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

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You're kidding, right...? When you stop believing in facts and scientific evidence, you open the door and step into The Dark Ages Part II (in the popular sense of the term)




Thanks guys, you're dropping some knowledge up in here


Anti-science always seemed like a very vocal minority, and that it was a very small factor if at all in the grand scheme of things. But stuff like climate change deniers in the government is pretty shitty. In the end, they're outmatched by people who live by science, and that should get us by just fine.
 

Linkyn

Member
It actually makes quite a bit of sense that he wouldn't believe in gravity, either. After all, planets are mostly spherical because of the isotropic nature of the gravitational interaction. Without that, there is not much of a theoretical basis that would let one conclude that the Earth could not be flat. Of course, this all neglects the wealth of ground-based observational data that is accommodated in flat-Earth theory via ad-hoc reasoning (another great example of this is the geocentric model of the universe, which became increasingly unwieldy as more and more geometrical complexity had to be added in order for it to fit experimental data). Not to mention the fact that we can actually look at the Earth from the outside and identify it very much as a spheroid.
 

kyser73

Member
The hippy use of the word 'energy' would've put my warning feelers up, but a flat-earther...man, that's a toughie if you're good mates...some people might say it isn't important, but to me it's like saying you're a YEC or anti-vaccination. It's a flat out rejection of a method of investigating the world and the results it brings us.

Next time I get asked the 'What would you do if you were ruler of the world?' I'll have to say 'Anyone who says the earth is flat, is YEC, anti-vaccine or similarly anti-science isn't allowed access to any technology or products of science from the invention of the steam engine onward.'
 

KarmaCow

Member
Even putting aside the absurdity of rejecting gravity and everything else that contradicts a flat Earth, believing it also requires believing in a world wide conspiracy that has been perpetuated in lock step for millennia. It is not unreasonable to consider that more than a silly personality quirk.
 
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.

But circumnavigation has been accomplished for centuries in many modes of transportation. Some times by private citizens.

This lead me down this headache inducing rabbit hole.

https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=61153.0
 

RawNuts

Member
I've had phases of my life I'm not proud of when I believed in dumb shit for a while before getting my head straight and snapping out of it. Hopefully this is a similar situation with your friend, and maybe he only started believing that the past year or so.
 

Capitan

Member
these threads are always fun, in a sad way. a few years back i spent some time on the flat earth society site trying to debate them, but they're just so stubborn, regardless of the holes in their models. this kind of conspiracy theory is a fun rabbit hole to go down, though.
 
I've got one friend who I constantly feel like is one random "revelation" away from telling me that he's figured out that the Earth really is flat.

Dude believes every other conspiracy, though he tells me doesn't immediately believe stories about things like vampires. You know, gotta draw the line somewhere, right?
 

Media

Member
The part that they can never answer when I confront them is why. Why the conspiracy? It would literally have to involve thousands of people from today to the ancient times. Hell, it'd have to involve thousands today since so many countries have space programs and workers who build satellites and pilots who fly planes and people who program shit...

So why? And how the fuck are all those thousands of people involved in keeping this huge secret? Because god? Because science sucks?
 
Thanks guys, you're dropping some knowledge up in here


Anti-science always seemed like a very vocal minority, and that it was a very small factor if at all in the grand scheme of things. But stuff like climate change deniers in the government is pretty shitty. In the end, they're outmatched by people who live by science, and that should get us by just fine.

Who in world politics believes climate change is just a Chinese hoax...?
 

Goldboy

Member
That'd only cover the north and south, what about the east and west?

The Earth is a flat circle, and Antarctica surrounds the entire thing:

Lh79R0B.png
 

Monocle

Member
I can tolerate pretty substantial differences of opinion in my acquaintances, but I can't keep company with people who are that untethered to reality. Belief in utter nonsense like a flat Earth conspiracy can't be held in isolation. That person's worldview and reasoning abilities must be critically fucked as a matter of course.

This is my biggest problem with it. Other conspiracies have a hook that, if true, would warrant a huge cover up.
Obama not being America or a secret Muslim.
9/11 being an inside job.
Pizza Gate.
JFK assassination.
But who benefits from fooling people into believing a round Earth? The amount of people, time, technology, and money to keep this up makes it not even worth it in the first place.
My friend says it's cause knowledge is power and the less we have the easier we are to control. Basically the 10% are behind the whole thing...But why? Because it's good vs. evil.
Apparently from the last time we've seen each other (2 yrs now) he's found religion, or at least some form of it.
At least now his delusions will have structure? Or maybe he'll latch onto the weaponized idiocy of faith-as-a-virtue and reel in other gullible people too.

