I blame the internet, yes seriously. Flat Earth Movement rapidly growing

[Hayabusa Rider]

WTF is going on?

Friggin airline pilots and other educated people are in this as well as many other sorts. It's religious for some and completely unrelated for others. It just is.

Reinforcement with social media/videos seems likely as the enabler, but what that means is that some number, likely a great many people, are not attached to the facts as we've come to know them through experimental science and observation, but it hasn't been significant. In short the tendency laid mostly dormant in the population until vector allowed the spread of the disease so to speak.

It appears we are not as advanced as we assumed, but have learned how to make new and better toys.

Lordy.

 

[Jaskalas]

Education does not equal intelligence. No surprise there.
Look at how badly we treat each other, we barely deserve to call ourselves more than animals. Man thinks too highly of himself.

Let's see..

But Weiss is a flat earther. Ever since he tried and failed to find proof of the earth's curve four years ago, he's believed with an evident passion that our planet is both flat and stationary -- and it's turned his world upside down.

So he failed the test. And instead of him being wrong, it is the teacher (institution / world) that is wrong. AKA a conspiracy nutter. That sort of retardation against education and the scientific method is clearly contagious in a religious / cult like manner. And the internet has allowed these cults to prey upon the simple minded. Ergo... Trump.

The guy couldn't prove the earth is round... to himself? So he's a complete moron. Yes, there is no shortage of company for him.

 

[IronWing]

As the ice caps melt, the melt water flows to the equator where centrifugal forces can act more strongly on on it, pulling it outward, flattening the earth.

 

[whm1974]

WTF is going on?

Friggin airline pilots and other educated people are in this as well as many other sorts. It's religious for some and completely unrelated for others. It just is.

Reinforcement with social media/videos seems likely as the enabler, but what that means is that some number, likely a great many people, are not attached to the facts as we've come to know them through experimental science and observation, but it hasn't been significant. In short the tendency laid mostly dormant in the population until vector allowed the spread of the disease so to speak.

It appears we are not as advanced as we assumed, but have learned how to make new and better toys.

Lordy.

Actually if you read the article more closely, it is Weiss that claims that there are commercial airline pilots that also believe this. Which I find really hard to accept since they can easily see that the Earth has a curve and isn't flat at all.

All the internet has done is brought all of these sorts together. The same way with anti-vaxxers.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Actually if you read the article more closely, it is Weiss that claims that there are commercial airline pilots that also believe this. Which I find really hard to accept since they can easily see that the Earth has a curve and isn't flat at all.

All the internet has done is brought all of these sorts together. The same way with anti-vaxxers.

Oh yeah?

But- it''s hard to know from Weiss, however the effect is still the same. TNG? Not with humanity.

 

[UNCjigga]

I was at an Internet conference last week, and one of the speakers talked about how as Google and Facebook use more ML algorithms to suggest content, they will recommend things that tend to “go viral” and up engagement on their respective platforms. In other words, the models are trained to promote “addictive” content.

So anything controversial, such as flat earth videos or anti vaxx Fb posts will start to show up in your feeds. Even if the initial virality is just negative backlash to the actual content being shared, more and more people will see it as ML promotes it. And it’s counterintuitive for “smart” people to understand that engaging with this content to “debunk” it just promotes it further.

 

[IronWing]

If I drop a penny on the floor at the equator, it lands on heads or tails 99.94% of the time. If the earth is round and I drop the penny at the North Pole, it should land on its edge 99.94% of the time. Checkmate round heads.

 

[dank69]

The problem isn't just the internet, it is also religion. Every religion starts with faith which boils down to "believe in something you can't observe and you will be rewarded." The second step is "anything that challenges your faith is the devil trying to trick you." 95% of the population is taught this from a young age. Recipe for disaster.

 

[cytg111]

Meh ... Better flat earthers than anti vaxxers...

 

[zzyzxroad]

What do these folks think the motivation behind this mass cover-up is?

 

[dank69]

What do these folks think the motivation behind this mass cover-up is?

