Every time I see a post on social media that relates to the geography of the earth, some guy will ask “What do the flat earthers think about this?”
For example, someone will show a map with the great circle airplane route between San Francisco and Paris, just for general interest, and someone will reply, “I wonder what flat earthers think of this!”
My question is, why does anyone care what a tiny minority of kooks thinks?
Maybe they’re being facetious. Poking the bear, fashion.
I think it’s nothing more than conspicuous kookery. Tinfoil hats, alien abductees, doomsday cults, etc, used as shorthand for ‘too far gone, maybe never had it, can’t be reasoned with.’
Everybody needs someone they can poke fun at for being stupid or foolish. Flat Earthers fit the bill perfectly.
I think it just seems this is such an overtly obvious thing we know that it is unbelievable anyone would think otherwise. We’ve known the earth is round since most of human history.
On Facebook, all science/space/technology accounts are infested with flat-Earthers and moon landing denialists in every ppst that toiches on those areas in any way. They may be a minority, but they are an extremely loud, extremely visible one.
Especially on social media.
As with germ theory deniers who loudly proclaim that SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses don’t exist.
see below
[This was supposed to a response to @Whack-a-Mole. And now it is despite Discourse giving me an error message when I tried to fix it. Confusion runs rampant through my household. Thanks, Discourse.]
I agree. But I’d extend it. I’m hard-pressed to think of a single science that doesn’t depend in some way on the earth being a globe. Geology, meteorology, cosmology, physics, any science that involves gravity, any engineering that uses spherical geometry. Essentially every single thing we do or encounter in every day life has at base the fact that the Earth isn’t flat.
Flat-earthers aren’t just shutting out maps, they’re saying that all of human knowledge must be wrong without giving any ways to explain how that could be different. It’s more monstrously flawed than all the other crackpot ideas combined because of that total contempt for all cultures, times, and places.
Outrage is the most fitting response. Everybody needs to be reminded that they are outrageously wrong and lowering the world’s collective IQ.
Which probably explains half of the people who claim to think Earth is flat. They don’t want you to just look at their post, they want you to respond – because that means ad money for them, or for someone? So they do their best to look as stupid as possible.
Their existence offends us.
I’m not sure. The OP mentioned people on non-flat-earth sites asking questions. And my understanding is that most FE sites will ban anyone disagreeing with them, which doesn’t led to views.
I don’t know what to compare them to. Maybe streakers, who do mindless stunts that attract attention just for existing and making people wonder why.
Just wait until a ‘Flat Earther’ is nominated and approved as the Director of NASA or the USGS. I am not joking.
But still in the continuum of Young Earth Creationists, Moon hoaxers, Bigfoot enthusiasts, ghost hunters, ‘Ancient Alien’ devotees, vaccine-causes-autism zealots, and Randall Mills. So, there is a lot of stupid to go around.
Stranger
What I find amusing about the whole thing is that people believe there are flat earthers.
By which I mean the whole thing is an inside joke. Certainly there are instances of mental illness where people believe all kinds of things. Many conspiracy theories, as wacky as they may be, sometimes aren’t as far fetched. Governments and corporations do in fact do sneaky bad things from time to time.
But the flat earther thing I don’t think really exists. Just people liking to say outrageous things and people get all worked up about it. I had a coworker who liked to tell people how all birds are robots spying on us. He was clearly joking. Or people go camping and tell everyone they are hunting big foot. Maybe it’s not as funny when you see it typed out on the internet.
If there are any people who actually believe in it, then we are dealing with a person with a mental illness and I’m not sure they deserve ridicule.
No offense to anyone here of course, but if you fall for the joke, you might be fool.
Stranger
Conventions are money making endeavors. Next week the same vendors/organizers will be at the Sacramento Ramada for the New Age healing convention selling dream catchers and healing crystals.
They can be fun kitschy things to do on a Saturday. Various Sci-Fi type conventions can be pretty popular and people dress up in costumes. Not something I’m into personally but I see how some people find it fun. That’s all it is.
I’ve met a couple of ‘Flat Earthers’, and more than a few Bigfoot and Ancient Aliens nutters (and a handful of Moon hoaxers who I thoroughly enjoy debunking even though they will never, ever, ever, admit that their bullshit arguments are bullshit) and of all of them, the Flat Earthers are the most seriously devoted to their beliefs, and not just to “say outrageous things and people get all worked up about it.” Just because it is almost trivial to debunk their absurd arguments doesn’t actually stop them from espousing them. If this is all performance art then Andy Kaufman needs to return from the grave and reclaim his crown because these are people so devoted and continuous about their beliefs that they give the Jehovah’s Witnesses a run for their money.
Stranger
There was a recent book about people who believe in nonsense. The author (whose name I can’t remember) attended the conference. Absolutely no doubt these were people who BELIEVED, to the point where they were schisms and heresies about variations.
Not only are they real and sincere, they appear to be growing in this Trump era where no experts are allowed to be trustworthy. Any attempts to dismiss them as spoofers of the “birds aren’t real” genus will bring only disappointment.
This book was published in 2015. J. Steve Miller and Cherie K. Miller**, Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense: A Practical Text for Critical and Creative Thinking.** Wisdom Creek Academic, 2015. Is it the one you’re thinking of?
How many hours of flat Earth debate have you watched and can you name five Flerfs and three Ballers?