Are ‘Flat Earthers’ real? It’s all one big joke, right? Right?!

[Galactic Druid]

I honestly can’t believe they’re real. Every once in a while, I see screens, jokes, memes, etc. from the ‘Flat Earth’ community pop up in locations like twitter. Far too often it involves kids, like a post that went viral where a parent is asking in their community what to do about the fact that the school is trying to teach their child the Earth is a sphere, or asking advice on what to do when your kids start questioning what you teach them, etc.

Are these people real? It’s hard for me to believe that in the last few years, a group is growing that revolves around the belief that something that’s been a known fact for centuries is false. It’s easier to think that it’s just some big joke, a goofy group of people on Facebook that are pretending to believe something crazy to see if anyone will believe their real, but have taken the joke too far by involving their kids.

This can’t be a real movement, right?

[Tolvo]

Yes they are real. In general they are born out of broad conspiracy theorists and the culture they breed. It is unclear if all of them believe it, or how many are grifters trying to make money off true believers. As well there are people who appear to get into it and invest so much time and money that at that point, it has to be real or everything(Possibly much of their life) has been a waste up to that point.

Below is a video Hbomberguy did looking into this. It is a decent summary of how a lot of this works and the main hypothesis they propose that proves the Earth is flat. Normally he can be quite mocking of those he talks about and tried not to be as much for this video, but he does give into temptation(Not many people would watch it probably if there wasn't an entertainment factor).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gFsOoKAHZg

[legomaster00156]

I'm sure there are a good few less true believers than there are people who claim to believe in flat Earth, but yeah, they're quite real, and they're not even the dumbest anti-science folks out there. For example, there are people who believe that their survival instincts of seeking food and water are wrong, and neither is necessary for life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia

[Tolvo]

There's kind of an astonishing number of conspiracy theories and things of that nature, pseudoscience, homeopathy, cults, etc.

So you have people eating raw meat, distilling silver in water and drinking and injecting it and turning blue, parents not vaccinating children and killing children via this, Qanon, 9/11 truthers, Sandy Hook truthers, they're all cut from the same cloth. Though certain ones are way more radical and rooted in bigotry.

[Oniya]

I'm sure there are a good few less true believers than there are people who claim to believe in flat Earth, but yeah, they're quite real, and they're not even the dumbest anti-science folks out there. For example, there are people who believe that their survival instincts of seeking food and water are wrong, and neither is necessary for life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia

My favorite part of that:

Wiley Brooks later claimed that Diet Coke and McDonald's cheeseburgers have special "5D" properties. The idea of separate but interconnected 5D and 3D worlds is a major part of Wiley Brooks' ideology, and Wiley Brooks encourages his followers to only eat these special 5D foods, as well as meditate on a set of magical 5D words.

My formatting.  I have no words.

[Tolvo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone

I mean if we want to talk pseudoscience, there is Orgone Energy, or Cum Energy, which the creator had Einstein test for him(Which Einstein said didn't work).

[stormwyrm]

Many sincere flat earthers believe in what they do out of excessive Biblical literalism, even though the Bible can actually be interpreted in places as describing the Earth as spherical ("circle of the Earth" Isaiah says, for instance). Despite what one might think, it has been a very long time since most people seriously believed the earth was flat. Eratosthenes as far back as the 4th century BC not only knew the Earth was round, he even used geometry ("earth measuring") to literally measure the circumference of the Earth to a remarkable degree of accuracy. And it wasn't true that in Columbus's day that people believed the earth was flat and he would sail off the edge of the Earth. They believed (rightly) that the circumference of the Earth was twice what Columbus thought it was, so if he tried to sail west to get to India he'd starve to death before getting even halfway. Lucky for him there was a continent in between!

[Love And Submission]

There's kind of an astonishing number of conspiracy theories and things of that nature, pseudoscience, homeopathy, cults, etc.

So you have people eating raw meat.

Wait. Is there some sort of massive Steak tartare conspiracy that I'm unaware of or something? I'm sure that this is more significant then just Steak tartare but that's what first came to mind when I read this.

It doesn't feel like eating raw meat is as much as conspiracy as it just something french people do.

[Tolvo]

Wait. Is there some sort of massive Steak tartare conspiracy that I'm unaware of or something? I'm sure that this is more significant then just Steak tartare but that's what first came to mind when I read this.

