# Are Most Flat Earthers Trolls? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 2, 2024, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011 "2024-02-02T09:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/201 "2024-02-11T01:10:18Z")
For anyone that really wants to risk the IQ points, > **[Antartica with Flat Earth Dave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iejLPd5Wy6w%2Fa)** > > with all the videos surfacing with ufo's we asked flat earth dave to come on our show and talk to us about his perspective ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/202 "2024-02-11T01:42:22Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > And the folks who believe that they know the truth about the map don’t set out for the land where there’s access to endless free everything because…? Because it’s guarded by NASA, who won’t let you pass. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/203 "2024-02-11T01:42:30Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Like, if it’s the 1500s, and guys on sailing ships keep _ostensibly_ circumnavigating the globe (a) by gradually sinking out of sight over the horizon, tip of the mast last, (b) while those in the know note that, er, as it happens, all that time at sea is actually being spent on a _flat_ sea, then — who’s making more money if that’s the case? A flerfer would respond thusly: “Oh, so you have records that show that ancient 16th century mariners claim to have sailed beyond the horizon? I demand proof! [And will deny the veracity of it if provided.] Also, all of those sailors were bankrolled by the Vatican, and they’re all in on it!” > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Personally, or just by browsing the internet? My major point of contact is simply following the NASA Facebook feed. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/204 "2024-02-11T08:22:49Z")
Seems like one of them did the spurious reading of the treaty and the others are just uncritically repeating the misinformation. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/205 "2024-02-11T15:09:51Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There seems to be a misconception that people are generally open to examining the world and developing models to explain their observations and/or modify any existing models they have in their heads, especially when presented with direct evidence to contradict their beliefs. > > This is so far beyond the historic norm as to be laughable. Yes, this. A person that formed conclusions based on an objective assessment of the evidence and/or by evaluating testable claims wouldn’t be a flat earther in the first place. Something necessarily has to be missing or broken in that process. Also, when discussing FE with a flerfer, it’s basically never a “debate” in any real sense. They are engaging with you only to try to convert _you_, not to listen. Or, more frequently even than that, because they are aware that people find their views ridiculous so they have some psychological need to defend themselves. Either way, it’s not a conversation where you are going to change minds. It doesn’t matter that they are not trolling. Of course this is true of a lot of debates, particularly political ones. It’s just at an extreme here. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/206 "2024-02-11T15:16:46Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I suppose there’s _knowing a thing_ and _knowing how and where to apply it_. > > If you asked them if the faraway cows look small, they’d probably say yes (although if there are no cows in sight, they might just argue that cows are cow size). If you ask them to figure out how that applies to astronomical observations, you probably won’t get a coherent answer. Yes, it’s also similar with Galilean relativity / invariance. A lot of FE belief rests on being incredulous that we could be living on a spinning ball moving at “millions of miles an hour”. So then you patiently explain about relativity of motion, with examples like being on a plane or a train and throwing and catching an object. They’ll say they’ve got it. They may even say they’ve “heard it all before”. It doesn’t stop them posting another thread an hour later about how absurd it is that we are whizzing through space “faster than a bullet”. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/207 "2024-02-11T16:58:13Z")
As someone who has lived in the Southern “hemisphere” I strenuously object that Antarctica has the Ice Wall. It is clearly the Arctic Ice Walls that border our earth, all you Northerners are biased and incorrect. The world starts near Amundsen–Scott Station and ends near Ny-Ålesund International Research Station Q.E.D. . ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/208 "2024-02-11T17:48:33Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Personally, or just by browsing the internet? I personally know someone who will believe anything, as long as it is an outlandish conspiracy theory. I am sometimes tempted to make something up and tell it to him, and watch it spread (Internet obviously facilitates that…) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/209 "2024-02-11T17:58:55Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So: what do these guys think was the profit motive for concealing the flatness of the earth with this elaborate hoax to make everyone think the world is round? I have called them the Underpants Gnomes of CTers. - Convince the world they live on a globe - ??? - Profit! I have heard some claim it’s so NASA can collect all those sweet billons in federal taxes leaving unexplained what was going on before 1958. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/210 "2024-02-11T18:21:29Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > A lot of FE belief rests on being incredulous that we could be living on a spinning ball moving at “millions of miles an hour”. Whoa! In olden times, even going too fast would cause a woman’s uterus to fall out. Perhaps the FEs “evolved” from that era. > **[Early Trains Were Thought to Make Women’s Uteruses Fly Out](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67806/early-trains-were-thought-make-womens-uteruses-fly-out)** > > Hold on to your uterus: Early modes of transportation had some fretting that their bodies would be forever changed. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/211 "2024-02-11T18:50:55Z")
