• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

The Rise of Flat Earthers is Getting Scary

AimLow

Member
Dec 10, 2017
969
Saw this article and was truly frightened on the sheer level of stupidity presented. The fact that there are Flat Earthers in some of the positions that they are is disturbing to say the least. It does make me wonder though, if FE'ers are actually preaching that they believe the earth is flat, or just have beef with authority/science.

On a clear day, the curvature of the earth can be seen from an airplane window. But remarkably, the hundreds of flat earthers at the Dallas gathering were just a small portion of the movement.
People in every pocket of this spherical planet are rejecting science and spreading the word that the earth is flat.
There's no clear study indicating how many people have been convinced -- and flat earthers like Weiss will tell you without evidence there are millions more in the closet anyway, including Hollywood A-listers and commercial airline pilots -- but online communities have hundreds of thousands of followers and YouTube is inundated with flat earth content creators, whose productions reach millions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

For Davidson, a born-again Christian, the most logical explanation for the conspiracy of the millennium goes like this: "Let's just say there is an adversary, there is a devil, there is a Satan. His whole job would be to try to convince the world that God doesn't exist. He's done an incredible job convincing people with the idea that we're just on a random speck in an infinite universe."

A digital illustration of a flat earth.
The reality, says Davidson, is that the flat earth, sun, moon and stars are contained in a "Truman Show"-like dome. From there, pitfalls can be easily dismissed -- like photos of the earth from space, which flat earthers believe are photoshopped. "This all goes away if they put a 24/7 camera feed on the moon," he adds.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Still, most adherents demonstrate plenty of anti-scientific tendencies. It's hard to find a flat earther who doesn't believe most other conspiracies under the sun; a flat earth conference is invariably also a gathering of anti-vaxxers, 9/11 truthers and Illuminati subscribers, to name a few.
It's that hyper-skeptical mindset that helps flat earthers answer the big questions -- like who's hiding the true shape of the planet from us?
"The ruling elite, from the royal family to the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds ... all of those groups that run the world, they're in on it," says Weiss.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Also, I saw this article linked on my Facebook feed, and I'm not sure what's more scary: the ideas in the article, or the ones posted in the FB comments.

Edit: Specifically, I find this scary because those who subscribe to this ideology can overlap with and lead to other more dangerous ones (anti-vax, bigotry, anti-science in general). We've already seen this happen. Enough momentum, and Flat-Earthers can lobby for some damaging legislation, especially in the science/education realms.
 
Last edited:
SteveWinwood

SteveWinwood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,676
USA USA USA
watch that netflix flat earth documentary

it's fascinating and scary

and hilarious as they waste all their money constantly proving the earth is round and then assuming they made a mistake somewhere in their test so they can dismiss the results
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
53,148
It's that hyper-skeptical mindset that helps flat earthers answer the big questions -- like who's hiding the true shape of the planet from us?
"The ruling elite, from the royal family to the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds ... all of those groups that run the world, they're in on it," says Weiss.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

More importantly, WHY would anyone be hiding the true shape of the planet? What would be the reason?
 

Deleted member 44129

User requested account closure
Banned
May 29, 2018
7,690
I got talking to someone at work the other day. He's a born again Christian who believes the earth is 6000 years old.... And apparently he believes the Earth is flat. The hilarious thing is that one claim he makes is that pictures from space of earth are faked, and you can tell because there are NO STARS!! THE STARS ARE MISSING!

What is fucking hilarious about this is that he is a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!!
 
Yerffej

Yerffej

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
God_Of_Phwoar said:
I got talking to someone at work the other day. He's a born again Christian who believes the earth is 6000 years old.... And apparently he believes the Earth is flat. The hilarious thing is that one claim he makes is that pictures from space of earth are faked, and you can tell because there are NO STARS!! THE STARS ARE MISSING!

