Isn’t there a documentary flat earthers filmed in which they debunked their own beliefs?
Beyond the Curve! Great doc.
I would also highly recommend folding ideas "in search of a flat earth."
It covers the actual flat earth claims in depth, but is very much about the culture, and why that culture exists.
Kinda…
It showed them as social outcasts with a drive to have a community but also a drive to have some sort of secret knowledge… the overall message I took away was that if you run into a flat earther, to treat them with some empathy and compassion while not validating their worldview. The dismissal of their ideas and belittling of their arguments further entrenched them in their beliefs.
And for what it’s worth, not everyone in that group is a complete idiot… just vulnerable to wacky ideas. Some of these smart people actually designed legit experiments that would actually prove if the earth was round or flat. At the end of the documentary, one group performed one of them with the film crew… conclusively showing the earth was round. The last word in the documentary was spoken by the guy running the experiment, where he said, “interesting…”. He was one of the ones who seemed to have a little intellectual honesty, and he may have gotten out.
In another part of the documentary, some of the more prominent voices in the movement pooled their money to get a $10k laser gyroscope that had the precision to detect the rotation of the earth…. It detected the rotation of the earth, so they were going out of their way to cover up the findings. It was all caught on film and presented in the documentary… The guy in the post is absolutely correct… these vulnerable are being deceived by con men.
This is 100% the reason for the documentary in the first place. Quote from the director:
My dream would be that when people watch it, they take flat Eartherism as an analogy to something they believe in, because it's so easy to demonize another group or another person for something they think but you're kind of just as guilty if you do that.
These are humans, people that are missing something in their lives, and this community and their "secret knowledge" grants them that.
I see the SovCit movement as exactly the same thing, but when one digs deep enough, maybe one finds the same in the fanatical MAGA crowds, and in the most fervent religious people, and it's not a coincidence that there's an overlap in membership between these groups...
Yeah. I dont remember the documentary but maybe I watched it, or read another similar comment.
People in general just dont get this dynamic though.
Its too easy to just conclude that theyre idiots.
It’s a really good documentary because a lot of them actually want to be scientific about it.
But instead of following the scientific process of test->observe->draw a conclusion, they start with the conclusion and look for a way to prove it. And when the prof isn’t there, they simply say the test was flawed, and move on to the next test that will prove it.
It’s sad in a way. I don’t think, most of them anyway, are con man. They’re just misguided.
I will say, starting with a conclusion/theory is fine, but the next step is to do everything you can to disprove it. The more you and other fail, the stronger it becomes
Here's two different excitements where they did just that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrGgxAK9Z5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFqmDazwb6Y
They display the sentiment of "if we fail this test (show earth is round) something clearly went wrong and it doesn't mean anything and we need to try, try again, but if we get a different result just once then that conclusively beyond any doubt proves that earth is flat"
We need more people like that in the world
Gotta give him some respect for admitting he was wrong, and doing so several times. Everyone is wrong from time to time, but barely anyone can openly admit it.
He's getting more views on the "I was wrong" videos so I have doubts about his real motivation. I know, I'm very cynical.
99% of flat earthers are just trolling, I refuse to believe anything else
99% of them are in it for the community. The other 1% is in it for the views and followers.
I don't know the percentage, but I've been to a flat earthers/variety conspiracy convention. Unless all of them are pretty good actors, they're all were very serious about their batshitery. It's scary, really.
So did you set up a pendulum during the convention?
I was there with the pure anthropological interest
That's not a given, and the human brain has very strong aversions to admitting fault.
You're right, I was wrong.
I wouldn't say you're wrong necessarily, just that prevailing indications suggest the opposite.
you can both be wrong
I wonder if I could become a big Antivax YouTuber but just leave in little oopsies to try and convince people subtly that I'm wrong.
99% of doing science is being wrong and being happy about it
99% of the time, I make up statistics
And also add to that that this is more like escaping from a cult than it is merely admitting you were silly and wrong.
You can tell their intelligence rises over the course of the series because they go from portrait to landscape videos.
Imagine what the world would be like if the con artists pulling this stuff were pushing people to build libraries and educate kids.
You know, I really like it when people think twice about the "current" state of science. Thinking "I don't think that's true. So I will check and verify" is a great thing and most people should do that. Thinking the earth is flat is fine - if you then go to verify.
The problem I have is if there is PLENTY of proof of things being a certain way that you just choose to ignore. Then you become an idiot.
People like RFK confuse skepticism with going against conventional thinking. Flerfers and anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists aren't skeptical, because then they'd be open-minded about evidence. But they think they're being skeptical because they're going against the status quo.
Unfortunately bucking the status quo becomes an identity issue, and not only does evidence not matter anymore, but grifters come out to prey on people who just want to be skeptical.
A conspiracy theorist with strong evidence is just a leftist.
I wonder what Chinese flat earthers be like:
A: 地球是平的 (地球 is flat)
B: 但是你刚刚说了“地球” (but you just said “地球”) (地球 literally translates to: "ball of dirt" xD)
Over just a few months makes me think it's fake. But who knows. Things actually do happen.
i remember this guy, he is a pretty cool dude, actually, I think he went on Prof. Daves and they had a good conversation.
There are two kinds of reality: the first is in the human head, the second is what it really is.
In general, we're not taught early enough, if at all, to question both what we 'perceive' and the mental blabbering that makes up stories about it.
always nice to see a wholesome meme
What about the other, the subtle cons, like we don't have to take immediate action against global warming? (Not mentioning the more controversial ones.)
I think we're pretty fucked on that front... You can just look outside to see the climate changing at this point
And our leaders can't even bother to pretend we're going to try to fix it anymore
But the economy ......
Recently learned a delightful linguistic trick. Replace "economy" with "rich people's yacht money"
We COULD do something about climate change, but what about rich people's yacht money?
Universal health care would save lives, but what about rich people's yacht money?
Countless other examples.
Yes, exactly. Stock market and other rich people schemes are doing great. When there was talk of the federal minimum wage going up all the Republicans were screaming about shit getting more expensive.
My wife and I make close to 90 thou a year, and we are barely scraping by. Food has skyrocketed
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