Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/14/cui-bono-boners.html
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Steve, who became a flat earther after losing his job and being told by a job center to watch YouTube videos on how to be more employable.
I’d love to know what YouTube rabbithole took him from point A (for “astute”) to point C (for “cuh-ray-zeeee”).
it’s bullshit, so it removes fear.
In a sense it worked, in that he’s now exhibiting the kind of “fearlessness” that allows one to voluntarily drink one’s own urine.
The article is really worth reading for the sheer nuttiness on display. My main takeaway is that these cranks are only one or two steps removed from your average supporter of Il Douche.
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I started listening to the podcast with Mark Sargent. and then stopped after the first 6 minutes. His claim that no scientists ever challenge him is because they don’t want to the ‘that guy’ who could not shoot down flat earth theory in the first ten mnutes. Well, sorry Mark, you schmuck, flat earth theory can be shot down in less than ten minutes. Here’s the problem Mark, guys like you simply refuse to believe the evidence that shoots the theory down. You refuse to believe the SCIENCE that absolutely refutes flat earth. At that point anyone can just make up whatever the hell they want and call it facts. Holy hell, are we in trouble in this day and age when we have guys like this getting millions of hits for his assenine videos and international conventions with thousands of people attending. It’s almost time to leave this place behind, smoke a full gram of DMT and wander out in the desert. Just let the elements take me. Mark Sergent, you’re a fucking asshole.
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Are the moon, sun, and other planets flat in this reality too? Or just Earth?
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“The fear of things, like asteroids destroying the Earth, or space stations falling down… you know, it’s bullshit, so it removes fear.”
New fears:
- Falling off the edge.
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What, they can’t fall on a flat earth?
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Some of the shit that youtube wants me to watch is unbelievable (and also very much not what I want to see). I can only guess that it is because I don’t use an account, do use an adblock and noscript and clear my cookies regularly.
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No one believes the Earth is flat, but there are a lot of gullible people willing to give them the attention they seek.
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Most of them believe the moon and other planets are just lights in the sky.
They believe that all the water of the oceans is held together by a ring of ice (Antarctica), so you can’t fall off really. Some believe there’s a dome beyond the ring of ice, others believe there’s even more land behind it.
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Meeting some friends tonight to discuss How America Lost It’s Mind so I’m going to bring it up that this was in the UK.
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I would love to believe you, but I’m afraid I don’t. Of course you can never truly tell what someone believes, but the ones I’ve run into seem less trollish and more like … religious zealots, I guess?
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How to easily and effortlessly troll everyone everywhere.
… The earth is flat.
Don’t feed the trolls.
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If the Earth was flat, the cats would have knocked everything over the edge by now.
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I haven’t read the article, but I will, because I enjoy mocking these people, even just to myself. And, yes, flat-earthers are very much like Trump supporters. They believe something because they want to, no matter how much evidence is against it.
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And supposing the belief that a global elite is manipulating things is also bullshit? Supposing the market isn’t rigged but just is? And there really is no alternative capitalism? Where does that leave flat earth doctorow?
If you can convince yourself that the earth is flat, you can easily convince yourself that asteroids and space stations don’t exist.
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It’s too bad that it costs so much to fly to the South Pole. It’s a great place to be sent to, if you need to be disabused of the notion that the earth is flat.
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This quote from the article explains (to me, anyway) both flat-earthers and Trump supporters:
“Speaking to attendees, it seemed like many found some kind of solace in flat Earth theory. It gives them a sense of power over their destiny; control over the minor issues in their lives and the existential ones; and the belief that they’re onto something the rest of us aren’t, and the sense of satisfaction that brings.”
Trumpers, of course, often believe that he is on to things that they are on to, that the rest of us don’t realize. And they believe that he is trying to set things right, mostly by draining the swamp (chuckle) and getting rid of those darn Mexicans, Muslims, etc. This gives them power, if only by fiat (I hope I used that word right).
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Yay! Recalcitrant kitty makes me happy!
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