"A YouGov survey of more than 8,000 American adults suggested last year that as many as one in six Americans are not entirely certain the world is round, while a 2019 Datafolha Institute survey of more than 2,000 Brazilian adults indicated that 7% of people in that country reject that concept, according to local media."


https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/flat-earth-conference-conspiracy-theories-scli-intl/index.html

Read it and weep.

It would be illuminating to see the geographical distribution, religious affiliation and political preferences of that 1/6 of 'Mericans.

I'd like to see how many of them also score high on, or outright meet diagnostic criteria for Schizotypal or Paranoid Personality Disorder.

The net has been a catalyst for alternative/socially antagonistic behavior and people who suffer from mental illness or disordered personality are vulnerable to others who will validate their delusions and mirror their fears. It's just more cult mindset "critical mass" with an interesting, um, "spin".

I also think there are a lot of enabling trolls who just participate for the sake of stirring the pot.

ptbarnum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd like to see how many of them also score high
> on, or outright meet diagnostic criteria for
> Schizotypal or Paranoid Personality Disorder.
>
> The net has been a catalyst for
> alternative/socially antagonistic behavior and
> people who suffer from mental illness or
> disordered personality are vulnerable to others
> who will validate their delusions and mirror their
> fears. It's just more cult mindset "critical mass"
> with an interesting, um, "spin".
>
> I also think there are a lot of enabling trolls
> who just participate for the sake of stirring the
> pot.

I'm inclined to agree.

I found it interesting (and hilarious) that there are3 apparently two competing flat-earth organizations. The nice thing about the tin-foil hat crowd is that they are often too busy excommunicating each other for some imagined infraction that they can never really grow very big.

When I read stories like this, my first reaction is that this is really just some sort of role-playing elaborate joke. They can't really be serious. But as I read the articles, it sounds like they are in fact serious. The amount of science and evidence that you would have to dismiss to accept a flat earth is just mind boggling. Changing season (the tilt of the earth), orbiting GPS and communications satellites, video from the Space Station, flying to Russia or even India going straight over the North Pole, etc.

And yes, the Flat-Earthers tend to buy into the other things that require tin-foil hats. Hey, if you've already got the hat, why not.

I think ptbarnum is on to something. There are enough people who seem quite capable of dismissing extremely well established facts, and yet have no trouble swallowing complete nonsense (the oceans don't drain off the edge of the flat earth because Antarctica is actually a giant wall of ice surrounding all of the flat earth), that it must be some sort of mental disorder. And they walk among us. :-/

And they vote.

Sometimes more than once.

I was referring to the "millions" of illegal immigrants who, according to our glorious leader, voted multiple times in the Soviet Republic of California.

Those jokers would cheat at a nursing home Bingo game!

“ptbarnum is on to something”

Yes. TSCC is hardly doomed.

if the earth is not flat OPie ~


¿ then why is the sun and moon appear to be the same size OPie ? ~


in b 4 ~ Genesis 1:16 ~


IN 4 answers ~


in b 4 ~ science ~

If you do not think it is flat try walking across the Sonoran desert

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "A YouGov survey of more than 8,000 American
> adults suggested last year that as many as one in
> six Americans are not entirely certain the world
> is round, while a 2019 Datafolha Institute survey
> of more than 2,000 Brazilian adults indicated that
> 7% of people in that country reject that concept,
> according to local media."
>
>
> https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/flat-earth-confe
> rence-conspiracy-theories-scli-intl/index.html
>
> Read it and weep.

thedesertrat1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you do not think it is flat try walking across
> the Sonoran desert
>
You can discern the curvature of the Earth with the naked eye on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

caffiend Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thedesertrat1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If you do not think it is flat try walking
> across
> > the Sonoran desert
> >
> You can discern the curvature of the Earth with
> the naked eye on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
A joke dude A joke

When it's ligh where I live, I sometimes talk with my friend who lives in Africa, about 13 hours time difference; she tells me It's dark there while we're talking.

Game Over.

Agreed, lol!

unless your friend in Africa is in on the conspiracy


(joking)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2019 03:08AM by scmd1.

For flat-earthers, is the flat Earth's moon flat, too ? Hubcaps whirling in space? ?

And if it's flat, why is it still always a flat circular thing ? Like in those flat-Earth illustrations ? Why not some cool shape like California ?

Does the sun just hang out under the Earth at night or does it keep skimming in a straight line overhead, across another plane, like flat-Mars, then it does one of those olympic swimmer flip-arounds and heads back across while going in the other direction ... wait a minute--that wouldn't be right. That would goof up the east/west thing.

If this is all true, why did I spend all that time in college studying Astrology ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2019 01:27AM by kathleen.

There is actually a Flat Mars society, Kathleen, but I think it's satire.

Flat Earth has its factions, but some of them see the stars and Moon either as holes in the firmament, holograms etc.

The reason why Flat Earth theory gets so much publicity is because it is so obviously false, and it can be used as a stick to beat alternative viewpoints in general with. Worried about nuclear power or fracking? You must be a flat Earther too etc etc. But those laughing at it, are just as often prisoners of crazy belief systems, just ones with wider acceptance. I don't just mean religions.

You took a lot of Astrology in college?

Astronomy?

Astrology. Was kidding. :D

The inability to "get" a joke is in my stars.

Aquarius?

(Also, thought to be the most intelligent sign. :). )



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2019 06:42PM by kathleen.

Flat Earth has been used as a straw man to mock non-mainstream viewpoints by association. If you question any orthodoxy in our society, you are linked with it or the tinfoil hat wearers.

Sort of the pseudo-scientific parallel to Godwin's Law--bringing up Hitler in a political argument.

What's the inverse of the Virtue By Association fallacy--"Repudiation by Association?" Except this form of invective invariably involves hyperbole. (How's that for assonance?)

Brazilians believing in Flat Earth isn't new. I was there from November 1968 to November 1970 and we would run into many Brasileiros who wanted to make sure we knew that the earth is flat.

Occasionally they were the same people who told us that the moon landing was fake. Our zone leaders et al said "Just don't respond to them".... which was easier said than done.

I grew up around Americans. I worked with Americans. That sounds about right to me.

In 1969 when the Apollo 10 mission was orbiting the moon and sending back breathtaking pictures, some enterprising reporter in England interviewed the president of the British Flat Earth Society. This worthy individual stated that it was interesting that the Earth "appeared" to be round from some vantage points in space--but he knew better, of course.
I couldn't find anything current on the British Flat Earth Society, but there are now several national societies--including Canada and Italy--and at least one international. The international one originated in Britain and may be the one I remember; or a later development or spinoff.
"The Flat Earth Society's most recent planet model is that humanity lives on a disc, with the North Pole at its centre and a 150-foot (45 m) high wall of ice, Antarctica, at the outer edge. The resulting map resembles the symbol of the United Nations, which Johnson [the society president] used as evidence for his position. In this model, the Sun and Moon are each 32 miles (52 km) in diameter."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Flat-Earthers are also often involved with various biblical literalism and conspiracy movements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies
Also it's well known that the great detective Sherlock Holmes did not know the Earth went round the Sun until Doctor Watson told him, and then immediately resolved to forget it because it had no relevance for his profession.
Cheers.

The British Flat Earth Society floated off the edge and was never heard from again.

Sadly, half of my family are flat earthers.

In my opinion, the main cause is their strong right-wing, anti-government and anti-science mentality, as well as their religious inclinations. In their mind, if “the government” or “scientists” promote an idea, it is probably wrong. Since scientists and the government promote a global earth, then it’s probably a conspiracy and thus the flat earth is probably correct.