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Found Out My Friend is a Flat Earther Today...

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ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
rucury said:
like what can we do about these people who believe these sorts of things without any shred of scientific evidence (and in most cases directly contradicting science)?...

it seems like most won't take well to being educated calmly and anyway thats a pushy and annoying thing to do. but I feel like just ignoring them will create this sort of generation of flat-earthers that will probably get a flat-earther electected president or something.
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Shoot them into the sun so they can see for themselves how wrong they were.
 
K

Kaneda Shotaro

Member
pa22word said:
I mean we're on gaf of all places. I know plenty of lefty people here and especially irl that believe gmos are some corporatist conspiracy to bleach our organs and get us to subliminally want more coke products or some dumb shit. That's just as anti-science as flat earthism is, just wrapped up in a different ideology.
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One is not like the other. Not even close.
 
G

Goldboy

Member
One of my good friends started reading a ton of internet conspiracy theories a couple years ago. His views started out kinda understandable, but have gotten progressively weirder as time has gone on, and he now believes in the Earth being flat, among other batshit insane theories. If I or any one of our friends ever tries to call him on it he'll say some shit like "is it so wrong to ask questions?"
 
G

GameAddict411

Member
Correctomundo said:
They use bouyany as an explanation.

Of course, show them a hammer and feather falling at the same speed in a vacuum chamber, and they clam up. Although there are a few that insist the plane is continuously moving upwards at 9.8 m/s.
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That was debunked more than a hundred years ago. If you let two objects fall on the earth, they will ever so slightly fall towards the center of the earth due to the curvature of the earth. Buoyancy like I have explained in my previous post only works in fluids where pressure exists. Without pressure, there is no fluid hence no buoyant force.
 
K

Kaneda Shotaro

Member
Goldboy said:
One of my good friends started reading a ton of internet conspiracy theories a couple years ago. His views started out kinda understandable, but have gotten progressively weirder as time has gone on, and he now believes in the Earth being flat, among other batshit insane theories. If I or any one of our friends ever tries to call him on it he'll say some shit like "is it so wrong to ask questions?"
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It's no longer a question when the answer is look at the sky during different times of the day. Poor bastard.
 
benjipwns

benjipwns

Banned
EatinOlives said:
So what happens at the end of the world? Where's the edge? Show him a map and point him where the edge is, then ask him why there haven't been any pictures in X place that show the edge of the world.

What happens with the water of the ocean? Does it just fall off? If not, why, does it just stay in place for no reason? Does the edge of the world have a giant waterfall? If so, how come the ocean doesn't run out? Where does it come from?

The thing with the flat-earth conspiracy theory is that at no juncture does any of it make any kind of sense.
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Oh sure, like they haven't thought of just all of that and already addressed it.
 
T

theaffection

Member
But for real OP and all of you guys shouldn't think any less of a person if they believe in flat earth! It's not a belief that inherently hurts others.
 
L

LionPride

Banned
Creepy said:
I convinced my space nerd gf that I was flat earther for about a year, we'd have long debates where she would become legitimately distressed and angry.

I eventually told her I was just messing with her, she doesn't believe me.... thinks I'm just pretending to be a sphere-earther(?) just to placate her.
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What is wrong with you
 
P

pa22word

Member
Kaneda Shotaro said:
One is not like the other. Not even close.
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Why? They're both anti-science nonsensical conspiracy theories.

I'd argue antigmo nonsense is actually more harmful than flateartherism because while the latter is just tomfoolery to laugh at the former actually has real world consequences holding up scientific breakthroughs in food production for utterly nonsensical reasoning.
 
D

Dynomutt

Member
Netherscourge said:
I didn't even make it past this part...

What is this "energy" he speaks of?
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I know someone like this who believes we all have this enerygy and are connected to this huge energy Web and sometimes certain drugs can enhance our antennas and let tap into this Web subconsciously to come up with great ideas, have epiphanies, and communicate subconsciously. They're called psychedelics for a reason.
 