It doesn't feel like eating raw meat is as much as conspiracy as it just something french people do.

There is a whole concept of a raw meat diet, eating not just steak tartar but a lot of raw meats, aging them over time, not just a few weeks, but years. With terms like "High Meat" and views that it's wrong to eat cooked meat, how this is a healthier alternative to veganism.

1 Year Raw Meat Eating Warning Gross Video

[Mathim]

There is no level of ignorance or stupidity that humanity cannot sink to. Period.

[GildedPerdition]

I find these people endlessly fascinating, on a lot of levels. What factors have to come together to lead a person to question something so factually established that it's just taken for granted? Even in mundane things like simple phrases ("Around the world" being my favorite). Flat-earthers are pretty harmless, so I find that I can easily laugh at their antics. But people like them are a strange new product of the echo chamber of the internet that I love to study. In an age where endless amounts of information are right at your fingertips, ignorance is really a choice. But with that access to information comes a weird and unforeseen problem. Even though you can access the works of truly brilliant minds and educate yourself at the drop of a hat, that quick access and lends a crazy level of credibility to everyone. All of a sudden this loon from a basement in Michigan seems to be on equal ground with the likes of Stephen Hawking. And that's a wildly fascinating phenomenon that gives birth to flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers, and the still-functioning and regularly updated website of the Heaven's Gate cult. But I don't think it's a level of ignorance that we're stooping to as a species, I think it's the deeply rooted subconscious need to be right and search for any evidence, however baseless, that supports our preconceived ideas and prejudices that we can't stop ourselves from sinking into. Here's the link to a video from one of my favorite channels that really dives into the topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWkBccBtGAw

[Mechelle]

Unfortunately, I can't find a link to prove it, but (and I really hope it's true) I did read or hear that the Flat Earth Society claimed in their advertising literature that they had members all over "the globe"!

Excellent post by GildedPerdition.I do think there is a desire for people to claim that they have the true, esoteric knowledge, although I also wouldn't rule out something as simple as the desire to be on television and get some fame by propounding a bizarre theory.

[DrFier]

I'm sure there are a good few less true believers than there are people who claim to believe in flat Earth, but yeah, they're quite real, and they're not even the dumbest anti-science folks out there. For example, there are people who believe that their survival instincts of seeking food and water are wrong, and neither is necessary for life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia

I definitely agree that there are facts more absurd to refute.  You have to travel somewhere to prove the earth is a globe: climate change comes to you.

[Oniya]

I definitely agree that there are facts more absurd to refute.  You have to travel somewhere to prove the earth is a globe: climate change comes to you.

Only about 729 km (453 mi).

[Regina Minx]

You have to travel somewhere to prove the earth is a globe...

Or just watch a lunar eclipse.

[Oniya]

You know what a Flat-Earther said when shown a picture of the Earth taken from space?

The Earth...

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

is a circle!

[Lilias]

Just look up how they (don't) understand gravity. ::)

[DrFier]

The density stuff cracks me up, mainly because why the hell would objects suddenly decide to go up instead of sideways or something.  And if it was all density, then how could they swim? They're the densest things on earth, after all. :P

[Jag]

So I had the chance to meet a flat earther. We were all outside at work just chatting and someone mentioned flat earthers and one of the new guys on our team said "I'm a flat earther."

We all stopped and looked at him, waiting for him to say he was joking or something...but it never happened. I asked him if he was being honest or just joking and he said he was being honest. That he was in an accident last year and had an out of body experience and it showed him that the Earth was flat. I talked to him a few times after that about it. For the most part, he never discussed it unless it came up in conversation. I kept an open mind around him. Making sure never to seem too sarcastic when I asked thing or to make jokes about it. I was legitimately curious about it.

He said the Earth wasn't like straight line flat. That it was like a very shallow bowl shape and that's why the water stays where it is. That there is a atmospheric dome over the top of the bowl shape and creates all of our weather. I mean, it's not that different from how Earth really works, it's just not a globe shape to him. It's a shallow bowl with a lid.

It was a very interesting experience. I imagine my experience with him is one of the good ones, as I've heard people say that some start yelling or get very hostile. He was super chill about it though. I wish he would have worked there longer, but he stopped showing up one day (like a lot of people do at call centers).

