I’ve got a good friend who is a flat-earther. It’s strange. I think he believes that he’s seen some kind of ‘revealed truth’ that the earth is flat. He’s not trolling or doing it ironically. I think it’s an inability to reason critically and a willingness to believe that there is some kind of large scale conspiracy going on. It’s strange because I like the guy and we get on well together, but he’s got these completely false opinions embedded in his belief system.
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I reckon the unholy trinity of Flat Earth, AntiVax and climate denial are seeded to destroy the cognitive function, or simply common sense, of the gullible voting masses.
Case in point: 99.99% of GOP voters
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I met a couple true believers. They both smoked a lot of weed. One was not so bright.
Also - I think most Flat Earth folks are Trump fans, right? The willingness to believe in something completely ridiculous is required for both, so makes sense.
Also - my Kickstarter to send a Flat Earther into orbit did not get funded (not that I thought it would):
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You can directly observe the earth isn’t flat with a flashlight, 2 sticks and a body of water
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I prefer to dig two wells in cities distant from each other.
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The CBS show Sunday Morning did a piece on this last year, with interviews. However, the videos are on Facebook:
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That’s what a lot of the people interviewed in the CBS piece I mentioned seemed to demonstrate. Some were unwilling to believe anything they didn’t experience personally, like “Mad” Mike Hughes. So, he plans to take his own pictures of the planet. I wonder if anyone else in the movement will believe him, since they aren’t going up in homemade rockets themselves.
Also, some express a lot of anti-government sentiment as well as anti-science sentiment. Groups like NASA just make them double down on the disbelief. Their theories behind why they believe nothing the government says is true can range from plots for the misuse taxpayer money to baseless information given to the public to control people through fear.
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Contrarian?
Anyway, performative stupidity is still stupidity.
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Because some people can’t see further than the horizon?
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- The ability to see much further than a globe model allows.
- You cannot have gas pressure without a container.
- The globe Earth has never been scientifically proven
- Water always seeks it’s level, and it does not curve, or adhere to spinning balls.
- The. many military, and govt. documents declaring the Earth as flat and non rotating
There are many good reasons to ask the question, but you must have to have an open mind to hear the answers,and intellectually honest to be brave enough to look, and do your own research before condeming others. Science is not consensus!
[citation needed]
[citation needed] I know for a fact that there are gas pressure differentials with altitude. I can prove it with a simple bag of fritos and a car. Are you suggesting the entire planet is encased like an antfarm?
Water absolutely does adhere to many things including rotating spheres. You’ve obviously never played soccer in the rain. In anycase you’re not just a flat earther but also a gravity and acceleration denier. You should really take a basic physics class that uses experimental method before you try to claim you know better than literally everyone else.
[citation needed]
That’s rich. Every single time I give evidence to flat earthers they simply deny it.
I can use a simple mirror based telescope to show you that mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, jupiter’s moons, saturn, saturn’s moons and the sun are all massive spheres. Empirically. By looking at them and watching them rotate over time.
Why would the earth specifically be any different? Why would every easily visible object from earth be a big rotating sphere but earth not be one when we can and have flown planes around it like a sphere? How do you explain Iridium satellites orbiting overhead that you can see every night without gravity?
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Yes. Simple example: meniscus.
Also: please do not feed the trollies.
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our (decidedly round) planet
our (decidedly not quite spherical) planet
There is a risk of getting into a “my scepticism of your scepticism is healthy and well-founded, your scepticism of my scepticism is ill-considered and unsupported” situation when discussing subjects that people hold dear. And once you reach that situation the “arguments” for both fail, because they fall on deaf ears.
People can be influenced, maybe not to the extent that some agencies would like you to believe.
I thought it was turtles all the way down.
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I see you have never heard about this thing called gravity.
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you mean some conspiracies are real 
but then here you are using the word “conspiracy” to mean the same thing as “false conspiracy theory”
come on @doctorow you know better
In my experience, if other people (like the Globe and Mail) are convinced that flat-earthers actually believe the earth is flat, then the flat-earthers’ mission has been accomplished.
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