Just watched a new doc released this week on Netflix called “Behind the Curve,” a nonconfrontational let-them-hang-themselves approach to flat-earthers. Really entertaining and really frustrating. Very much demonstrates the reality of YouTube’s influence. I was ready to assume they were benign, delusional weirdos until they started pulling out the trutherism, antisemitism, racism, etc almost unprompted. Seems the flat-eartherism is a symptom of a disease, not the sickness itself.
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I was reading about it earlier and here’s a quick version of their insane beliefs. The Earth is a disc protected from above by an invisible, dome-like barrier called “the firmament”. (The word “firmament” comes directly from the Old Testament so it must be true.) Surrounding the edge of the disc is barrier they call “the ice wall”, aka Antartica. This wall rises about 50 meters above the surface of the ocean and keeps all the water contained. The wall is made of absolute zero, pitch black ice. The Flat Earth Society says the wall was discovered by Sir James Clark Ross who said that even with telescopes he could not see very far beyond the wall. All anyone knows for sure is that in every direction there are unimaginably violent storms and hurricanes, and freezing darkness. That’s the basic idea which they “prove” by using junk science that makes no sense. After that it becomes all the conspiracy stuff which is a whole other level of insanity.
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Quite a lot of mass education focuses on things that can be tested for (“perform the following calculation”) at the expense of the sense of a framework of thought that would in theory be more useful, long-term (“Is this calculation applicable to the question at hand? How far wrong would the calculation have to be to meaningfully change your conclusion?”)
In my idealized fantasy school, a junior-high-school student can summarize the scientific method and distinguish between questions or propositions that could or could not, in principle, be studied in a scientific way. But I don’t remember any science class, from first grade to high school, that broached these topics, not even when we studied the history of science.
My schooling was [redacted] years ago now, though, so I could be all wrong.
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Smart people can be very good at rationalising stupid beliefs.
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That’s my point, exactly.
Being smart, and educated in science, even (see above) the scientific method does not help, it is rather a prerequisite for some major misconceptions.
You need to be smart enough to DK-yourself into some believes. Flat eartherism is a bit extreme, though.
Happy cake day, BTW.
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Having never heard of PragerU before, I just duckduckgo’d it and the first line from the first result (the official site) tells me all I need to know:
YouTube Continues To Restrict PragerU Videos.
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All this. I live in an area where high school biology teachers teach creationism openly and proudly, and kids (ie, my daughter) who challenge this are subject to discipline for disrespecting a teacher and can have their grade impacted. And generally speaking, parents are not just ok with this but proud of it. Yeah, the now-widespread distrust and disbelief of science is deeply rooted in some areas.
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It’s the problem of trying to deal with Gish Galloping. Any attempt to debunk the claims will inevitably take far longer than the initial Gish Gallop, and lose the viewers who really need to see it.
If there is a quick and effective way of countering far right lies and lying techniques then the entire left wing would like to know.
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I would strongly recommend a guy who goes by the nym “Professor Stick” on youtube when it comes debunking pretty much any pseudoscience, esp flat eartherism. I should warn that he frequently uses “colorful language” so maybe not for the kiddies, but solid science. Of course, in tne face of epistemomogical closure, he largely preaches to the choir, but i have found some of his approaches are useful in my own discussions.
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Watched it. Scary.
Another story about You Tube (and social media) doing terrible things to society.
Must be Tuesday.
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Smart, well educated people can get infected by conspiracy theory bullshit, no question. A good education in science is not an immunization against conspiracy thinking. If you want the world to make sense in a simple way that does not challenge your preconceptions and prejudices, then you are susceptible to conspiracy thinking no matter how smart or well schooled you are. The better educated you are, though, the more you have to engage in doublethink to maintain your conspiracy thinking, and the more brittle your conspiracy beliefs are going to be.
On the other hand, someone who’s never been exposed to science? Is even more vulnerable to conspiracy thinking - good science education doesn’t immunize you, but lack of good science education is like going into flu season while malnourished and sleep deprived.
I’ve got to stop you right there. There’s a huge difference between subscribing to conspiracy theories and feeling that alternative medicine is a good choice for your particular health situation.
First, medicine is shot through with huge areas of bad science, where the standard medical knowledge is really only applicable to white males, or is actually completely wrong (eg, advice about healthy diets, avoiding obesity and treating pre-diabetic patients, where for well over fifty years, medical researchers in the pocket of the sugar industry have minimized evidence that carbs and sugar in general are the cause of a raft of illnesses, instead shifting the blame onto dietary fat and overeating, i.e, victim blaming).
Second, medicine has a long history of minimizing and trivializing the ills of patients who have the misfortune to not be white, male, or thin. Go in with clear cut symtoms of a well understood illness, and the quality of care you get can vary widely depending on your genitals, your skin colour, and your BMI.
Third, when faced with disorders that it cannot explain and does not understand, the standard script, especially if the patients are not white men, is to blame the patient, tell them that their illness doesn’t actually exist, is all in their heads, etc. Only after many years of stonewalling and denial does the disease finally get recognized as real. CF the early history of diseases like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, and the current plight of people with chemical sensitivities.
With all of that as background, it’s understandable why those who’ve had a bruising encounter with the medical establishment might decide to turn to alternative treatments. And it’s very reasonable for some people with some health problems to turn to alternative medicine. The 30% or 40% improvement they’ll see from the placebo effect is better than the nothing they would get from a regular doctor.
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Just wait for the chorus, it says it all.
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In all fairness, the advent of internet connected cell phones with cameras have quietly and conclusively proven that ghosts, ufo’s, and Bigfoot, etc, do not exist.
Except on the internet.
Shit.
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I must express…some concern…at the prospect of a toxicologist who is into homeopathy.
Never good to mix an area where concentrations are a life critical matter with one where being profoundly wrong about how concentrations work is essential.
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Best show ever. PBS channel 2. Runner up "Science International.
Getting off topic, theme sounds like Wendy Carlos influence. 
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I have one, but it may involve some amount of punching.
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While doing a deep dive on YouTube this evening, I came across a livestream Qanon channel that supposedly had tens of thousands of current viewers. So I’m really not all that surprised that flat Earthers found a home on the video service.
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I’d say that this is evidence of the old saying that “A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.”
But we all know that it’s impossible for a lie to go around the flat earth without either hitting the polar ice walls guarded by shoggoths or getting chased down by black helicopters before it can reveal the conspiracy; so that’s obviously false.
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