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

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Every person relies upon their individual understanding in order to perceive the world. We literally don't know what we don't know. And if we choose to believe that what we don't know can be explained by evil forces rather than our personal ignorance, then we get the conspiracy theorists like flat earthers. And the grifters and conmen who feed on that willful ignorance.
In their case, the flat earthers' inability to consciously perceive a 3-dimensional universe (and its logical geometry) means everyone else is out to get them. Because if they can't conceive it, then no one should be able to either, right? So it must all be lies and conspiracy.. right?
 
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Flat earth theory has nothing to do with the shape of the earth. In the same way that a round earth cannot be proven to flat earthers, a flat earth cannot be proven to round earthers. its just a thing for people to argue about, and people love arguing. Its just as easy to engage in as it is to ignore. its the same as the airplane on a treadmill, or 1/3 and 33% or whatever that one was.
 
Lanyap said:
Social media is uniting the weak minded people of the world. They’ve always been there, we just didn’t know the magnitude.
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That's true. My observation is correct as well. My first experience with this was a homeowners association. I knew all of the people in the association, the vast majority of them educated professionals. When they came together as a group they came up with the stupidest ideas imaginable. There first action was to sue the builder of their development for several very stupid reasons. That case was thrown out of court, and every member of the association was hit with a substantial special assessment to pay their own and the builders legal fees.
 
dank69 said:
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.
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Islamic and Christian scholars are why knowledge survived the Dark Ages, and the pursuit and celebration of the divine is what inspired and funded much of the enlightenment. Religion and science diverged once one became a threat to the other.

Social media allows fringe thinking to find community, acceptance and validation. Religion has nothing to do with it.
 
Starbuck1975 said:
Islamic and Christian scholars are why knowledge survived the Dark Ages, and the pursuit and celebration of the divine is what inspired and funded much of the enlightenment. Religion and science diverged once one became a threat to the other.

Social media allows fringe thinking to find community, acceptance and validation. Religion has nothing to do with it.
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None of what you said counters my claim that religion teaches people to be irrational. People taught religion can still be rational.
 
dank69 said:
None of what you said counters my claim that religion teaches people to be irrational. People taught religion can still be rational.
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'
I agree with your base statement that religion is implicitly based on being irrational.

To put it simply, it asks you to change from "How is the world made? I don't know" to "How is the world made? God did it"

However I don't attribute religion to irrationality in general - especially not the level of irrationality required for flat earthers.

I kinda agree with Jhhhn a lot here, I think some people really do get off to trolling at an extreme level.
 
Hayabusa Rider said:
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.
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I challenge that. Conspiracy videos often claim to have unnamed people who are pilots or experts or some other thing that lends credibility.

But I think they're lying. Can anyone name an actual, employed verifiable airline pilot OR commercial ship captain (both of which have to understand manual navigation)

You see, that's the problem. ANYONE who understands navigation knows the maps ONLY work on a curved surface. No real commercial airline pilot or ship captain is going to fall for this crap.

They are over stating their following. These things NEVER draw more than a few hundred people at most.

The VAST majority of people who engage online are doing so for shits and giggles and trolling.
 
Fun fact—I actually checked out the Flat Earth conference in Raleigh a few years back. Just happened to be at the same hotel for another event... hilarious how many people flew cross country to the event and never looked out the window.
48dcdd4395b45c56b5d2bc723867a3fe.jpg
 
UNCjigga said:
Fun fact—I actually checked out the Flat Earth conference in Raleigh a few years back. Just happened to be at the same hotel for another event... hilarious how many people flew cross country to the event and never looked out the window.
48dcdd4395b45c56b5d2bc723867a3fe.jpg
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"500 years in the making..." ...is that also some sort of Young Earth Creationism, or something?
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
Few hundred - sure, maybe in person at their international flat earther conference http://fe2018.com/

But globally over social media? I think it's safe to say it's more than "few hundred" sadly.
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Yes, but if all you can get at a conference like this is a few hundred people, that means your support is more than likely in the low single digit percentages.

They like to be very, very vocal and active and manipulate social media to pretend they have far more support.

In reality, they are a very small cult made up entirely of trolls and the idiots they've duped.
 
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dank69 said:
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.
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I pause to question if this is a matter of learned behavior, or also compounded by... the "fact" that this is simply how the human brain operates.
 
We can, however see a positive to this (along with all the other conspiracies):
Never in the history of man has it been so easy to identify a stupid person, even one who may be able to pass as average or even above average.
 
As an experiment I would like to flip the internet kill switch for a few of months to thin the herd and to serve as a warning that BS will no longer be tolerated. With great power comes great responsibility.

If anyone is caught spreading BS they get to roll a 16 sided dice and the number they roll is the number of months they abstain from internet access. Next time that number is doubled. Lastly there is the 3 strike you're out rule.
 
whm1974 said:
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.
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I don't think you can actually see the curvature of the earth from 40,000 ft. But...

Airliners fly Great Circle Routes, not Straight Line Routes, and every commercial pilot would know that.

www.gcmap.com

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper
www.gcmap.com www.gcmap.com
 
IronWing said:
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.
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hat does it land on the other .06%?
 
So if you want to checkout the rabbit hole of flat earthers may I suggest SciManDan. He debunks a couple every week.
 
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