That never matters. Many people just need to feel like they belong to a select group of people that are more enlightened than anyone else. The subject matter is purely secondary and does not need to make any sense.

 

[outriding]

Best response ever

 

[dank69]

So our observations of Mars are believable but our observations of earth are not. I guess all the pictures we have of earth from space are faked.

 

[Jhhnn]

What do these folks think the motivation behind this mass cover-up is?

Satan!

 

[MtnMan]

 

[Jhhnn]

I think a lot of it is elaborate trolling & spoofing, like storming Area 51.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

These newly-outed flat-earthers are proliferating their drivel more widely because of internet -- therefore -- cell-phones.

Freedom is a political symbol and has limitations, as opposed to what the two-percenters and right-wing want you to think (the 2-percenters have essentially "infinite freedom" which they must preserve at all costs -- costs they will make everyone else pay).

So I suggest that people who believe the earth is flat must not be legally allowed to use cell-phones. And I say that -- not because the cell-phones are used to proliferate their drivel, but that the cell-phone technology is literally based on things that depend on a round-world reality -- like GPS positioning satellites.

How should you be allowed to use something that depends on truths that you reject?

Actually, I knew that a significant portion of our US population had gone absolutely f***-nuts-crazy with Trump's Birther Frenzy. This has now become certain to me (the f***-nuts-craziness) given what we could not fully imagine in 2016 coming true through the present week's news.

This is not a way for a burned-out old retired fart such as myself to spend his sunset years. I might as well be living in an age when people went into total panic with the occurrence of a total eclipse of the sun, as if it were some supernatural omen or indicator that the world was ending.

True -- the world may be ending. It will end because all these clueless assholes are so blind to the reality that threatens the planet.

To read the link posted in the OP at 9AM Sunday, I almost want to take some pills and go back to sleep. And my use of the pills is righteous: I believe that they work for certain specific reasons. And -- I'm old, it's Sunday, the news is as bad today as it was on Wednesday.

 

[sdifox]

Cuz freedumb

 

[JEDI]

WTF is going on?

Friggin airline pilots and other educated people are in this as well as many other sorts. It's religious for some and completely unrelated for others. It just is.

Reinforcement with social media/videos seems likely as the enabler, but what that means is that some number, likely a great many people, are not attached to the facts as we've come to know them through experimental science and observation, but it hasn't been significant. In short the tendency laid mostly dormant in the population until vector allowed the spread of the disease so to speak.

It appears we are not as advanced as we assumed, but have learned how to make new and better toys.

Lordy.

Flat Earther's unite!

 

[Vic]

I was at an Internet conference last week, and one of the speakers talked about how as Google and Facebook use more ML algorithms to suggest content, they will recommend things that tend to “go viral” and up engagement on their respective platforms. In other words, the models are trained to promote “addictive” content.

So anything controversial, such as flat earth videos or anti vaxx Fb posts will start to show up in your feeds. Even if the initial virality is just negative backlash to the actual content being shared, more and more people will see it as ML promotes it. And it’s counterintuitive for “smart” people to understand that engaging with this content to “debunk” it just promotes it further.

The bolded part is what's most disturbing IMO. Any effort to denounce lies just ends up spreading them further, and giving them more credibility.

 

[Greenman]

Social media is an ignorance multiplier. The larger the group of people, the lower the average IQ. This will someday be known as "Greenmans law".

 

[JSt0rm]

The people at the top of this thing are just grifting dumb people.

 

[cytg111]

Social media is an ignorance multiplier. The larger the group of people, the lower the average IQ. This will someday be known as "Greenmans law".

And I have it quoted here for prosperity .

 

[Greenman]

And I have it quoted here for prosperity .

Someday you'll be telling your grandkids "I was there when the most compelling idea to ever hit the internet was born". I'll be sure you're mentioned in my autobiography.

 

[Lanyap]

Social media is an ignorance multiplier. The larger the group of people, the lower the average IQ. This will someday be known as "Greenmans law".

Social media is uniting the weak minded people of the world. They’ve always been there, we just didn’t know the magnitude.