Flat Earth Society is a joke right? None of them really believe that?
Some of the Q-Anon stuff is pretty wild as well, but the core tenets cannot be as strongly disproved as the core of the Flat Earth Society's that the earth is flat.
Belief in Flat Earth is most definitely not a joke for a very large group of people (though it is absolutely a joke for a much larger group of people). It is part of a wider movement of biblical literalism and conspiracy theories describing an international anti-christian plot.
The fact that it is easily disproved isn't really a problem for these kinds of conspiracy theories. It actually kind of acts as a purity test for members. Kind of like how scams still use the "nigerian prince" trope, because it ensures only the most promising marks fall for it.
A great documentary on the topic by Dan Olson aka Folding ideas:
I don't see biblical literalism intersecting with the flat earth. It may be some of the same people, but I don't see anywhere that a literal reading of the Bible would drive you to believing that the earth is flat.
I have been rewatching the documentary I linked since I wrote that comment and you are right. I got my wires crossed with another video[1] of his, about a group of geocentrists who tricked high profile physicists into making statements that they could edit into a pro-geocentrism documentary. That group was comprised of biblical literalists.
But as you said, there is a lot of overlap between the groups. Pretty much all flat earthers also believe in geocentrism, though most of the time not necessarily biblical literalism.
Geocentricism and flag-earthism are very different things.
Looking up at the night sky in Europe, you’ll see a dome shaped sky, spinning nightly around a still point. The planets will “wander” not going with the general rotation.
The appearance of the sky suggests that both earth and sky are spherical.
If they earth were flat, we’d see the entire “dome of night” - all the northern constellations - all of the night. They wouldn’t appear and disappear over the course of 24 hours.
Simple, naked-eye, stargazing can easily disprove the flat earth theory.
Geocentrism is a bunch harder problem to solve. Naked eye star gazing strongly reinforces a geocentric universe.
In fact, naval officers are thought celestial navigation using geocentric cosmology, because the additional accuracy of heliocentrism isnt helpful when stranded on life raft. No naval office will have sextant and accurate clock, but not a gps device.
So flat earth defies common sense and plain sight observations. Heliocentricity is much more complicated.
If I recall, it’s impossible to prove heliocentricity with the naked eye- telescopes are necessary.
During my many hours on Clubhouse last year, I listened in to a lot of flat Earth rooms. At first it was entertaining, but after a while you start to realise that these people truly do believe what they’re saying, and then it becomes frustrating and worrying.
I used to enjoy watching The X-Files back in the 90s, but lately I'm not so sure anymore - after all it lent credence to conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena etc. and may have paved the way for even more crazy stuff like chemtrails, Flat Earth, QAnon etc. etc. etc.
Me too. I love conspiracy theories but I don't actually believe in them. I mean sometimes I do for a little while and then I realize it is all bullshit but it is fun for a while.
Q-Anon is cooky, but also fringe. A lot of left-wing commentators are making a big deal about. But it’s limited to a handful of small, non-Silicon Valley, social media sites (not even apps!).
I’m much more worried about the low quality crap on Facebook than Q-Anon,
The worst isn’t even “disinformation”, it doesn’t bother to deal in fact.
“Press like if you remember when Americans loved their country!”
“Student loan forgiveness punishes everyone who everyone who worked their way through college!”
“Remember the ‘Socialist’ in ‘National Socialist.’”
Just low quality crap that riles people up.
Facebook does a good job filtering out actual Q-Anon stuff, but every now and then I’ll see whacky stuff - both left and right.
“JK Rowling chose her pen name after one of the proponents of gay conversion therapy.”
She didn’t but that didn’t stop all the trans activists I’m friends with for believing it.
Yeah I think this is very true. There are no large conspiracies, just people falling for stupid low hanging fruit all the time. I am sad to say it is also on the left side. I think it is unlikely that there is a pee tape or that it happened. I also don't think Trump has some evil plan just super erratic mind and willing to say whatever makes himself look good or will earn him money at any time. Like a true hustler.
I think that is different. I am not religious so I find it crazy, but if you are raised to believe in a God it is not strange to think the God can do whatever he feels like and it doesn't need historical precedent or any evidence. Humans have believe in Gods throughout history.
I'm open to hear why it's different. Humans have believed in flat earth throughout history, but it doesn't make it more sane. Seems to me that having people believe in things on faith opens them up to all sorts of ideas not based on science.
I have a different take on why it is different (seen from my point of view, of course it is possible that God actually exists and walked on water). People are brought up with religion as a really core of their identity, and it is really hard to separate that from themselves. It is sort of like being in a cult, incredibly hard to understand that. There is the saying the difference between a cult and a religion is the number of believers.
Edit: Also, the flat earth thing has not been believed by mainstream since the ancient Greeks for more than 2000 years.
It’s because our ability to sense and measure the physical universe greatly outpaces our sense of any metaphysical aspects, and there are several systems of belief in the metaphysical in harmony with scientific advancement.
Knowledge of earth’s roundness is ancient, by the way. Several cultures discovered it before the classical area in which Christianity was founded.
Some of the Q-Anon stuff is pretty wild as well, but the core tenets cannot be as strongly disproved as the core of the Flat Earth Society's that the earth is flat.