# Flat earth theory. Serious question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234 "2016-02-26T18:53:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/61 "2016-03-03T22:41:00Z")
What I find most interesting about the FE’ers is … why? For what possible reason could there be a conspiracy to convince people the Earth is Round rather than Flat? I mean, apparently all the airlines base their flight plans on a round earth model - do FE’ers refuse to catch planes? The TV companies say (well, they would!) they beam images right around the globe - what is the benefit they gain from claiming the earth is round rather than flat? Do FE’ers boycott TV? What the hell does the guvmint (or more particularly, those in charge - Illuminated Masonic Royal Oily CIA Bildeburgers) gain?? What does NASA gain? Even if the earth IS flat, we still need to explore space. It seems to me that if you went out of your way to satirise Conspiracy Theories by inventing a CT that, EVEN IF TRUE, means - basically nothing in most people’s lives, and provides no benefits to those propagating it - a Flat Earth would be a good choice. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/62 "2016-03-03T22:49:13Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Physics? Seriously? They probably think “orbiting” is flying in circles around the flat disk. If you tried to explain free-fall to them, they’d probably laugh at you and walk away thinking _you_ were stupid for _your_ weird beliefs. You might as well go back in time and try to explain the germ theory to someone in 1260. Or how mammalian reproduction works. > > If you try to explain how the space shuttle stays in orbit to a bright 8th grader with good grades, they’ll understand, because they have the background (or maybe they already know-- explain it to a 6th grader then, whatever). Flat-earthers don’t have the background to understand the difference between the way an airplane flies within the atmosphere, and the way a rocket travels in space. They accept that airplanes can fly, so they probably would accept that something that looks like a rocket, or a space shuttle, could fly like an airplane, just a little further away. Over the flat disk. Without the application of thrust. But if Isaac Newton was in the conspiracy, then the laws of motion are just a scam by Big Science! I wonder if you could work out any consistent set of laws that would let you “orbit” a flat earth without thrust. Anything resembling an orbit in Diskworld went over the edge. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/63 "2016-03-04T01:14:41Z")
> [@CC](#): > > While I understand that you are looking for a particular bit of information, and you’re trying to be “open minded,” I think this line - which others use when talking about, say, white supremecists or creationists - is disingenuous. Some beliefs deserve ridicule. You can’t really discuss those ideas logically, and some of them are dangerous. The only way to give them what they merit is to make light of them. Thanks for your opinion, but no, I am not being disingenuous. I love how you know what I am thinking based on your own personal biases. People believe things that I personally don’t understand. You think FE is a theory that deserves ridicule? Fine. Go make a pit thread. I can list a number of “theories” that are viewed by many as just as “out there” as the FE group. Many of them have tax-exempt status and are ridiculed on this board daily. Others have led people to fight wars. My OP was genuine. If you can’t answer the OP in the spirit of GQ, then move along. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/64 "2016-03-04T01:57:19Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > What I find most interesting about the FE’ers is … why? For what possible reason could there be a conspiracy to convince people the Earth is Round rather than Flat? > > I mean, apparently all the airlines base their flight plans on a round earth model - do FE’ers refuse to catch planes? > The TV companies say (well, they would!) they beam images right around the globe - what is the benefit they gain from claiming the earth is round rather than flat? Do FE’ers boycott TV? > > What the hell does the guvmint (or more particularly, those in charge - Illuminated Masonic Royal Oily CIA Bildeburgers) gain?? What does NASA gain? Even if the earth IS flat, we still need to explore space. > > It seems to me that if you went out of your way to satirise Conspiracy Theories by inventing a CT that, EVEN IF TRUE, means - basically nothing in most people’s lives, and provides no benefits to those propagating it - a Flat Earth would be a good choice. Which was exactly the question the OP asked. To which nobody has come up with a clear answer. The best consensus seems to be that there are sane pranksters and insane believers. The former don’t have to believe their own arguments and the latter’s arguments don’t have to make sense. And that’s all there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/65 "2016-03-04T02:21:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Which was exactly the question the OP asked. To which nobody has come up with a clear answer. > > The best consensus seems to be that there are sane pranksters and insane believers. The former don’t have to believe their own arguments and the latter’s arguments don’t have to make sense. And that’s all there is to it. But we still don’t really have even so much as an explanation of what the insane believers’ insane arguments are. Meaning, their arguments for why TPTB even care to delude all us sheeple about this, however silly such argument may be. The nearest we’ve seen is the speculation that the believers think that TPTB are trying to create an illusion of military superiority. ETA: Sheeples of the disk world, unite! You have nowhere to go but _baaaaaaaa!_ ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/66 "2016-03-04T03:01:03Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > But we still don’t really have even so much as an explanation of what the insane believers’ insane arguments are. Meaning, their arguments for why TPTB even care to delude all us sheeple about this, however silly such argument may be. The nearest we’ve seen is the speculation that the believers think that TPTB are trying to create an illusion of military superiority. > > ETA: Sheeples of the disk world, unite! You have nowhere to go but _baaaaaaaa!_ Agreed. I have no more insight than anyone else does. We can take a stab at what motivates them. The same as other CTers. IMO: > [@CTGuy](#): > > The government likes power and gains power by the act of deluding the populace. A deluded populace will act predictably based on the contents of their delusion. I have seen through that. I have the insight which defeats the power of the government to spread their falsehoods. Which means I don’t act predictably like the deluded ones do. People who buy the government line are like cattle in a narrow chute, forced to go along to their doom. And even worse, to do so unwittingly. I can see the chute. And merely by seeing it, and understanding that \*it \*is a chute, though one of the mind not the body, I can pass right through its walls and roam free. > > All governments like power. Most people like to follow. I do not follow and I prevent the government from exercising their illicit and evil power over me. Why did the government choose a spherical Earth as the thing to deceive the masses about? I don’t know; ask them. Their goal is deception which gives them the power. In what way they deceive makes no difference. > > What use is power over the people? It makes governments happy to enslave the masses. Looking around me I see millions upon millions of deceived people. No one doubts they all think the earth is spherical. They’ll each tell you so if asked. That is proof they have been enslaved and the government has gained power over them. Power is as power does. We see evidence of this evil power on every face in the crowd. The true mystery is how you don’t see the evidence. How’m I doin’ so far? 😃 ---
**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:** [March 4, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/67 "2016-03-04T03:08:28Z")
Yes of course it’s circular nonsense. A verbal Escher staircase. That’s the fun of insane people. They’re happy to build such staircases and then walk around them over and over admiring their handiwork. Which always reveals a new and exciting vista after turning each of the corners over and over and over and … ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234/68 "2016-03-04T15:36:24Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > What I find most interesting about the FE’ers is … why? For what possible reason could there be a conspiracy to convince people the Earth is Round rather than Flat? It’s all organized by the Devil as a plot to destroy the faith of true Christians. I.e., the government is working with/the pawn of the Devil and on and on. Don’t think of it as a traditional conspiracy like the Kennedy Assassination or Moon landing. There isn’t a human cabal behind it. The forces involved are spiritual. We’re just the players in it. Ditto those pesky dinosaur bones the Devil put in the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-serious-question/747234.md?page=3)