Flat earth believers

Yes, yes they are.

It seems like creationists are becoming more extreme than they were in the early 2000s. I used to get into discussions with creationists and they would always get uncomfortable when Bible passages about the firmament were brought up, and would insist that they weren't meant to be taken literally (although the parts about God creating the earth in six days apparently were). Now, more and more creationists seem to be open about their flat-earth beliefs. It seems to have dovetailed with the increase in openness about being racist.

I do genealogy research. My last name is pretty rare, though not unique, making it easier than if it were “Smith”, just as an example. I’ve traced my family name to England in ~1590. My brother has found people with my family name in Slovenia. I don’t believe they are related to my family, but if so, it would have to be before 1590, and in genealogy, you don’t guess. Lots of unrelated people share a last name. He keeps bringing it up. It’s ridiculous.

I can’t tell he my brother raises the Slovenian people to yank my chain, or if he believes it. But his comment today “I was right” he said, after misinterpreting a document, suggests that being “right” is what motivates him. Maybe not at the beginning, but afterward and now. This reminds me of the flat earthers and other conspiracy theory believers.

He doesn’t care to actually do any research himself, except a google our last name. It produces a 19th century Slovenian writer, as that is the only person with our family name that is famous enough to be googleable.

^About the rarity of my last name, if you have that name and are in New England, the mid-Atlantic states (excepting Delaware), or Oregon, there’s a 99% chance that you descend from the same guy who came to America in ~1635. The Delaware family may be related, but I can’t prove it, yet.

There’s a large group of ersatz families in the Midwest who share my family name, but they came from Germany in the 19th century and are unrelated. Don’t tell my brother!

I hate to bring him up here, but flat earthers remind me of Trump supporters. They must lack an ability to process information logically. Facts, evidence, and reason.

Some investment advice I gave my Trumpster nephew is to never let your political beliefs influence your investment strategy. I have to often remind myself of this as well. You shouldn’t let emotion intrude.

Meanwhile his Dad and my brother are buying gold, “just in case”.

It’s not much of a leap from believing the Bible is literal truth.

That, R5, or do they on some level know the scientific truth but spout stuff like the earth is flat or that dinosaurs lived here 4000 years ago just to piss people off?

What about the pictures of the Earth from outer space? The show the plant as a round object.

The dumbing down of America has no bottom. This is next:

R8, technically, those photos show the earth to be a disk, I think. It’s hard to depict a round object in a photo. I think you’d need a very distant perspective.

On one level, it doesn’t matter what the shape is. What does matter is that a round earth best fits our equations. The theory of a round earth works when launching satellites that will circle the earth.

Technically, the earth is an oval, not perfectly round. It’s expanded slightly at the equator due to its rotation. It’s roundish.

Do they know of anybody that....you know....actually fell off the earth?

It’s true. It’s the reason I was able to see Russia from my house.

Read the article. Your answers are there.

Pictures from space? faked

Fall off? go far enough in any direction you run into Antarctica

R11, they think the earth is like a Pac-Man game.

Their nonsensical theory, of course, would require that transoceanic flights in the "southern hemisphere" (e.g. between Rio and Joannesburg) would take several times as long as transoceanic flights in the northern hemisphere (e.g. between New York and Madrid). Obviously they don't. These loonies claim that the powers that be hide this fact by refusing to authorize direct flights between "southern hemisphere" cities, requiring all sorts of indirect routes and layovers to obscure the long distance—easy disproven.

Some of these people are really that stupid. But I think some of them are just looking for attention by trying to be outrageous.

If it was flat, a picture from space should capture the entire world, not half of it.

I know the excuse is that the photos are doctored, but, for the love of mike! How ridiculous.

I have been to Antarctica. Why wasn't I upside down?

[quote] If it was flat, a picture from space should capture the entire world, not half of it.

You aren't using their logic. A "real" picture from space would capture the entire world. But we have never been to space and all the pictures from space have been faked.

A true believer told me Satan put dinosaur bones on Earth to pull one over on us.

[quote]I have been to Antarctica. Why wasn't I upside down?

R18, these flat earthers profess to believe that Antarctica isn't a continent, but an indeterminately expansive ice wall surrounding a circle of lands and oceans whose center is the "north pole." Therefore, they claim, no one has ever been to the south pole (which doesn't exist) or crossed Antarctica (which would be impossible).

And these people vote. Imagine that.

Its all part of wider conspiracies - they also believe the Rothschilds and the government are in on it. For what gain I have no clue.

I don't think these people had that many friends to begin with. This is pure cult thinking and some people are just drawn to it.

Everything else is a lie. Nothing is true but what they believe. It's scary. And many Trump supporters sound just like it.

The US produces a unique kind of dumb.

Yes, they think the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the British royal family, et al. have power over all the airline companies, shipping companies, pilots, and ship captains of the world to keep them from revealing the truth, because for some reason they need to keep people believing that the earth is a ball. There's no small amount of crossover with theories about lizard people and, of course, classic anti-Semitism—eventually all conspiracy theories merge.

Ohio lets you explain wrong answers with religion now.

Ohio is a lost cause. It’s a full-on Deplorable, Red State. And it has been for years now.

It's time society stops indulging these idiots. Just stop. Stop giving them airtime. Stop debating with them, as they are too stupid to debate in good faith. Stop writing articles about them unless you're writing about what idiots they are. We need to just stop indulging people like this and Qanon nuts and all the other dumbasses.

