# Do flat earthers actually believe their stated beliefs? Or are they just having a laugh at taking up space in our heads? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380 "2024-11-18T02:00:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/141 "2025-07-26T15:09:28Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > They cannot explain the movement of the stars south of the equator, and they absolutely have no idea how the summer solstice works in the southern hemisphere. They don’t need to. They’ve never been there, they’ll never go there, nothing really exists outside their fungal village, so your argument about non-existent fantasy places like the “South Pole” can be dismissed out of hand. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/142 "2025-07-26T15:17:02Z")
Ha! There is a lot of that as well. “Look up the Antarctica Treaty! You can’t get past the ice wall!” And they’ll absolutely deny the existence of the South Pole. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/143 "2025-07-26T15:50:41Z")
Recent history shows that denial of reality and acceptance of contradictory nonsense is a _lot_ more common than we originally thought. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/144 "2025-07-26T17:23:07Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Ha! There is a lot of that as well. “Look up the Antarctica Treaty! You can’t get past the ice wall!” And they’ll absolutely deny the existence of the South Pole. They’ve mostly given up on the “you can’t get past the ice wall” argument after the Final Experiment, where a bunch of flerfs went past the ice wall, no problem. A lot of the leaders livelihoods depend on their idiot followers giving them money and views. That explains a lot. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/145 "2025-07-26T18:06:54Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > They’ve mostly given up on the “you can’t get past the ice wall” argument after the Final Experiment, where a bunch of flerfs went past the ice wall, no problem. Where are the guns Nathan? If you know you know. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/146 "2025-07-28T17:52:10Z")
> [@TheBryan](#): > > Kind of like ancient sea farers with their crows’ nests. They knew that the earth wasn’t flat because the only way to explain how a crows nest works is if there is curvature. The Battleship New Jersey channel on YT had a recent video on the [optical rangefinders](https://youtu.be/0tT1lE39Gvw) which mentions the backup rangefinder on turret two has the horizon at about ten miles while the main rangefinder 100+ feet up is about eleven and a half, still only half the range of the main guns. What you’re hoping to find though, is the upper works on another hundred-foot high battleship which is about eighteen miles. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/147 "2025-12-04T15:22:04Z")
For any flat earthers who may be reading this here’s your big chance! > **[Oregon sportswear giant pledges to give ‘the company’ to anyone who can prove...](https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/12/oregon-sportswear-giant-pledges-to-give-all-assets-to-anyone-who-can-prove-the-earth-is-flat.html)** > > Are you a conspiracy theorist who has always wanted to own your own sportswear company? Today is your lucky day. > Are you a conspiracy theorist who has always wanted to own your own sportswear company? Today is your lucky day because if you can find the edge of the Earth and photograph it, then [Columbia Sportswear](https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/11/columbia-sportswear-announces-succession-plans.html) can be yours — or at least some of the stuff lying around its Oregon headquarters. > > A new ad from [the company](https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/05/columbia-sportswear-withdraws-annual-forecast-citing-tariff-uncertainty.html) features [Tim Boyle](https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2025/08/trail-blazers-buyer-seeks-more-local-investors-and-columbia-sportswears-tim-boyle-is-interested.html), the company’s CEO, challenging flat-earthers. > > “You guys claim there’s an end to the Earth?” Boyle says. “Well, just go snap a picture. Send it to us. And you get the assets of the company. All of 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:** [December 4, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/148 "2025-12-04T18:36:30Z")
Posted in the other Flat Earth thread. Check out their YouTube video, it is great - and underviewed. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/149 "2025-12-04T19:57:11Z")
It’s a great fun commercial [https://youtu.be/JxJOAsTMC6w](https://youtu.be/JxJOAsTMC6w) ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/150 "2025-12-04T23:39:25Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Earth: brought to you by Four Seasons Total Landscaping _and we mean **total**!_ As I am reminded by my buddy with a bulldozer - “the earth is not flat…yet” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/151 "2025-12-05T00:05:27Z")
When I was a little kid, on day my grandfather commented > Some day the world will be completely flat. All caused by little boys throwing rocks off high places into low places. Why yes, my bros and I had just been throwing stones off a cliff. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/152 "2025-12-05T10:13:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Why yes, my bros and I had just been throwing stones off a cliff. Many moons ago, my big brother Dick dated a Chinese woman for a while, and she took him to tour the gardens and pools of the Forbidden City. He skipped a stone into one of the pools, and she was aghast - “there are four billion of us - what would happen if each of us did that?” ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380/153 "2025-12-06T16:54:22Z")
Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-flat-earthers-actually-believe-their-stated-beliefs-or-are-they-just-having-a-laugh-at-taking-up-space-in-our-heads/1010380.md?page=7)