What is fucking hilarious about this is that he is a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
All you can hope for is they come to their senses some day. If that day comes, someone like him is gonna have flop sweats and anxiety over the stupid he tried to peddle.
 
higemaru

higemaru

Member
Nov 30, 2017
4,099
We need to start being actively mean to these people. It's a theory borne purely out of people saying "no" with no rhyme or reason as to why they are saying no. It's unproductive, and if it continues developing the way it's developing, actively harmful
 
BlueTsunami

BlueTsunami

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,499
God_Of_Phwoar said:
I got talking to someone at work the other day. He's a born again Christian who believes the earth is 6000 years old.... And apparently he believes the Earth is flat. The hilarious thing is that one claim he makes is that pictures from space of earth are faked, and you can tell because there are NO STARS!! THE STARS ARE MISSING!

What is fucking hilarious about this is that he is a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That person is a good example of how easily logic can be thrown out the window. All of a sudden exposure is an alien concept in that on particular scenario.
 
Artdayne

Artdayne

Banned
Nov 7, 2017
5,015
There are a lot of anti-scientific things that people believe in. I mean, this one is more egregious because it is so easily disprovable though.
 
Bricktop

Bricktop

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,847
It's not scary. They're few and far between on the grand scale of things and unlike anti-vaxx tools, they can't actually do any damage with their stupidity.
 
OP
OP

AimLow

Member
Dec 10, 2017
969
Bricktop said:
It's not scary. They're few and far between on the grand scale of things and unlike anti-vaxx tools, they can't actually do any damage with their stupidity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think what's scary to me is where the trajectory of this belief is going. Right now, it's pretty innocuous, but if more with this mindset reach higher positions of authority, it can turn much nastier and lead to other, more damaging beliefs. A "gateway belief" if you will.

higemaru said:
It's a theory borne purely out of people saying "no" with no rhyme or reason as to why they are saying no. It's unproductive, and if it continues developing the way it's developing, actively harmful
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

^ Yeah, this.
 

Deleted member 44129

User requested account closure
Banned
May 29, 2018
7,690
Yerffej said:
All you can hope for is they come to their senses some day. If that day comes, someone like him is gonna have flop sweats and anxiety over the stupid he tried to peddle.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
He's beyond help. He also claims that because they have only ever found whole dinosaur skeletons, and never found just parts, then that proves that dinosaurs are fake. I literally dont know where to start picking apart this reasoning. He also claimed that nobody has ever taken a photo of the "whole earth" in one photo. Like, the "evidence" he presents is flawed from the outset.
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
AimLow said:
I think what's scary to me is where the trajectory of this belief is going. Right now, it's pretty innocuous, but if more with this mindset reach higher positions of authority, it can turn much nastier and lead to other, more damaging beliefs. A "gateway belief" if you will.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Netflix documentary actually has examples of this happening. People who start with flat earth who then get into more insidious conspiracy theories. Flat earthers generally believe a bunch of bullshit and are racist and misogynistic and homophobic, and people who start getting into that community come to adopt those beliefs as well. Once you start to erode critical thinking and belief in scientific consensus you can go anywhere.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,697
USA
I love flat-earthers. They're like the reasonabilists from Parks and Recreation. Their ideas are so ridiculous and easily proven wrong that you just have to laugh.
 

Deleted member 60295

User requested account closure
Banned
Sep 28, 2019
1,489
AimLow said:
I think what's scary to me is where the trajectory of this belief is going. Right now, it's pretty innocuous, but if more with this mindset reach higher positions of authority, it can turn much nastier and lead to other, more damaging beliefs. A "gateway belief" if you will.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

We're already at that point, thanks to anti-vaxxers.
 
Aurongel

Aurongel

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
7,065
I've always felt that the root of this is just people wanting to Nihilistically troll established institutions and science professionals for attention. Being a contrarian who gets this many articles written about you must be the closest thing to affirmation many of these internet dwelling attention starved people get.
 
Sheev

Sheev

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,813
In terms of other anti-science views like anti-vaccers, this is pretty harmless on its own like with people who dismiss Dino feathers.

The problem is that it's a slippery slope with some of those people to hopping aboard the anti-vaccer train and being manipulated into believing other rubbish despite evidence otherwise.

I'm honestly certain the majority of Flat Earthers are ironic. Or at least I really hope so.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,235
Canada
If you want to take a plane from Vancouver Canada to Tokyo Japan, YOU MUST FLY EAST ACROSS THE ENTIRE FLAT PLANET, because there is no sphere shape easily connecting these destinations.

