onto others with violence ... (looks like we're back to religion). Flat earthers and moon hoaxers (almost a perfect union in set theory ) are harmless enough. OK, so their refusal to use GPS can be a little frustrating but it's not biggie ....

Great doc on net flix about it . They are loons .. very convincing although their experiment proved themselves wrong at the end !

Great doc on net flix about it . They are loons .. very convincing although their experiment proved themselves wrong at the end !

Mythbusters did a special on a few moon hoax "facts" a while back. Everyone busted of course.

The funniest thing was that the "facts" hoaxers were hanging their hats on missed a key fact. Light behaves differently in space. And all their "facts" were simply observations that the light "looked funny". Of course it did. It was in space.

Does it matter, you ask DG?
The existence of the flat earth movement is mostly just a fascinating, puzzling, ridiculous and perhaps slightly depressing phenomenon; but I do worry, just a tiny bit, that as it grows (it does seem to be a growing movement) it may gain influence in ways that could be damaging, even if without violence.
The possible teaching of FE theory in schools, for example... what a thought!

The thing I don’t understand is why Flat Earthers think there is a hoax in the first place.

Why would anyone or any organisation go to all the trouble of elaborately hoaxing a belief that the planets are spheres if they’re not? To what gain? 😳

This is really interesting. I'll have to watch the Netflix doc but there's already some research around it. A researcher went to a flat earther conference to ask people when and why they started to believe the earth was flat. Many of them had only recently started believing it after watching YouTube videos which were recommended to them because they had watched videos about the moon landings being fake. So YouTube has essentially nudged them towards thinking the earth was flat. Similarly there was a recent NY times article that documented an individual being radicalised by YouTube content and falling into the far right.

The possible teaching of FE theory in schools, for example... what a thought!

Most idiocy at this level is self-limiting. At some point either the machines stop working, or the adherents die out ... ironically through natural selection.

It's also worth keeping any eye on the frothing machinations of the deluded. You never know. They might actually throw up something useful ... a question that has never been asked (and therefore answered) for example.

Also I'm a tad wary of swinging to the other extreme ... there's a hell of a lot that science has no idea about ... but sometimes you need to gently remind them of that otherwise the more mediocre ones will think they know it all. (Great scientists know they don't know ...)

I’m going to watch that documentary as it sounds fascinating.
The thing I don’t get is why do flat earthers think so much money and effort is pumped into fooling us to believe the earth is round? What’s the point of it?

The thing I don’t get is why do flat earthers think so much money and effort is pumped into fooling us to believe the earth is round? What’s the point of it?

As I said upthread, it's all about them ... look at me, I'm so clever etc etc. Not about the facts.

Back to religion again

It's the Australia thing I can't get my head around. Don't most people know someone who has been to Australia, or at least know someone who knows someone who has been there? Crazy!

I think ( don't quote me on this!) that all the countries are there, just on a disc.

I must find out more, really, because I’m finding this quite funny.

What do FEers think Earth actually looks like though? A round flat disc skimming around in space, like a frisbee? What about the moon, other planets, space generally?
What would actually happen if you fell off (with or without insurance), given that gravity is a real, demonstrable thing?

They believe it is a flat disc, so if you take a map and stretch it around to make a disc with the North Pole in the centre you have their disc. It it more spread out around the base.

We have to be a disc because there is gravity and none of us are upside down! You cannot fall off as there is a giant ice wall all around the outside. I am not sure whether they believe anyone has climbed it, but I wonder why no-one has ever seen it.

The moon and sun circle above us to give day and night. I am not sure but I think the other planets circle us as well, so we are the centre of the universe. There is also an anti-moon which is how we get eclipses.

A friend of mine went to a flat earther meeting in London as he was intrigued and said they were all very normal, sensible people. Despite being hugely intelligent he got lost by their arguments (and didn’t ask enough tricky questions for my liking, I keep encouraging him to go back and be more pushy ) but essentially their rationale all seemed to boil down to it a conspiracy by a group of Uber rich Jewish people controlling everything

Not flat with a wall but flat like an infinite plane with no end. There is a lot problems which can be manipulated with the globe theory like not enough land and food for people and the climate change agenda