The only solution appears to be to let them step outside for a clear view…
But yeah, because when you debate a flerf, you’re not really participating in a normal debate. While you are making your point, they’re not listening to and studying what you say, they’re using the time to formulate the next piece of wibble they intend to blurt out.
I learned a new word today. Better, it is fun to say. Thanks!
That globe is very cool.
/aside - My Wife bought me/us very nice globe for x-mas. I really enjoy it (I’m in GIS). While google maps and such works great, there is something about just looking at a globe to get a relative position of some obscure country that just makes it more real /aside.
TIL that “wibble” is actually a word. In dictionaries. Thanks!
Best combined with ‘utter’ and ‘spouting’; example : “when you have quite finished spouting utter wibble…”
The people who truly believe in a flat earth have accepted it as a point of dogma. If they’re able to cast the slightest bit of doubt on a piece of contrary evidence (e.g. departing ships that appear to sink below the horizon might be due to atmospheric refraction), that’s usually enough to reassure them that FE isn’t wrong. For evidence that’s really hard to doubt, it gets ascribed to a vast and terrible conspiracy theory by shadowy government agencies, or simply as something that ferfers haven’t really seen for themselves, and therefore can’t trust. For seemingly incontrovertible evidence (e.g. the ring laser gyro experiment that indicates a rotating earth), they’ll simply say “huh, that’s interesting” and then just quietly walk away.
Brains are funny things. Here’s one good and relevant link, with a lot of other relevant links in the “See also” section at the bottom of the page.
Why not? The celestial dome will keep the air in.
Blackadder is fluent in ‘Wibble’
Who are you people?
I knew “wibble” before it was cool.
There’s a sort of UK equivalent: ‘wazzock’.
But it’s not quite the same. By itself it refers to a person like a flat-earther, not a type of babbled nonsense.
The UK usage would be “he keeps on wazzocking about…”
What would happen if NASA/SpaceX/BlueOrigin took 2-3 of the leading voices of the flat earthers and took them along on a space mission, so they can see everything from up there?
- Would they be convinced that the earth is round?
- If yes, would they be able to convince other flat earthers, or would they think that the leaders were brainwashed by the deep state?
I imagine they would be convinced, and then they would be denounced and ignored by all the other flat earthers. It would achieve nothing useful.
NASA wouldn’t do it anyway, because a)they’re busy doing stuff b)it would achieve nothing and c)these people are fucking nutcases who would be a risk to the entire mission.
To be somewhat contrary, I doubt they’d be convinced. It’s not like they’d be let outside, i.e. everything they see would be CG projections on screens.
I suspect some Flat-Earthers started out as trolls, but in fact fooled themselves. They became so serious about their trolling that they actually became true believers.
There are a number that ‘’‘left the Flat Earth’‘’ that are now pariahs in their old communities.
They’re ballers.
c. Definitely c.
Somehow I’m thinking of the suicide bomber guy from Contact, the 1997 space-wormhole movie with Jodie Foster.
In a sort of related field, there’s a guy called Milo who goes as MiniMimuteMan and presents (quite thorough) debunkings of spurious archaeology. One of his debunkings was picked up by a professional archaeologist, who happened to mention that working archaeologists don’t generally waste effort on debunking nonsense, because there’s so much of it. It’s very resistant to facts and logic, and most of all, because archaeologists are busy doing archaeology.
Same with NASA or any other agency of serious organisation. They’re busy doing what they do. Debunking flerfs has zero value to them.