The world is flat

[BrightOranges]

I learnt today that there are 'flat earthers' who seriously believe the conspiracy theories of a flat planet rather than a spherical one.
AIBU to think you can't fix stupid? Or is that too harsh?

The "Australia doesn't exist" thing reminds me of that segment John Oliver did on gun control, and the American bloke referred to Australia as "planet x" or something similar.

I met a family who believe the earth is flat. The husband emailed my DH repeatedly with multiple YouTube videos that 'prove' this, and links to crazy websites. It's apparently a massive conspiracy and NASA has hoaxed everyone in the world by photoshopping globular earth pictures so they can make a huge profit from funding for space programmes. The world is actually a flat disc surrounded by ice walls guarded by people working for NASA, and eclipses are due to an invisible body that floats around above the world, getting in the way of the sun/moon from time to time. We can't see it, but it MUST be there as there is No Other Explanation for an eclipse.

The Freemasons have perpetuated this myth, for secret reasons known only to themselves.

My husband actually engaged with him and tried to argue. I tried to tell him it was a waste of time... I was right.

If there's no Australia, where did they send all those poor people and criminals? I now have visions of them letting a ship full of people keep sailing until it falls off the edge of the world. 😮😋😬

One of my closest friends is an amazingly intelligent bloke. But he is convinced the earth is flat. He has done extensive research into it, and cannot be convinced otherwise. I've given up trying to debate it with him now.

onlyjust I love that meme!

But who would the cats make eye contact with while they were knocking stuff off? God?

That's brilliant, only. 😆

Crisp
I have one of those! (stupid friends that is)

What does he say when you ask him about stuff like the horizon being visibly curved from a high enough view point, like a skyscraper?

My friend waffled about it being a trick, or a video or something, but I could tell she couldn't really answer it, yet still she believes!

The Flat Earth Conspiracy by Eric Dubay has scores of positive reviews by people who have made purchases on the amazon.co.uk website.

Crispbutty "One of my closest friends is an amazingly intelligent bloke. But he is convinced the earth is flat."

That does not compute. He can't be both.

Sadly, I am not surprised. People believe a lot of stupid shit, including stupid shit that goes against everything they know and have witnessed with their own eyes!

If the flat earth theory was fashionable, and was deemed the way all progressive people think, there'd be a lot more believers.

Considering the other stupid shit people readily believe, adhering to something people used to believe in the Middle Ages because they didn't know any better and it was in keeping with what they knew of the world, is far from the most idiotic belief.

Flat earthers actually troll Professor Brian whatshisface because he keeps asserting that the world is spherical. Now and again he plays with the trolls just to see what new insanity they can come up with.

One of my favourite arguments is:

• If the earth is round and spins around at tremendous speeds then why don't we land on a different continent when we jump in the air?

Mostly because I can't provide the definitive scientific reason why this occurs (gravity and centrifugal force comes to mind).

I love reading their theories though because they are barking, and none make as much sense as discworld.

It's all fun and games until someone attempts to cure cancer with lavender oil or convinces parents that vaccines are an evil conspiracy...

I'd love to go to the edge of the flat earth and dangle my feet over the edge.

If there's no Australia does that mean we can't put another shrimp on the barbie?

No you absolutely CANNOT, because no Australian has ever used the word 'shrimp' unless they were trying to sell something to foreign types.

I'm going to enjoy being imaginary. Imagine the freedom!

It's more than just stupid, it's stupid people who think that believing in a theory that is generally ridiculed by the majority makes them part of some elite intelligentsia. They are, in their eyes, the chosen few that are enlightened enough to see through the lies. They will call those of us who generally accept science and conventional wisdom as "sheeple" - dumb creatures who just blindly follow where they are lead. They don't see the irony that they themselves are just blindly following blithering nonsense someone else's alternative views.

Don't engage with them, that way lies your own personal madness.

A little bit of me thinks sloths aren't real.

Don't know why made them up though, or why...

Hang on. My kids are half British, half Australian. Are they half imaginary? Which half? Is it the half that asks really annoying questions at bedtime? I'd be up for that.

They don't look really real do they, them sloths!? I do believe they exist though based on the evidence, even though I don't think I've seen one.

My high-school physics teacher was a flat-earther, or at least professed to be during one memorable lesson. As he was more intelligent and more educated than anyone he argued with he could easily run rings around any argument they came up with to try and prove him wrong.

At the time I thought the point of being a flat-earther was to make people engage with epistomology, but now in an internet age I wouldn't be surprised if some of the self-professed flat-earthers don't have their tongues in their cheeks.

That does not compute. He can't be both.

Then I know an impressive number of stupid people with university degrees.

(Not flat earthers, but followers of a more fashionable idiotic belief.)

Not sure it is useful to describe people who believe stupid shit as not intelligent. According to IQ tests, those people can be very intelligent.

Though I'd agree they lack common sense.

Don't engage with them, that way lies your own personal madness

Yeah I agree with this!

After at least an hour of ever increasingly drunken and heated debate, I had to stop, because otherwise I'd have either smashed my own head in off the table or smashed hers in.

It's nearly impossible to debate with someone who's answer to everything is "its fake".

At the time I thought the point of being a flat-earther was to make people engage with epistomology, but now in an internet age I wouldn't be surprised if some of the self-professed flat-earthers don't have their tongues in their cheeks. That, or they were in your physics lesson and trusted your teacher!