[Callie Del Noire]

Yeah one of my coworkers was a flat earther in my old job working for Apple. He was pretty laid back about it

[Kitteredge]

Picking up on some thoughts by Gilded, above... I'd read somewhere that the Thirty Years' War was ignited in large part by the invention of the printing press. Before, knowledge was closely guarded almost because it had to be. It was hard to disseminate information. Books required hand-copying, leading to monastic orders, the priestly hierarchies of the Church, and so on. When people were able to produce their own pamphlets and propagate their own ideas, whammo! This didn't usher in profound accepted new truths, it lead to insane sectarian violence, including one of the bloodiest wars we've ever seen.

This may be what we see with the internet. Not to say there hasn't been plenty of conspiracy-making beforehand, but websites, email, and social media certainly have allowed the transmission of false information. More importantly, it allows people to locate new communities. The old systems of expertise have trouble containing the wildness. And there's a tremendous draw to believe that you've 'found the answers.' Anti-vaxxing, flat-earthing, etc., are all glitches of false information (and lack of historical knowledge) blimped out because these people have found each other and are able to echo their beliefs back and forth. If you spend any time around incel boards, same thing. A lot of the alt-right or how Boomers are FW:FW:FW:ing emails and Facebook posts about diseases traveling in caravans or whatever, same thing.

The internet (and computing) has produced an incredible amount of knowledge sharing, but this also has meant the outpouring of really bad ideas. New technologies, it turns out, aren't automatic goods.

[Thesunmaid]

Well I don't have links..but I had a conversation with one at a party a few weeks ago for a friends birthday.

I was curious about the fact that the earth was flat but did that mean the rest of the planets are also flat? Like are we just floating about on a bunch of discs..and this guy explained to me "oh no no...there is a dome over the earth and the stars are just little lights that sit on the dome to twinkle and it moves around so we have the "illusion"of movement.

I was like huh....well...I have to go now..(I did not want to make a scene at my friends party and this was a new boy friend of a girl who was there..poor thing)

And now some people are saying that the planet is donut shaped. I was like...so they will accept that the world looks like a giant square pizza...and a donut with a hole in the middle and we can go through the centre of the planet and around..but it being a sphere is beyond the realm of belief..because....reasons?

Dear fuck..how are there actually people who still think these things.

I also had a conversation with an anti vaxxer last night in a chat room. They explained to me in length that the MMR vaccine causes autism and mental retardation in humans because of mercury poisoning. I was like huh...that's very interesting..how long does this take to happen?  He was confused but explained it tended to happen fairly quickly since it would pass through the blood brain barrier.(no...it wouldn't...and mercury poisoning takes quite a while to actually show any symptoms and the amount in a vaccine would be so small it was negligible.)

But the mercury travels to the brain and makes it harder for neurons to fire..(blah blah blah he went on for about 20 minutes unloading the biggest load of horse shit I have heard in quite some time.) I played along and was like wow that's interesting. He finally asked me why I asked. I told him "Oh well I just got my updated MMR vaccine about a week ago and wanted to make sure I was able to schedule things I need to get done in before I apparently went crazy from all that mercury building up in my brain. And then asked if he could recommend a good brand of tin foil to make a hat out of so the government could not read my thoughts. He blocked me...hmm was it something I said? He also tried to go to a mod in the room to tell on me for...being a big meany head? The mod asked me about it and I was able to produce chat logs (he could not...he said I threatened him) and they booted him out for making a false claim. But I am known in this room I was in and the Mod sort of suspected that it was bull shit thankfully. I did concede that I did troll him a bit but I am sorry you start spouting shit like that how do you expect anyone to take you seriously.


I am getting to the point where I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[Oniya]

Also, Thimerosal (the organomercury preservative compound) hasn't been used in children's vaccines since 2001.  https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal/faqs.html#4A  Might want to watch that yearly flu vaccine, though.  [/sarcasm]

[Lilias]

Also, Thimerosal (the organomercury preservative compound) hasn't been used in children's vaccines since 2001.  https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal/faqs.html#4A  Might want to watch that yearly flu vaccine, though.  [/sarcasm]

Even with vaccines that still use preservative mercury, it is ethyl mercury, which is eliminated through the gut, and not methyl mercury, which accumulates. Jab away. (My mum is convinced she owes the flu + pneumococcal jab her life.)

[DrFier]

I am getting to the point where I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Wait, we were here first! This is our planet: they can get off!