# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/141 "2024-02-05T21:06:04Z")
The correct term is ‘Globetards’. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/142 "2024-02-05T21:16:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > In a sort of related field, there’s a guy called Milo who goes as MiniMimuteMan and presents (quite thorough) debunkings of spurious archaeology I watched his series on the Graham Hancock nonsense “documentary” and hilariously the beverage he pours for himself in the videos goes from water in the first one through coffee and beer or wine till in the last video he’s pouring himself a big glass of scotch. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/143 "2024-02-05T21:23:28Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Same thing would apply for spaceship windows. Put them in a spacesuit and let them do a space walk and the same thing would apply to the visor on their helmet. > [@Mangetout](#): > > The only solution appears to be to let them step outside for a clear view… My way of doing that was determined [to be illegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flat-earthers-to-space-legal-question/976660). ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/144 "2024-02-05T23:12:51Z")
I think that most if not all of the folks that have more than a room temperature IQ have been stricken by the Sunk Cost Fallacy. The **sunk cost fallacy** is the tendency for people to continue an endeavor or course of action even when abandoning it would be more beneficial. Because we have invested our time, energy, or other resources, we feel that it would all have been for nothing if we quit. And, of course their egos will not permit them to admit that they backed the wrong horse. ---
**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 6, 2024, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/145 "2024-02-06T03:56:49Z")
I think the primary driving factor is their sense of community. They have found their people, and they support each other. Nobody wants to give that up. Similar deal with hardcore trumpists, anti-vaxxers, qanons, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/146 "2024-02-06T04:10:08Z")
It would no longer be important, and before they touched back down, they’d be fully invested in some other nonsense. ---
**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 6, 2024, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/147 "2024-02-06T08:17:11Z")
The weird thing is that despite being a community, there is as much disagreement within as there is without, because it’s very rarely just ‘the earth is flat’, it’s nearly always that, plus ‘space isn’t even real’, or ‘lizard people control the moon’ or some other… wibble. There’s nearly always a little cluster of conspiracy or anti-science things being believed by any specific flerf, and those things don’t agree with the adjunct nonsense believed by other flerfs. They don’t even really agree with each other on the properties of the supposed flat earth. ---
**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 6, 2024, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/148 "2024-02-06T10:48:58Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > Would they be convinced that the earth is round? No. They’d just erect some more hoops to jump through to prove it was a fake. “That’s so obviously an holograph in a simulator still here on earth.” ---
**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 6, 2024, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/149 "2024-02-06T11:21:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > They don’t even really agree with each other on the properties of the supposed flat earth. But they also don’t usually see an issue with that. Like I say, this idea of flat earth being a “personal journey” and you must “do your own research” is a common thing for them to say. FE forums are more like jamming together, they are not trying to arrive at a single conclusion. You see a similar thing with a certain political movement in the US that I will continue to avoid naming. When you have people in a cult, who can’t or won’t evaluate claims rationally, and may even internally have contradictory beliefs…it doesn’t matter at all that the crowd has a grab bag of beliefs that do not form any kind of coherent picture. ---
**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 6, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/150 "2024-02-06T11:50:47Z")
They are defined by their _opposition_ to something that is coherent; ‘well, not like that’ just isn’t a precise explanation of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/151 "2024-02-08T06:39:32Z")
Does anyone know if you can model flat earth theory using a pancake that is topologically equivalent to a sphere? You would have to distort the space around the sphere and no longer permit the sun to emit light in all directions: it would be more like a flashlight lighting up different parts of the ~~globe~~ pancake, depending upon where it is pointed. I imagined that the edges of the pancake were a wall of ice, but you might also work with a Gott Projection: > **[The Most Accurate Flat Map of Earth Yet](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-most-accurate-flat-map-of-earth-yet/)** > > A cosmologist and his colleagues tackle a centuries-old cartographic conundrum Orbital mechanics, space flight, the distortion of the horizon, and the view from an airplane are left as an exercise for the reader. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/152 "2024-02-08T06:48:27Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > a pancake that is topologically equivalent to a sphere Yeah, I’m no @Topologist , but a pancake is not topologically equivalent to a sphere. Consider homology groups, for example. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/153 "2024-02-08T17:01:18Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Consider homology groups, for example. Or syrup. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/154 "2024-02-08T17:16:06Z")
are blueberries or chocolate chips allowed ? one is round, the other not as much. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/155 "2024-02-08T17:17:17Z")
> [@simster](#): > > are blueberries or chocolate chips allowed ? one is round, the other not as much. - Pie R Squared Round. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/156 "2024-02-08T17:21:50Z")
I saw one FE video yesterday that said “Why don’t you answer our questions?” We do, but you dismiss every answer and say we didn’t answer you. Isn’t that the definition of a troll? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/157 "2024-02-08T18:19:47Z")
I wonder how ferfers explain the difference in rotational direction of cyclones in the northern/southern hemispheres. ---
**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 8, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/158 "2024-02-08T18:32:41Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > You would have to distort the space around the sphere and no longer permit the sun to emit light in all directions: it would be more like a flashlight lighting up different parts of the ~~globe~~ pancake, depending upon where it is pointed. You can’t have sunsets if the sun doesn’t set. ---
**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 8, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/159 "2024-02-08T18:36:11Z")
How do you know that’s even happening? From satellite photos? Fake obviously because space isn’t real. Anything that needs more than a superficial explanation is either waved off as fake, or given an explanation that is simply based on lies (like flerfs deny there are any east-west international flights in the southern hemisphere, because the distances are too great on their version of the map. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011/160 "2024-02-08T18:40:05Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > > > a pancake that is topologically equivalent to a sphere > > Yeah, I’m no @Topologist , but a pancake is not topologically equivalent to a sphere. Consider homology groups, for example. Well, I am a topologist, and you’re right. You could have a pancake geometrically equivalent to a hyperbolic plane, but that’s probably the most interesting variation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-flat-earthers-trolls/997011.md?page=9)