Makes sense to me! 😄
 
MasterYoshi

MasterYoshi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,013
Everything we fucking observe in space is round. I just don't understand how you can pretzel your brain so hard that you can't accept a round planet.
 
Quiksaver

Quiksaver

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,022
"The ruling elite, from the royal family to the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds ... all of those groups that run the world, they're in on it," says Weiss.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, they are in on it, covertly financing stupidity like this to distract dumb people from the real issues

They even have their own card on the Illuminati card game

DoOmdkvWsAUdO9V.jpg
 
Jedi2016

Jedi2016

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,623
I especially like the part where he "tried and failed" for years to find proof that the Earth was round. Clearly didn't look particularly hard, and then embraced a belief with even less evidence.

The problem with the mindset isn't so much what they specifically believe, but the lack of belief and interest in science. It all gets thrown out the window, and that's when they start getting dangerous.
 
P-MAC

P-MAC

Member
Nov 15, 2017
4,455
This all goes away if they put a 24/7 camera feed on the moon,"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I wish this was true but there's already one in orbit and they just say it's fake. I'm pretty sure these idiots could go to the Moon in person and would still just say it was a CIA hologram made to trick them
 
Veliladon

Veliladon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,557
I've lived in both hemispheres. I've seen the sun in the north, I've seen the sun in the south. You can even see this on the satellite view of Google Maps where shadows in the southern hemisphere point south and shadows in the northern hemisphere point north. I don't know what else could prove that the earth is flat because that's pretty unassailable confirmation of spherical geometry.
 
danowat

danowat

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,783
It's usually a religious thing, goes along side space denial, evolution denial, and anti vaxxing.
 
Yerffej

Yerffej

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
God_Of_Phwoar said:
He's beyond help. He also claims that because they have only ever found whole dinosaur skeletons, and never found just parts, then that proves that dinosaurs are fake. I literally dont know where to start picking apart this reasoning. He also claimed that nobody has ever taken a photo of the "whole earth" in one photo. Like, the "evidence" he presents is flawed from the outset.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Christ.
 
the magical kitsune

the magical kitsune

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,499
Joni said:
I always threathen to push them off the edge of the Earth.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
hy8a2c1o8o021.jpg


Seriously though, flat earthers are more sad than scary. That netflix documentary is worth a watch to see that they are real, serious people and some of them have based their life on it. One of the leading figures in their circles is Mark Sargent, a 50 year old ex "professional gamer" who still lives with his mom and reminds me of Forrest Gump. Guy obviously likes the attention he's getting and people are willing to give him a platform and revere him without stopping to think why a random 50 year old gamer is more legit than someone with any kind of scientific background (I mean, they likely think the latter are all 'in on it' or indoctrinated by some global science organization that keeps the real truth at bay).

Then there's this other dude who originally signal boosted Mark Sargent but then came to hate him due to his popularity and started making online rants about how he's a CIA agent placed there to discredit their movement or whatever. Conspiracy theorists turning on each other and accusing each other of being part of the conspiracy must be peak tinfoil hat mindset.

Ultimately though they're harmless. In a world where Alex Jones was allowed his own platform to spout stuff ranging from literal bullshit (angels, demons and goblins, baby-eating lizard people like obama and hillary, aliens and gay frogs) to outright hate (sandy hook never happened), this is like way, way down the line of harmful conspiracy theories. I just don't agree with that one guy in the documentary who claimed we should understand flat earthers like they're a dormant scientific mind who just went the wrong way. Having the inquisitiveness of a child doesn't make you a potential scientist, and rejecting any reasonable argument after making your own naive unsubstantiated claim definitely does not make you a potential scientist. You are no different than the average conspiracy theorist, and most of them tend to be bigots or otherwise ridiculously ignorant. These people don't care about science, they likely care about being part of a cult or some fringe group that boosts their sense of belonging by reinforcing their beliefs.
 
SturokBGD

SturokBGD

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,414
Ontario
These people are the least of humanity's problems. Entertainment value at best. I find it scarier than you think they're scary.
 
Box

Box

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,629
Lancashire
This all goes away if they put a 24/7 camera feed on the moon.

Bullshit. Idiots.

I do enjoy SciManDan though, so they gave me that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.