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You would struggle to make this stuff up.
All aboard the Flat Earth cruise – just don’t tell them about nautical navigation
Makes me wonder, if you took a flat earther, flew them into space and showed them the planet, would they change their mind?
That rocket guy even says that if he does see some curvature then it will likely be down to the curved glass of the helmet....
would they change their mind?
Honestly I don't think they would.
I regularly see flat earthers have their entire argument completely destroyed and it makes absolutely no difference to them.
A great example is Bob Knodel of Globebusters, who wanted to prove the Earth didn't rotate at 15 degrees per hour. So they raised $20,000 to buy a very precise ring-laser gyroscope and funnily enough it showed a precession of 15 degrees per hour. Which they decided must be due to mysterious "heavenly energies"
It has got nothing to do with deeply held beliefs or anything like it.
It is attention-seeking, plain and simple.
Come up with a stupid point of view and stick to it no matter what. The rest of the world then tries to figure out whether you are joking, or mad or whatever - and all that lovely attention keeps on coming.
Ignore.
Here’s Bob and his gyro:
A lot of them seem to be a bit religious, too.
I am, in an ironic kinda way, tempted to get a t-shirt or sticker.
It is attention-seeking, plain and simple.
There is an aspect of that to some of them, but the most common thing I see is the desire to feel “special”
The religious ones want to be God’s special children on the special snowglobe He created especially for them. They often talk about how the “atheist/satanic sciencism” wants people to believe that they are not special, just an accident of chemistry on a speck of dust in an infinite universe.
The others want to feel special by having special knowledge. They consider themselves “woke” and go on about brainwashed sheeple. Only they are smart enough to see da truef!
GrahamS, that is probably the case, and is covered in The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer.
Hop on over to Reddit and see some of it in action.
https://www.reddit.com/r/flatearth/
is mostly an open meme battle between flerfers and globetards.
https://www.reddit.com/r/notaglobe/
is a flat earth echo chamber where anyone questioning anything that is posted is immediately banned from the sub.
Also
https://www.reddit.com/r/theworldisflat/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Flatearther/
Flat Earthers I n mind expanding knowledge?
What ever next?
So you all are saying flat earthers have NO argument or evidence what so ever? is that the consensus? interested.
"argument or evidence" against facts? I would say not. They have bullshit, beliefs, made up evidence.
So you all are saying flat earthers have NO argument or evidence what so ever? is that the consensus? interested.
Nothing that hasn’t been spectacularly debunked.
So you all are saying flat earthers have NO argument or evidence what so ever? is that the consensus? interested.
I don't think I have ever seen a bit of FE "evidence" that has troubled me too much. The majority of it is based on fundamental misunderstandings of physics, optics, what the globe model says combined with an inability to think in 3 dimensions or appreciate scale.
What is particularly laughable is when they offer "evidence" that is actually a pretty decent proof of the globe. Like this:
Interesting article about FE and why some "choose" to believe.
I love flat earthers & would love to go to a conference. Not in the USA obviously, I fear I might get shot
If I was on a Flat Earth cruise, I'd be demanding to go right to the edge for a look-see.
If I was on a Flat Earth cruise, I’d be demanding to go right to the edge for a look-see.
Was exactly my thought.
Its a faith position, not a scientific one.
They talk about evidence, but when people (e.g. wolfi6020 on youtube) challenged them to go out and look at the sun rising directly east and setting directly west on the equinox (an easy thing for anyone to measure which would never occur on a flat earth) zero flerfers actually did the experiment.
Faith positions are difficult to shake. When I was religious I knew there was a host of phenomena and moral questions that were difficult to explain or justify in a universe with a good god. But I always assumed that there were brilliant answers out there that I just hadn't heard yet.
Then I looked for myself 🙂
Another explanation is honestly rank ignorance and stupidity. I've heard someone opine on the "failures of the globe earth model" and the fact that "gravity doesn't exist" in one breath and then be unable to tell someone what the angles are in a triangle with three equal sides in the next.
We're probably not losing the cure for cancer here.
If I was on a Flat Earth cruise, I’d be demanding to go right to the edge for a look-see.
Ice walls, silly. 200ft high.
Wait! Are you lot saying Terry Pratchett was fibbing? 😟
Can we have a reality TV programme in which they challenge a group of flat earthers to go on expedition to find the edge?
can they name it the B-ark?
Ice walls, silly. 200ft high.
If only we had some sort of magic flying contraptions capable of going higher than that. We could just pop over and take a few photos of the underside, shut those globists down once and for all.
That's a point actually - what do they imagine is on the other side? There could be a whole other 'planet' there that we don't know about, couldn't there?
