Flat earth clowns!

[Johnny_Danger]

Why all of a sudden are there so many people now making youtube videos about the earth being flat? the money? the things they say are so easily disproved yet there are more everyday

[engineer_comp_geek]

Moderator Action

Welcome to the SDMB, Johnny Danger.

The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. I doubt that you are going to be able to find any factual answers to this. Since answers are more likely to involve opinions and speculation, our IMHO forum is a better place to put this.

Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.

[enipla]

Perhaps they are also Ben Carson supporters?

Sadly, I’m not kidding.

[northporlarbear]

I’ve never seen anyone claiming earth to be flat. Especially with the photos of Earth from the space.

[running_coach]

@enipla

Perhaps they are also Ben Carson supporters?

Sadly, I’m not kidding.

Flat tax, young Earth.

[running_coach]

@northporlarbear

I’ve never seen anyone claiming earth to be flat. Especially with the photos of Earth from the space.

The Flat Earth Society

[northporlarbear]

I see a lot of “confirming the consequent” (if A then B, B, hence A) fallacies. Oh well. It’s their own right to pursue such. Although, I have to wonder, haven’t they seen the photo of the Earth from the space?

[ITR_champion]

@running_coach

The Flat Earth Society

Is there any reason to believe that site isn’t a hoax?

[GIGObuster]

@Johnny_Danger

Why all of a sudden are there so many people now making youtube videos about the earth being flat? the money? the things they say are so easily disproved yet there are more everyday

FOX found that they had some standards left, so Youtube is the outlet for those yahoos.

[running_coach]

@ITR_champion

Is there any reason to believe that site isn’t a hoax?

Yes.

[GIGObuster]

But seriously, it seems that they are not a hoax:

Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?

Members of the Flat Earth Society claim to believe the Earth is flat. Walking around on the planet’s surface, it looks andfeels flat, so they deem all evidence to the contrary, such as satellite photos of Earth as a sphere, to be fabrications of a “round Earth conspiracy” orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.

The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory. According to the Flat Earth Society’s leadership, its ranks have grown by 200 people (mostly Americans and Britons) per year since 2009. Judging by the exhaustive effort flat-earthers have invested in fleshing out the theory on their website, as well as the staunch defenses of their views they offer in media interviews and on Twitter, it would seem that these people genuinely believe the Earth is flat.

But in the 21st century, can they be serious? And if so, how is this psychologically possible?

Conspiracy theory psychology

As inconceivable as their belief system seems, it doesn’t really surprise experts. Karen Douglas, a psychologist at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories, says flat-earthers’ beliefs cohere with those of other conspiracy theorists she has studied.

“It seems to me that these people do generally believe that the Earth is flat. I’m not seeing anything that sounds as if they’re just putting that idea out there for any other reason,” Douglas told Life’s Little Mysteries.

She said all conspiracy theories share a basic thrust: They present an alternative theory about an important issue or event, and construct an (often) vague explanation for why someone is covering up that “true” version of events. “One of the major points of appeal is that they explain a big event but often without going into details,” she said. “A lot of the power lies in the fact that they are vague.”

The self-assured way in which conspiracy theorists stick to their story imbues that story with special appeal. After all, flat-earthers are more adamant that the Earth is flat than most people are that the Earth is round (probably because the rest of us feel we have nothing to prove). “If you’re faced with a minority viewpoint that is put forth in an intelligent, seemingly well-informed way, and when the proponents don’t deviate from these strong opinions they have, they can be very influential. We call that minority influence,” Douglas said.

In a recent study, Eric Oliver and Tom Wood, political scientists at the University of Chicago, found that about half of Americans endorse at least one conspiracy theory, from the notion that 9/11 was an inside job to the JFK conspiracy. “Many people are willing to believe many ideas that are directly in contradiction to a dominant cultural narrative,” Oliver told Life’s Little Mysteries. He says conspiratorial belief stems from a human tendency to perceive unseen forces at work, known as magical thinking. [Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena]

**However, flat-earthers don’t fit entirely snugly in this general picture. Most conspiracy theorists adopt many fringe theories, even ones that contradict each other. Meanwhile, flat-earthers’ only hang-up is the shape of the Earth. **“If they were like other conspiracy theorists, they should be exhibiting a tendency toward a lot of magical thinking, such as believing in UFOs, ESP, ghosts, the Devil, or other unseen, intentional forces,” Oliver wrote in an email. “It doesn’t sound like they do, which makes them very anomalous relative to most Americans who believe in conspiracy theories.”

[Mangetout]

The revenue you get from someone viewing your video to point and laugh at your stupidity is equivalent to the revenue you would get from someone viewing your videos and coming away with the impression that you are a smart and talented individual - but the latter requires far more effort in the production.

[Mangetout]

I and a small group of my friends (cartographers and GIS techs) talked about starting up The Flatten The Earth Society - the ultimate goal of this organisation would be to turn our spherical planet into a flat world - to forever banish the frustrating limitations of all the various map projections.

[Gatopescado]

I thought that said “Fiat” earth clowns.

I* like* Fiats.

[furryman]

@Mangetout

I and a small group of my friends (cartographers and GIS techs) talked about starting up The Flatten The Earth Society - the ultimate goal of this organisation would be to turn our spherical planet into a flat world - to forever banish the frustrating limitations of all the various map projections.

I’ve heard that Mercator is about as close as you can possibly get. Is there something better?

[Johnny_Danger]

There are several of them such as mark sergeant or jeranism and thriveandsurvive, and eric dubay
they don’t believe there are satellites they think the sun is 4000 miles away also the moon is also a light they think the sun moves around the earth they think theres an ice wall around the earth and no one can travel to Antartica that he navy patrols it
i just thought someone would know if what they are doing is getting paid from youtube ads to get subscribers they also ask for donations and for the last 8 months here has gone from 100 videos to 100,000

[Trinopus]

@northporlarbear

. . . Especially with the photos of Earth from the space.

Well, the Earth’s atmosphere refracts the light-rays, and so the horizons aren’t where they appear to be in the photo. Sort of like the “fisheye lens” effect.

(Okay, I’m joking… Except this is actually true. The earth’s atmosphere does refract light, a little. If you’re near sea-level, and watch the sun set, the sun is not actually where it appears to be. If all the air were magically to vanish – or to have zero index of refraction – the sun would actually already be below the horizon.)

Back in 1983 or so, I joined The International Flat Earth Research Society – the one run by Charles K. Johnson. I was hoping it would be fun. It wasn’t. The poor bonehead was absolutely without any sense of humor or grace in any form. His newsletters were mere rants, and he did not allow members of the “society” to contact each other. All correspondence was solely through him, and he blanked out our names when he published our letters in his news page.

He was absolutely dead serious. When his wife visited Australia, she came back with a notarized affidavit, declaring that she had never been “upside down” at any time during her whole trip.

[Siam_Sam]

I’ve always thought the Flat Earth Society was tongue-in-cheek. Hell, I’ve even considered joining just for grins.

[Projammer]

I guess if you’ve ever wanted to experiment with crazy sex is the best sex, this would be a good group to sign on with. Fairly low level and harmless on the crazy scale, but crazy none the less.

[Siam_Sam]

I don’t know if I want to sleep with any of them.