P

Pinko Marx

Banned
Netherscourge said:
I didn't even make it past this part...

What is this "energy" he speaks of?
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This isn't something that is worth getting hung up on. Plenty of people use the word energy as a vague term to describe the way a person might carry themselves, or the vibe you get from someone, or just the general first impression someone gives off.
He also smokes a heck of a lot of weed nowadays from what I understand so this type of verbage isn't out of the ordinary.
 
2

2blackcats

Member
CarpeDeezNutz said:
Faces look ugly when you're alone.
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Women seem wicked.


I feel for you op.

Nearly the exact same thing happened to me recently.

I've known my friend a decade more than you though. He's not religious and is really in to Sci-fi.

I was/am really upset. He couldn't understand why I said it was worse than him finding religion. And I fucking hate religions.
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
If someone used a ballistics computer to try to snipe me from a long distance then I would hope the computer was designed by a flat earther.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
How do flat earthers rationalize looping around earth back to where they start? This is a not so uncommon a thing to occur on a regular basis as people travel for business and that may lead them from New York to Paris to Tokyo back to New York. I can't wrap my head around how someone can know travel patterns similar to that are done all the time but also believe the earth is flat.
 
S

slit

Member
theaffection said:
But for real OP and all of you guys shouldn't think any less of a person if they believe in flat earth! It's not a belief that inherently hurts others.
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It does hurt others. It spreads ignorance and distrust of the scientific community without a shred of proof. We already have people who reject science outright because of corporate interests. We're supposed to allow the stupidity to spread more?
 
K

Kaneda Shotaro

Member
theaffection said:
But for real OP and all of you guys shouldn't think any less of a person if they believe in flat earth! It's not a belief that inherently hurts others.
Click to expand...

It sure can. What if he teaches his kids the earth is flat? They might start denying actual scientific proof for many things. Maybe it will lead to believing vaccines are bad for you if they're dumb enough.
 
G

Goldboy

Member
EatinOlives said:
So what happens at the end of the world? Where's the edge? Show him a map and point him where the edge is, then ask him why there haven't been any pictures in X place that show the edge of the world.

What happens with the water of the ocean? Does it just fall off? If not, why, does it just stay in place for no reason? Does the edge of the world have a giant waterfall? If so, how come the ocean doesn't run out? Where does it come from?

The thing with the flat-earth conspiracy theory is that at no juncture does any of it make any kind of sense.
Click to expand...

Okay, my understanding, as someone who knows a flat-earther, is that many of them believe that Antarctica surrounds the flat Earth, and that "the government" knows what's beyond the edge of the world, but wants to keep it a secret because of reasons. Which is why there's a giant wall in Antarctica that prevents anybody from getting to the edge of the world. They believe that the giant Antarctic walls prevent the oceans from spilling out over the edge.
 
R

rjinaz

Member
theaffection said:
But for real OP and all of you guys shouldn't think any less of a person if they believe in flat earth! It's not a belief that inherently hurts others.
Click to expand...

Eh maybe not directly. I mean you're not wrong that in the end people should live their lives as they please as long as they don't harm others and nobody can do anything. But these people pass their ideas to others like their kids, and idiocracy becomes the law of the land Some of the largest atrocities that occurred happened because people were happy with their ignorance and held beliefs and didn't stop to think about what it is they believed and were doing to others as a result.
 
X

XT Vengeance

Member
theaffection said:
But for real OP and all of you guys shouldn't think any less of a person if they believe in flat earth! It's not a belief that inherently hurts others.
Click to expand...
It does though. They spread their nonsense anti-science bullshit and then that spreads to more people and next thing you know there is a significant amount of people that believe in ridiculous shit like Obama being a secret Muslim or pizza gate. It drags others down.
 
ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
Goldboy said:
Okay, my understanding, as someone who knows a flat-earther, is that many of them believe that Antarctica surrounds the flat Earth, and that "the government" knows what's beyond the edge of the world, but wants to keep it a secret because of reasons. Which is why there's a giant wall in Antarctica that prevents anybody from getting to the edge of the world. They believe that the giant Antarctic walls prevent the oceans from spilling out over the edge.
Click to expand...

There are not enough face slamming into keyboard gifs for this. There just isn't.
 
P

Pinko Marx

Banned
Goldboy said:
Okay, my understanding, as someone who knows a flat-earther, is that many of them believe that Antarctica surrounds the flat Earth, and that "the government" knows what's beyond the edge of the world, but wants to keep it a secret because of reasons. Which is why there's a giant wall in Antarctica that prevents anybody from getting to the edge of the world. They believe that the giant Antarctic walls prevent the oceans from spilling out over the edge.
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He linked me to a YouTube that I watched 3 minutes of before giving up. This guy on the video says there's an artificial horizon that the government maintains. I've also heard of there being an Ice Wall at the ends of the Earth.
 
H

How About No

Member
Pinko Marx said:
He linked me to a YouTube that I watched 3 minutes of before giving up. This guy on the video says there's an artificial horizon that the government maintains. I've also heard of there being an Ice Wall at the ends of the Earth.
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So its like A Song of Ice and Fire meets The Truman Show neato
 
P

Pinko Marx

Banned
theaffection said:
How so? I can see how it can alienate people that believe in it from others
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Anti-Vaxxers don't allow their children to receive extremely important shots.
Climate change deniers (like those in the white house) can stop us from trying to stem the harm we do the our (flat) earth.
 
M

Marky Mark

Member
c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800.jpg
 
Correctomundo

Correctomundo

Member
Reasons = The Bible describes a flat Earth, and the spherical Earth is a lie from Satan, and the governments of the world are working for Satan. By maintaining the illusion that the planet is not a flat plane, then it's easier to move people away from God.

I know, it's fucking stupid. I don't make this shit up, I just bang my head against the flat Earth wall daily on Facebook because I'm a glutton for punishment.
 
Correctomundo

Correctomundo

Member
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov
 
W

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
ive stopped trying to reach people like this. Now i one-up them. If they talk about Flat Earth i just laugh and dismiss their opinion as Martian propaganda or some kind of shit from Spirit Science.
 
Q

Quadraphonic

Member
Man-is-Obsolete said:
How do flat earthers rationalize looping around earth back to where they start? This is a not so uncommon a thing to occur on a regular basis as people travel for business and that may lead them from New York to Paris to Tokyo back to New York. I can't wrap my head around how someone can know travel patterns similar to that are done all the time but also believe the earth is flat.
Click to expand...

They have answers for everything like that.

Their reasoning is that commercial airlines profit for choosing their paths and would lose money or government knowledge or something if they revealed the truest path. Besides, you're relying on your phone for GPS and Google and Apple are all in on the scheme.

This whole thing started out years and years ago as a devil's advocate forum from hell. But after a while people started believing their own stupidity. Then that trail of bullshit answers was left behind to be combined into the mess you see today.
 
Creepy

Creepy

Member
You're going to lead rather unhappy lives if you concern yourselves too much with the trivialities of other peoples inconsequential thoughts.

Somebody thinks the Earth is flat? It really doesn't matter... does it...
If they're a decent person who you get along with, just let them have their weird little thing.

This "be exactly like me or be unfriended" mindset people have these days is pretty sad.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
What's the big problem that you have to "out" the guy for gaffers to snigger at his belief?
Flat Earth is bullshit, but so is Marvels Jesus Christ and all the other Justice League Religions. Hokey pokey bologna that comforts some people, but as long as they aren't causing violence and oppression...why the need to stick your nose in?


OPs friend is weird, but he trusted you with his belief. OP is an ass for sharing it for teh lulz. Guys like a brother to you? Pretty shitty way to treat a brother.
 
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