They may be a troll, but I’ve known enough flat earthers to feel that it is equally likely that they sincerely believe their claims.
4 Likes
One part troll, one part sucker, one part predatory entertainer.
I helped run a small conspiracy site/podcast about 15 years ago, and off mic is always ask the authors and doc makers how much they believed on conspiracy stuff they pushed (think lizard people and ancient aliens stuff), and in some cases they were like “look, I’m just trying to make a living here.”
4 Likes
Those darn geological conspiracy theorists, why can’t they be more like tech conspiracy theorists? 
I agree… to a conspiracy theorist, their time is always the most conspiratorial. that’s one of the conspiracies, how whatever of the era they are in enables an ever increasing rise in conspiracies that they are somehow personally key in battling or turning the tide on. thats a prominent part of the neurosis and subsequent delusions.
“real” conspiracies fuel the flames of their confirmation bias and delusions. they build up a quiver of half-truths and stretched ideas.
the conspiracy theorist i’ve met have a dozen ways to tuesday why they can remain in denial about their conspiracies being real while other peoples are not, you see they are uniquely positioned with some special insight or knowledge that eludes most other people. …sighs
it is irony all the way down. 
good. so we can finally write off that book as being wrong and dumb? 
That would be an interesting podcast.
or maybe it wouldn’t be that interesting of a podcast afterall.
6 Likes
This is frequently thrown around as evidence of flat earth, but it’s absolutely wrong. Many, many studies of aerodynamics and aircraft design (such as NASA and the military are constantly producing) state “these calculations assume a flat and non-rotating Earth.” That is because the effects of rotation and curvature are insignificant to the math these studies are doing. It is not “declaring” that the Earth is flat.
9 Likes
Yes and if your entire meaning for existence is based upon pissing off a specific group of people maybe you should just go die in a fire because you’re a worthless human being.
Not at all directed at you, I direct it the people who really think that way. Its fucked up that this is how many people actually live.
The flip side is I don’t do anything to piss off conservatives and I really don’t care about pissing them off at all I just want them to see reason. The funny thing is they only seem to care about pissing me off. Rational exists only with one side of that worldview
3 Likes
Oh No Ross & Carrie did a series on Flat Earth, including interviewing a lot of Flat Earthers and going out to the Salton Sea with a big reflector on a tower to attempt to empirically (dis)prove the theory. Here’s the first episode:
1 Like
Don’t worry, I’m perpetually angry. Doing nothing also pisses me off.
1 Like
The ‘philosophy’ of “Nothing is True and Everything is Possible”. Takes us into the realm of Putin’s Russia (and its eager adoption by Trump, the GOP, and FOX News).
2 Likes
I’m listening to this Oh, No podcast now. The main thing I’m getting from these flat Earthers is a feeble grasp of geometry. Coupled with a seriously feeble grasp of physics, math, optics, …
12 Likes
I’d listen also, but I rather enjoy my 116/70 blood pressure and maintaining some brain cells. 
You are very brave, @nixiebunny
5 Likes
The Great A’Tuin!
5 Likes
Aaaw, I wanted to ask them why vehicles get faster and more fuel efficient the closer you get to the edge.
12 Likes
so which of the lpotl hosts are you? 
I also recommend people watch Behind The Curve, a Netflix documentary on the flat earth community.
Most people dismiss them as trolls, but that’s dangerous, as it vastly underestimates peoples’ ability to buy into irrationality. That is very destructive to our society, because once science is undermined and scientific expertise trivialized, all hope for progress, democratic elections, and justice is lost. Don’t write these people off as “idiots” or “they don’t REALLY believe this stuff”. Yes, a great many of them do, and we need to understand why.
And, no you can’t reason them out of this position. That is also a mistake that people make who have never encountered conspiracy thinkers. Any evidence can be explained away by them. Belief in flat earth is proof of that- something any school child can disprove still qualifies for passionate belief. It’s not about facts, and don’t think they haven’t done all the tests people have suggested. They have, but they always find an escape route from the evidence that keeps their worldview (pardon the pun) intact. That’s the important thing to understand here.
3 Likes
Flat Earthers could easily pass the hat and charter a plane to fly some of them over the “ice wall” at the edge of their flat earth to see what was on the other side. They would, of course, find the south pole, and then the arctic sea again, and then either land or ocean as they headed back towards the equator.
Why do they refuse to do this? Because they would, of course, find the south pole, and then the arctic sea again, and then either land or ocean as they headed back towards the equator.
2 Likes
Loved the article. I read it as a defence of anyone who believes modern unscientific claims.
40 years of rising inequality and industry consolidation have turned our truth-seeking exercises into auctions
Even when you’re focused on finding just facts on a subject, using scholarly articles, it’s still unclear.
Is this food safe? Well, MegaCorpX funded a hundred studies that say yes, but two non-profits did modestly funded studies that say no.
The scientists that are funded by MegaCorpX will continue to have jobs if the results are favorable.
If you just get most of your info from websites with advertisers, they don’t want to lose funding (again) and you’re getting even more biased information, even after the studies come out biased.
Politics are the same. The ultra wealthy own our media, and they know some publications need to appear leftist, but when it counts they apply their own agendas.
It’s at the point where I’m suspicious of everything I read, unless I can see no possible way the rich can get richer from that piece of information.
2 Likes
There’s a great Flat Earth doc on Netflix called Behind the Curve.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81015076
There was an amazing subplot where some FE folks that host a YouTube channel called “Globe Busters” said that if the earth were round then it would be shifting 15 degrees on its axis every hour. Preposterous, right? So they bought a $20k gyroscope instrument to prove that this wasn’t happening. But it did. Every hour it recorded a 15 degree shift. So they had to come up with some flimsy reason to explain what had happened. They literally rejected the results of their own experiment.
Science, folks. Don’t get the result you like? Keep changing the experiment to fit your narrative. However each and every experiment they did only further proved they were wrong.
14 Likes
That headline in your link calling them “actually good scientists” very much overshoots the mark though.
That documentary is really good, but at its most optimistic, it only implies they are “possible potential scientists with enthusiasm that might be good if they ever had access to mentorship”.
That’s still way better than dismissing them completely as potential anythings, or maligning them as less than human or mentally ill, of course.
(Everything you said in your words is absolutely right)
3 Likes
Cory doesn’t seem to read these anyway. But Ars had a good article/video in Dec 2018 by John Timmer…
