Study suggests that Flat Eartherism spread via Youtube

Turtles etc.

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Isolated dickheads though. With xeroxed pamphlets and a soap box.

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Apocalypse in a nutshell. Well said.:+1:

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When it comes to science books and science teachers, I’d say this is economics meeting the half-life of truth head on.

Schools are often not funded well enough to keep up with the pace of change, and so by virtue of them being physical print-outs, they will decay in relevancy as a school doesn’t have the money to keep buying the latest edition with the newer understandings. Same with science teachers, it costs money to keep them trained.

That’s before you even begin to think about hiring standards and text books suffering from encountering the beliefs of parents and of their writers.

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Well it certainly didn’t spread via university.

You are going to have to help me here. Is “they” in your comment the “they” - referring to flat-earthers - in the post you were replying to?
If so then what you said is that flat-earthers kept a non-flat-earther contained on a little ball.
Umm … ok - what sized ball - how little? Big enough for half a dozen continents a large amount of water covered rock and around 7 billion humans? Like a planet sized ball… which you concede exists and you kept someone on one, by your own admission?
I’m genuinely confused by your comment. And I know it’s bad form to feed the trollies, but coherence really isn’t your strong suit, is it?

Also, I note you failed to cite any of these scientific facts in your later comment. I guess that’s “science” as in the colour of magic (octarine).

ETA

Apart from the Unseen one.

FETA some time later … that SockOneofNine seems to have removed all her/his posts - or has had them moderated-removed. (Leaving my and others’ responses a bit stranded.) Their username/ID also seems to no longer exist here.

What a shame! :wink:

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For fuck’s sake! There are so many useful things you could be doing with your time instead of wasting it on utter bullshit like this! (And I’m talking to the “researcher” who did a “study”, not the flat earthers).

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I had the same reaction when someone’s 30 minute video analyzing a 5 minute PragerU video showed up on my YouTube suggestions. Anyone who’d invest 30 minutes to watch it likely already knows PragerU is FOS.

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I was talking about brand new science textbooks that contained not just outdated information but howlingly wrong information.

Elementary and secondary school science textbooks are created by a game of telephone, where real science in college textbooks and reference books gets used by professional educators, rather than scientists, as the basis for curricula for k-12. Then those curricula get referred to by more non-scientists as a guide to what information needs to be put into the k-12 textbooks. Then those textbooks get used as a template for the next edition of the textbook, rinse and repeat. At each stage of the process, the concepts being conveyed become more and more removed from anyone who actually understands them.

There was an essay by Steven Jay Gould that I read long ago that talked about this process in terms of the awful coverage evolutionary concepts get in most elementary and college level biology textbooks. Sorry I can’t recall which of his essay collections it appeared in.

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Hail Sobek!

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The internet has given knowledge a sword…and stupidity a howitzer.

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My personal belief is that the flat earther community is about 5% true believers, and 95% grifters that recognize some easy marks to take advantage of.

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Another win for the No Shit Sherlock Institute.

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I remember a friend of mine telling me in the late 90’s that the internet was going to going to be a beacon of light and truth-- dictators wouldnt be able to control the news and spread propaganda, scientific ideas would penetrate remote third world villages, urban myths would be debunked.

I said to him “you know the Klan will eventually figure out how to use the internet, right? It’s not like only saints, scientists and historians used telephones for the last hundred years.”

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So can really big magnets.

Are ball deniers the hipsters of flat earthers? 'Cause it really sounds like something a hipster would call themself.

edited for typo

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I have to assume that Flat Eartherism appeals to those whose lives are not fulfilling. They feel like ‘nobodies’. Having family, friends, work, hobbies, etc. isn’t enough for them. They need to feel special – superior – to others. The more outlandish the false belief, the more then can hunker down into it and surround themselves with walls of delusion.

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This also applies to the “We’re in a spiritual war against the powers of Hell!” variety of fundamentalist Christians. I think both groups would be much happier, and the world a better place, if they were properly introduced to role-playing games, and could get their thrills and fantasies and heroics there, with their friends, in a sane and fun form.

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Was his name Cory Doctorow? :slight_smile:

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I was going to say ‘great band name’ but a quick search brought me this.

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If Google wasn’t evil:

You just finished watching: “THE WROLD IS FLATE!!! SCIENTS LIES!!!” on YouTube. Here are some links for therapy and counseling services.

Our universe:

You just finished watching: “THE WROLD IS FLATE!!! SCIENTS LIES!!!” on YouTube. Would you like to subscribe to the Linden Democrat-Reporter?

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