So… they basically think “the Ice Wall” from GoT is real?
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This nonsense is a contemporary manifestation of a type of long existing popular counter-normative belief system, (probably a social psychologist could show it to be a symptom of some underlying economic alienation, stress over historical relevance, dysfunction in the body-politic etc.)
Recently the internet birthed the phenomena of “gang-stalking” which emerged when paranoid people (probably clinically so), found each other online and reinforced one another’s delusions re. nebulous harassers.
In the 20th century mediums like newsletters, mass market paperbacks and ham radio served as conduits for unorthodox world views, and connected adherents socially. (it’s definitely more about in-group/out-group dynamics than anything resembling a sincerely held conviction, not that that makes much difference).
Vril energy emanated from a novel from 1871, but also was taken as esoteric teaching by theosophists and - allegedly, was a hobby of some members of the third reich - (see also “Pseudoscience in Naziland” (Ley, 1947) for a hot take on the relationship between pseudoscience and fascist governments).
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Thanks for your response. Not much time to respond, fear topic will close before I can do properly.
I follow your argument and agree, on a quick reading. I still think a comparison is rather valid, since homoeopathy as well as some other quackery are belief systems which are more or less closed. The arguments are similarly crafted. Processes of rationalising this and other BS are similar, IMO. Shortest summary: question/attack authority, question/attack (current) knowledge, accept/promote alternative explanation, promote/defend said alternative while argueing with personal experience.
However, flat eathers are an extreme point on the scale of bullshit. I see where followers of homoeopathy come from, but flat eartherism possibly just comes from strongly cultivated contrarianism.
Ah yes, great old school Daft Punk.
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My mother has 2 degrees and a masters, speaks seven languages and has published a book*. She’s never met a conspiracy she didn’t like, and, in fact, believes some that I’ve pointed out to her are actually mutually exclusive.
*a fairly crazypants book, but still.
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There appear to be two strands flowing into modern flat eartherism. On the one hand, semi-parodic tongue in cheek anti-science, and on the other hand, biblical literalists who have actually bothered to suss out what sort of cosmos is being described in various Bible passages like Genesis 1 and Job 38. Pity “biblical literalists” never bother to apply their biblical literalism to, say, the Sermon on the Plain or setting up their congregations as socialist communes of the sort mandated in Acts.
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The video was nicely done, but then I got sucked into the comments, and I feel all sad for humanity. 
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The internet almost certainly made it faster, more accessible, and more compelling, because that’s what it does; but something with pretty solid resemblance to ‘gang-stalking’ goes rather further back.
Fascinating character; and there’s something extra creepy about seeing the same basic outline normally chalked up to deep state microchips and HAARP chemtrails and such rendered in the cutting edge conspiracy science of ~1800. (It probably helps that Matthews was a fairly solid artist, so his drawings of sinister mesmeric apparatus look like they walked right out of a patent or the Proceedings of the Royal Society article)
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Just encountered a flat earther in the comment section of a blogpost on 2001. I’ve never actually run into their screeds accidentally like this before. Where are they coming from? Is it a full moon?
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Maybe. Gotta admit that moon looked pretty fake, tonight (seriously, it was so huge-looking and with a mountain silhouetted in front of it, it didn’t seem real).
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Wow, hadn’t heard of that case, thanks for the reference - definitely fascinating stuff.
Seems likely that delusions are rarely found absent some underlying, often unacknowledged (frequently physiological), malaise. Wonder to what degree there exists a corollary between the obscurity of the ailment and the strength or stretch of fantastical but mislaid explanations.
… well now that you mention it, I’m feeling a little paranoid!
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And (regardless of whether you are right re alternative medicine or not) that is precisely the way educated people can get themselves into all sorts of odd ideas.
They are educated. They know stuff. Often things others don’t and/or that others don’t agree with. That makes it easier to start ‘knowing’ stuff that isn’t in fact so.
You also have a lot more tools available to convince yourself and shore up your beliefs. They may be brittle but there’s a hell of a defense system wrapped around them.
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Wow.
The ‘gang’ with the ‘pneumatic air loom’ sound like exactly the sort of characters these guys would have come up with for a clock-punk RPG.
Issue 8 particularly.
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Has there been any research into the education levels of people who believe in conspiracy theories?
Is Flat Earthism actually a conspiracy theory?
It’s very easy to prove that the earth is a flat disc, not globular, just by going in a straight line until you reach the edge. It’s hard to see how that fact could be covered up by a conspiracy.
In contrast, I can understand the idea that the moon landings could have been faked like a big action film, because obviously they could have been.
Actually… they couldn’t! Not in 1969, not with the technology of the era. 
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It inevitably becomes one.
That’s why you need a really big conspiracy of course…
TLDR - these particular flat-earthers say there is no edge that can be reached. They don’t know how large the disk is. There is a series of massive ice walls surrounding the known world that stops further travel.
The ice is of course there because the sun’s heat doesn’t extend that far…the further out you go, the colder it gets.
So is there a niche group worried about global warming? The ice wall weakens enough that the ocean just drains out into space?
If not, do you want to start this with me?
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From what I understand of the history they branched off from hollow earth theory
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