What a waste of a mind.

The Earth is a flat circle, and Antarctica surrounds the entire thing:

Lh79R0B.png
Brb I'm going to walk around the world. Something no other aspiring explorer in history has thought of, for reasons.
 
The part that they can never answer when I confront them is why. Why the conspiracy? It would literally have to involve thousands of people from today to the ancient times. Hell, it'd have to involve thousands today since so many countries have space programs and workers who build satellites and pilots who fly planes and people who program shit...

So why? And how the fuck are all those thousands of people involved in keeping this huge secret? Because god? Because science sucks?


Were you there Media?
 

Harpuia

Member
How does this happen. It's such a strange phenomenon. My theory is that it's a total desire to feel like you possess secret knowledge others don't and as a result become part of a more "enlightened" group. It's like gaining knowledge but without the necessary thought and learning involved in actually becoming a smarter person.

The closest I've come to experiencing this is probably a co worker who believes in chem trails and possesses some thoughts on the more ignorant side of things (how transgender folk don't deserve the courtesy of being addressed the gender they identify as). We were talking about Shaq joking about being a flat earther and I guess there was a limit for him.

Edit: Shaq not michael jordan
 

Goldboy

Member
How does this happen. It's such a strange phenomenon. My theory is that it's a total desire to feel like you possess secret knowledge others don't and as a result become part of a more "enlightened" group. It's like gaining knowledge but without the necessary thought and learning involved in actually becoming a smarter person.

I think it's exactly this. That's how it starts, anyway. Once you begin buying into conspiracy theories that sound somewhat reasonable, (or at least less insane than the earth being flat), there's a danger of going further down the rabbit hole until you eventually reach "flat earth" status.
 

rjinaz

Member
How does this happen. It's such a strange phenomenon. My theory is that it's a total desire to feel like you possess secret knowledge others don't and as a result become part of a more "enlightened" group. It's like gaining knowledge but without the necessary thought and learning involved in actually becoming a smarter person.

The closest I've come to experiencing this is probably a co worker who believes in chem trails and possesses some thoughts on the more ignorant side of things (how transgender folk don't deserve the courtesy of being addressed the gender they identify as). We were talking about Michael Jordan joking about being a flat earther and I guess there was a limit for him.

Shaq. But yeah, I agree, I think it is that, they need to feel special in some way, and this is it, they have not been fooled. They are better.
 

Media

Member
I think it's exactly this. That's how it starts, anyway. Once you begin buying into conspiracy theories that sound somewhat reasonable, (or at least less insane than the earth being flat), there's a danger of going further down the rabbit hole until you eventually reach "flat earth" status.

The only good thing I can say about the flat earthers is that they aren't as evil as the Sandy Hook Truthers, fucking harassing people who had 1st graders murdered by a madman. Those guys piss me off so fucking much.
 
But circumnavigation has been accomplished for centuries in many modes of transportation. Some times by private citizens.

This lead me down this headache inducing rabbit hole.

https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=61153.0

That'd only cover the north and south, what about the east and west?

Because they believe the true map of Earth is something like this:

Flat_earth.png


So you will only need walls of ice around the south pole (the whole Earth border) and circumnavigation is possible because you are actually doing circles around the north pole (center of the flat Earth map).

Still silly as hell, but they can came with explanations for everything (still the simplest explanation should be the Earth is not flat.....)
 
Just wondering is your friend very religious?
We only talk once a month or two so I can't comment on his life now. During the convo God and the Bible were brought up twice so I'm going to assume he's on his way to becoming highly religious.
When we lived near one another together he was atheist more or less.
 

rjinaz

Member
The only good thing I can say about the flat earthers is that they aren't as evil as the Sandy Hook Truthers, fucking harassing people who had 1st graders murdered by a madman. Those guys piss me off so fucking much.

True, however if you believe this theory, one of the most out there, is there anything you wouldn't believe? I'd guess that many are one and the same.
 

Media

Member
Because they believe the true map of Earth is something like this:

Flat_earth.png


So you will only need walls of ice arounf the south pole (the whole Earth border) and circumnavigation is possible because you are actually doing circles around tbe north pole (center of the flat Earth map).