I was re-reading Carrying the Fire ; and Collins notes that upon their successful landing the Flat Earth Society headquarters in London adjusted their stance only slightly. The photographs of the earth as a sphere didn’t change anything really, it just shows that the earth is a round flat disc. I guess. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/212 "2024-02-11T18:51:47Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I personally know someone who will believe anything, as long as it is an outlandish conspiracy theory. I am sometimes tempted to make something up and tell it to him, and watch it spread Birds aren’t real! ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/213 "2024-02-11T18:59:45Z")
While that very clearly started as a troll, I can think of at least five Flat Earthers that totally believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/214 "2024-02-11T20:26:33Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Birds aren’t real! There is actually a person who believes that. Plus elephants aren’t real either. > [@scudsucker](#): > > It is clearly the Arctic Ice Walls that border our earth, all you Northerners are biased and incorrect. What! Next you’ll be telling me Santa doesn’t live at the North Pole. Though perhaps all the lands beyond the North Pole (similar to the ones supposedly beyond the south pole, which include Atlantis and Lemuria) are where Santa keeps his toy manufacturing plants. > [@Munch](#): > > A flerfer would respond thusly: “Oh, so you have records that show that ancient 16th century mariners claim to have sailed beyond the horizon? I demand proof! [And will deny the veracity of it if provided.] Also, all of those sailors were bankrolled by the Vatican, and they’re all in on it!” The Flat Earth map handles this. Now, the travel times would be all wrong, but I’m sure they’d just say Magellan’s fleet was propelled by fast ocean currents. BTW I learned just the other day there is a boat race around Antarctica. Besides the boats having to travel like 32 mph to finish it if the flat earth model is correct, they have steering records. These show they turn their ships in a way that would smash into the land if the flat earth model were correct. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Query: it sounds like a lot of you folks have had actual contact with flat earthers. Is that right? Personally, or just by browsing the internet? I mentioned the one I know personally upthread. She believes in just about every CT out there. She couldn’t logic herself out of a paper bag. Nice person, but dumb and clueless. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/215 "2024-02-11T20:59:24Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There is actually a person who believes that. At least two on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/216 "2024-02-11T21:13:28Z")
There are Hollow Earth believers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/217 "2024-02-11T21:21:12Z")
But are there Hollow Flat Earth believers? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/218 "2024-02-11T21:41:12Z")
The most infamous one was, the late, The Lord Steven Christ, > **[Man who believes he is a deity threatens to kill president](https://myrgv.com/uncategorized/2018/08/30/man-who-believes-he-is-a-deity-threatens-to-kill-president/)** > > A man who believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ is charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump. A man who believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ is charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump. The Secret... ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/219 "2024-02-11T21:53:24Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@Mangetout](#): > > > > I’ve even heard it as an argument about the sizes of the moon and sun - like ‘how can the sun be 865,000 miles across and look the same size as the moon, which we’re told is only a couple thousand miles across? Explain that NASA!!!’ > > I’ve heard this, and it mostly seems to be “it can’t be a coincidence, so they must be designed to be the same size.” Some people see coincidence as evidence of design or conspiracy. There is likely some correlation there, albeit of a rather mundane sort, having to do with the optimal apparent size of a sun which could support life in its habitability zone vs. the optimal apparent size of a satellite which would reduce any wild swings in the axial tilt of its primary. No guarantee that they’ll be almost exactly the same of course, but these two factors working in combination with each other make it quite a bit more likely. [back to main topic] It just amazes me that there are people who do NOT have an open-ended mindset which could lead them to discover/confirm various awesome authentic phenomena, but come in with unshakable prior beliefs that no evidence can dissolve. I simply cannot even begin to imagine being one of these beings. Isn’t the former mindset simply a lot more FUN? Annnd as I’ve argued here before until I am blue in the face, it doesn’t matter if they are actually “trolls” doing it for the lulz or are True Believers. In the end there ultimately isn’t any real distinction there worth splitting hairs over and/or as if the two groups cannot ever have any overlap. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/220 "2024-02-11T22:17:43Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > It just amazes me that there are people who do NOT have an open-ended mindset which could lead them to discover/confirm various awesome authentic phenomena, but come in with unshakable prior beliefs that no evidence can dissolve. I simply cannot even begin to imagine being one of these beings. Isn’t the former mindset simply a lot more FUN? I have never seen a Flat Earther present an “awesome authentic phenomena” that was not both a misrepresentation of reality and fully explained by the Globe/Heliocentric model. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011.md?page=12)