The earth isn't flat, but men can magically become women

Solar system

[quote]And these people vote. Imagine that.

I don't think we have to imagine it-- we saw the results of the last election.

Don't forget that besides voting, they can also procreate, drive cars, and own guns.

Just watch "Idiocracy." It's become a documentary.

Ahem.

R25 "the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the British royal family"

You left out Henry Kissinger, the Masons and the Pope.

Because, you know, they're all natural allies, all working together pulling our strings for their mutual benefit.

And "Yes," they vote, and their votes cancel out mine.

How do they explain the curvature of the earth in still time-lapse photos?

GPS depends on satellites that circle the globe. They would have to be part of the grand conspiracy.

Unrelated fun fact: Einstein predicted that “time” would speed up or slow down for an object based on that object’s relative speed. The speed of the GPS satellites and their relative varied-experience of “time” has to be factored in to the GPS system for the system to work.

I heard at least one say that he just needs to go up in a space capsule and see for himself it's round.

Hello?

Not really surprising though, I'm sad to say. There's a tenacious, deep reservoir of irrationality in the human mind.

Billions of people believe in some sort of invisible wizard who created the world and actually cares about human life on this moat of dust suspended on a sunbeam. Others believe that attractive clear minerals somehow have magical powers, or that the position of stars that were trillions of miles away when you were born has a bearing on your personality and destiny.

And we have more recent and painful reminders of this basic, intense irrationality as well.

I'm sure they will take over politics and some fascist dictator will demand school stop teaching that the world is round.

A straight woman with a buzz-cut can be a "gay man" nowadays, and vice versa. So why can't our planet be flat?

Deplorables, a prime example of stupid.

So, the EARTH is flat, but every other planet in the solar system is a sphere?

Or, do they not believe in the other planets either?

If they do believe in the existence of the other planets, how do they explain the discrepancy? or do they believe that the other planets are also flat and "rotation" is, what, and optical illusion?

Idiocracy should be given a retroactive Oscar in the Documentary category.

I have a razor for these people.

Well, the bell curve explains it simply.

Amazing how all conspiracy theories contain the following: The Freemasons, The Illuminati, The Vatican, The Jews, George Soros, The Crown of England, The Rockefellers, The Rothschilds, The Reptillians, The Greys, Atlantis, The Nephilim, and on and on.

The Crown of England of course didn't "flatten" the Earth, but they controlled 1/4 of the entire planet and some of the things they've done is still kept secret. So some "conspiracies" about them are true. Prince Andrew was "close buds" with Epstein and did very dodgy deals with Central Asian tycoons (those deals have been hushed up for a long time). But is Andrew behind bars? The Crown will pull all strings to get him off the hook. It reads like a conspiracy theory, but it's now actual reality.

The Rothschild tycoons (particularly the French Baron Edmond de Rothschild) were instrumental in influencing large-scale re-distribution of land and setting up a brand new country in the ME (on the territory of another country). If they were powerful enough to do that - they were capable of many other shady deals.

Soros - has a reputation of being a billionaire who likes to meddle in various elections, while allegedly profiting from FX currency swings (ups and downs) which result from such interventions.

So there's no surprise that these mega-rich, highly politically influential, but also highly dodgy & secretive world figures have conspiracy theories surrounding them. Some of those conspiracies are real, some are not.

If it is flat and square, can it be folded like an origami animal?

Everyone has their pet conspiracy theory.

Mine is that Lyndon Johnson was involved in the assassination of JFK. Anyone who knows anything about Johnson knows a) he was absolutely obsessed -- OBSESSED -- from the time he was ten years old with being president of the united states. All of his actions were tied to that goal. ALL OF THEM. However at that point in history it was just about impossible for a Southerner to be elected president. So Johnson found a way to get into the White House. And look where JFK was assassinated.

Is it a conspiracy theory? Yes.

Is flat earth a conspiracy theory? No, not really, except maybe to the extent that it's thought that there are dark forces trying to convince us that … the earth is round? Why would anyone struggle to convince us of that if it's not true?

I mean there's a difference between arguing that 9/11 was an inside job and arguing that the moon is really made out of cheese.

Sorry, I meant to make b) that a southerner could not be elected president, lol. Too bad there's no edit feature.

I think the whole flat Earth and other conspiracy theories are a product of being at a particular point in time in which the level of intelligence required to assimilate contrasting theories, proofs, and scientific fact has superseded the average person's ability.

I met a man — who professed to be an architect — that believed 9/11 was one giant/one-world-government hoax. No evidence dissuaded him. He said, with such an earnest demeanor, that the proof was that there were no photographs of the *first* plane hitting the WTC. Surely, he suggested, there were cameras focused on the towers, all the time, prior to 9/11. No, not security cameras; those were all destroyed in the collapse, he explained. He dismissed my suggestion that no one had a smart phone capable of taking a high-enough resolution picture to capture such an image. There were tourists in NYC that day, and surely, one of them would have been taking a picture at that precise moment, he said. When I mentioned the French filmmakers who happened to capture the first plane soaring overhead and then the audio of the crash/explosion, but no visualization of the impact, was insufficient. The first-hand accounts of people [italic]seeing[/italic] the plane hit the first tower were a coordinated effort (by whom, he could only offer the standard conjecture) to deceive the public. And despite his (self-claimed; I have no proof that he was actually an architect other than his word) education in building design and construction, he claimed that the [italic]only[/italic] way the towers would have collapsed was if they were intentionally blown up from the inside. Our conversation ended then and there.