Still silly as hell, but they can came with explanations for everything (still the simplest explanation should be the Earth is not flat.....)

I want one of these people to buy a boat and try to sail to the ice wall.
 

Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
I think tehbible is a local Gaf flat earther, if we say his name 3 times we might summon him.
 
I want one of these people to buy a boat and try to sail to the ice wall.


The wall would be inside the continent of Antartida so you cannot sail to it. And it should be in the most remote region of the continent. See? They have an answer for everything.... pretty nuts.
 

Permanently A

Junior 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

Except now its more like "my knowledge off youtube is just as legitimate and valid as your knowledge from a textbook" because most people lack basic scientific literacy.
 
Mars doesn't exist. It's a CGI rendering.

Yes there are Flat Earthers that make this argument.
B-but... what about the fact Mars has been observed in the sky for hundreds of years?... our concept of a round earth and the infinite vastness of space and other floating spheres far pre-dates CGI?...

And what the hell is on the other side of the flat earth? Why the fuck is this a thing? Every time it gets brought up I'm ever more confused
 

adamy

Banned
Coast to Coast AM has had some excellent segments that cover topics such as flat earth theory, hollow earth theory, etc. I've found the hollow earth pieces to be exceptional.

Also, for those who are interested, they just had a great segment on the hollow moon theory. Summary below:

David Adair, an internationally recognized expert in space technology applications and more recently, fusion containment, discussed his current and past work, as well as hollow moon theories and facts. In the dim past, when the moon first arrived, it was a mere 22,000 miles away, and would have covered the entire sky, he reported. But over millions of years, it has gradually moved further away, such that it is now about 10 times further away. Sample lunar rocks are 100 million years younger than Earth, and this suggests that the moon was never part of our planet, he continued.

During some of the Apollo missions, modules were fired into the lunar surface, and the moon rang like a bell, in one case for around four hours. Because of this, Adair has concluded that the moon is hollow, and he also noted that its perfectly symmetrical shape is highly unusual compared to more lumpy satellites such as Deimos and Phobos that orbit around Mars. The moon is simply too big to have been captured in Earth's orbit, he remarked, so it would seem to have been flown in and placed here.

One Apollo astronaut brought tree seeds with him to the moon and they were irradiated in that environment. Upon his return they were planted, Adair recounted, and there are now some 400 "moon trees" growing quite well across the planet. In another experiment, moon dust was sprinkled on corn, and it was also said to grow quite well, he cited. In addition to talking about his work with rockets as a teenage prodigy, Adair described his experiment taking an in vitro machine inside a cloud chamber, and exposing it to gamma rays.
 

DBT85

Member
Is it any dumber than half the country believing in a magic man in the clouds creating the universe in 7 days?

If you believe in something that can be easily disproven people mock you.

If you believe in something that cannot be proven, that's ok.

I don't know why.

Some people think Pepsi is better than Coke. The world is full of strange folk.
 

Mr Git

Member
You should ask him whether he's read the non-fiction series Discworld. Maybe he doesn't believe in gravity, but does believe in Great A'Tuin.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I want one of these people to buy a boat and try to sail to the ice wall.

They're going to be so disappointed when they maintain a course due west of California and don't end up in Antarctica.
 
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.

Do you honestly think that people that don't believe in GRAVITY and believe the Earth is flat will end there with their crazy beliefs?
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
I can tolerate pretty substantial differences of opinion in my acquaintances, but I can't keep company with people who are that untethered to reality. Belief in utter nonsense like a flat Earth conspiracy can't be held in isolation. That person's worldview and reasoning abilities must be critically fucked as a matter of course.


At least now his delusions will have structure? Or maybe he'll latch onto the weaponized idiocy of faith-as-a-virtue and reel in other gullible people too.

What a waste of a mind.


Brb I'm going to walk around the world. Something no other aspiring explorer in history has thought of, for reasons.

But they all don't believe the earth is flat so they don't even know that they can walk around the world man. Don't you get it?

/s
 

kneePat

Member
Coast to Coast AM has had some excellent segments that cover topics such as flat earth theory, hollow earth theory, etc. I've found the hollow earth pieces to be exceptional.

Also, for those who are interested, they just had a great segment on the hollow moon theory. Summary below:

You're fucking crazy. It's possible you're a fucking lunatic. Don't dismiss your lack of credibility. Try to keep an open mind.
 
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