They'd be shot down by the UN security patrols that protect the ice wall under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty.
what do they imagine is on the other side?
Of the wall? As usual, it depends who you ask.
Religious types generally say the firmament dome starts at the ice wall, beyond the dome there are only the waters of heaven.
Some twist Rear Admiral Richard Byrd's TV interview to conclude there are green fertile lands beyond the wall. But then he was a Freemason so...
Some reckon there is an infinite plane with lots of other Earth-like pockets in it.
I love this, I am glad it exists, kinda gives me a warm glow. I don't know why, I think it is because I really do enjoy feeling smugly superior. Which is obviously a horrible personality trait, but I can't help it. Every now and again when I am feeling shit I will dip in and bait them. Its awesome fun. I also love 9/11, climate change, chemtrailers, brexiters, all of them. Long may they continue.
I really do enjoy feeling smugly superior. Which is obviously a horrible personality trait
This is the danger - you can fall into the same "wanting to feel special" trap as they do.
I mean understanding how many degrees there are in a triangle, how many metres there are in a kilometre, or how a magnetic compass works, doesn't make me "special", but it's all too easy to feel like Stephen Hawking when you are talking to these people.
For those who get a kick out of the foolishness of others..
There are people on Youtube who:
Think that clouds passing overhead are other worlds passing closeby and have convinced themselves (possibly just himself) that he can see cities etc by looking up.
Think that all the pictures of Mars show a disaster zone with rubble from a civilisation.
Think that the phases of the moon are caused by the shadow of the earth.
Personally I'm torn between frustration, sympathy and laughter, but the one thing I can't get past is their certainty.
The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is; you don't know you're in Dunning-Kruger club.
"This is why I want to go up into space 62 miles up, to set this thing straight for people to know," he said.
Hughes plans to share his observations around -- or across -- the world.
You can already imagine his "proof" being "debunked" as him being a plant all along.
Graham S
How many metres in a kilometer .. I'd forgotten that one!
Pretty direct quote from a flerfer who just had conversion from metres to kilometres explained:
"How can you divide a meter by a thousand and get something bigger*!!!!????!!!!"
Good times :O)
There are people on Youtube who
Have you encountered the two guys who think distance and altitude are fake, that America is half the size "they" say it is, and that planes are actually much smaller and fly much slower than "they" say.
Think that the phases of the moon are caused by the shadow of the earth.
Saw a flat-earther smugly making that mistake the other day. Not for the first time either.
That's what I mean about their "evidence" often being based on fundamental misunderstandings about what the globe model says is happening.
but it’s all too easy to feel like Stephen Hawking
no no I have a healthy attitude to how little I know, I definitely do not feel smart, I think that's why I like it, as long as I am smarter than someone...
Sun at south pole is a good one too. https://gfycat.com/BriskLavishLabradorretriever
I think they the flat earth society is a piss-take.
Every now and then they break cover
GrahamS
Yup heard that one. Also the chuckle brother who think that water is an element and therefore not made up from hydrogen and oxygen.
Mostly listen to the debunkers tho .. saves giving them views and usually much shorter and more interesting.
Mostly listen to the debunkers tho .. saves giving them views and usually much shorter and more interesting.
Likewise. Lots of the flat earth videos are over an hour long. I only have a limited amount of time to listen to morons.
There is a YouTuber called "Tau Ceti Alpha" who does a very nice "Flat Earthers: Full Retard Mode" series that compiles clips of flerfers. Always good if you fancy a quick smorgasbord of insanity. Here's the latest one:
Sun at south pole is a good one too.
Discussing that one on reddit right now in fact. It's fake of course - because reasons...
I think they the flat earth society is a piss-take.
It is a good wind up, so many people (us included) who want to get all het up about it.
I am genuinely interested that in the face of overwhelming evidence, people actually believe the earth is flat, and even worse, have changed their mind to believe just that.
Is it just that people want to be on the other side of the argument just in case the tiny chance of being right would somehow make them special? You know, like the never ending list of structural engineers and thermite experts who turned up on 9/12?
Ice walls, silly. 200ft high.
Four pitches of ice climbing? Sounds easy enough to get someone up to have a peep over the edge.
As above, these unfortunates have absorbed these beliefs as a function of their general sense of worth, and are as unshakeable as any evangelical. These guys are pro-level at making shit up to refute actual science - they've been arguing about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin for centuries.
[the other side] Of the wall?
The other side of the Earth, I meant. Ie, the underside.
planes are actually much smaller
Surely that's readily verifiable by, y'know, visiting an airfield?
I think they the flat earth society is a piss-take.
I've often wondered whether it's the ultimate example of Poe's Law. The effort expended though... maybe people see it as a challenge to out-troll each other by debating with Them?
Maybe there's an secret members' inner-circle forum where they all laugh about how they've sucked in that GrahamS bloke again and how stupid he must be for still not realising that the whole thing is a colossal wind-up...
Sounds easy enough to get someone up to have a peep over the edge.
Or pop over to take a photo of the walls, even?
There are a lot of Poes, especially on reddit, but you can usually tell after a few posts. They don't quite manage the same level of smug insanity.
Surely that’s readily verifiable by, y’know, visiting an airfield?
He does. And guesstimates the size of the planes in the distance... it's all very Father Ted.
Here is his channel if you want to lose a few braincells:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpuu81O9AtZvD_tr56xVr7Q/videos
And here is his mate (and/or alter-ego / other personality) "Enslaved By No Media":
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNeK1QwoHHj5TC1tTWyVkaQ/videos
Here is sensible person SciManDan tackling one of his videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwF26HOmw-A
Put them all on a big ship and ask them to present the facts once they've sailed to the edge and back.
I am genuinely interested that in the face of overwhelming evidence, people actually believe the earth is flat,
it perhaps quite thrilling - you are casting yourself as the person in history who discovered that everything we knew about 'x' was wrong. You can paint yourself as a maverick who gets results - like Einstein or Wilf Lunn.
Flat earth stuff is more of a conspiracy theory than a (faux) scientific one. It think it has little to do with understanding the properties of nature (which are depressingly random of meaningless) and more to do with wishing there to motivation from some source for things being as they are - to believe the earth is flat, what you really need to believe is that the rest of the world is conspiring together to hide the truth of the worlds flatness from you and that 'they' have reason to do so and that you are worth the effort of being tricked. Its more comforting to think that you are being conned because it proves that you matter enough to someone to be worth the effort - its far more uncomfortable to accept you're a very small part of a grubby smear of life on the surface of a rock in a countlessly big universe that neither knows or cares you exist.
The thing I live about most of these conspiracys is to what ends are the people conspiring against you doing their dirty work?
One thing that I read about recently, and which had honestly never occurred to me, is that if you go to, say, Australia or New Zealand, or anywhere well south of the equator, and look at the moon, it looks completely different, as do certain constellations*.
Because they’re upside down!
*Particularly Orion, because it’s one of the only major constellations that can be seen in full in both hemispheres, it’s a winter constellation here, it disappears in the summer. I wonder how a flerther might explain that if the world were flat, because otherwise it would always look the same.
A lot of them seem to be a bit religious, too
I suppose they are both things that are pretty far fetched and based on highly dubious facts so the 2 things go hand in hand really!
The moon is a good one CZ. Flerfers say that when you go to the South you are just looking at it from the other direction, like a sticker stuck to the ceiling above the equator.
Of course this doesn’t actually match reality where the moon doesn’t suddenly flip over, it rotates based on your latitude.
For the Southern Hemisphere stars they have all kinds of handwaving involving “perspective” and mirages. Some reckon they are just a reflection of the northern stars, despite looking completely different. Others excuse it by saying things like “you can’t tell the shape of the ground by looking at the sky” or “the stars are not what we are told, so observations are meaningless”
Flerfers say that when you go to the South you are just looking at it from the other direction, like a sticker stuck to the ceiling above the equator.
Arrgh!! I’m staring at the lampshade trying to work out how that works. (In their minds.)
Funnily, the moon thing occurred to me while watching the Dakar rally coverage last night. They showed a clip of the crescent moon over the landscape. It was upside-down compared to here, of course. I wonder how many people know which way up the moon should be..
Anyone fancy starting a different shaped earth society to really mess with them? We can vote on the shape and then make up some mad random reasons as to why it must be so. I’m voting hendecagon just because it sounds cool.
I'm aware that they are totally misguided but I'm reassured that there are always people who refuse to submit to commonly held assumptions.
Without these crazy people we would still be in the dark ages. Copernicus and Galileo didn't get an easy ride.
Without these crazy people we would still be in the dark ages
I sort of get where you're coming from (that it takes left field thinking to advance knowledge sometimes) but these lot are the equivalent of the peasants in witch drowning scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail..."if she weighs the same as a duck, she'll float on water, therefore she's a witch..."
They are not advancing knowledge, otherwise they wouldn't be on youtube, they'd be at MIT.
I’d agree if it was a commonly held assumption, but unfortunately for the flerfers they’re arguing with fact based evidence. A bit different from accepted norms.