Flat Earthers prove the Earth is round

[Caete]

While the flat earthers are quite popular, there's also the smaller group of the hollow earthers, which believe that we are all living in the inside of a hollow globe with a small sun in the centre of it.

Now let's just think about both discussing the true nature of earth... this must be an interesting discussion.

Actually there is quite a large following in regards to hollow earth. A huge portion of the UFO community subscribes to it. The most popular hypothesis is that we live on the surface of the outside of the globe while there is a different group of societies and lifeforms living inside the earth. Allegedly there are 2 800 mile openings at the polar points and many smaller access points in mountain ranges. This is the convex hollow earth hypothesis.

What you are describing is the concave hollow earth hypothesis which was first proposed by Cyrus Teed in 1869, so quite a new idea compared to hollow earth hypothesis. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Teed took on the name Koresh and proposed a new set of scientific and religious ideas he called Koreshanity. The Koresh Unity went into decline following Teed's death in 1908 and finally disappeared with the last remaining follower, Hedwig Michel, deeding the colony to the State of Florida in 1961.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

A good explanation of what we see in the video is covered here (Behind the Curve Ending: The Light Experiment section):

Flat Earthers disprove themselves with their own experiments in documentary ‘Behind the Curve,’ now on Netflix

I think this is a very important point that's made in the documentary:

While a satisfying ending for anyone hoping to see the Flat Earth movement hoisted by its own petard, Behind the Curve offers several reasons why empirical evidence is rarely capable of turning people away from their conspiracy theory beliefs.

“Say you lose faith in this thing. What then happens to my personal relationships? And what’s the benefit for me doing that? Will the mainstream people welcome me back? No, they couldn’t care less. But, have I now lost all of my friends in this community? Yes. So, suddenly, you’re doubly isolated,” psychologist Dr. Per Espen Stoknes says in the documentary.

It's important for us to realize, I think, that convincing these people they're wrong isn't as simple as "they're just so delusional they refuse to believe the evidence". We don't have Round Earth Societies for the same reason we don't have The Sky Is Blue Societies or Water Is Wet Societies; to you and me, the fact that the Earth is round is a simple truism that doesn't mean anything to us. But to them, the fact that the Earth is flat means everything. They've built not just their own identities around it, but a whole community. These people have close friendships and meaningful relationships with people whom the only reason they ever met was because they agree the Earth is flat. They've had meetings and created memories and commiserated together over the struggle of believing the "truth" that everyone else refuses to see. There's a sense of belonging that they enjoy because of their belief.

So when you ask them to reject the flat-earth hypothesis and concede that the Earth is round, you're not just asking them to trade one fact for another; you're asking them to give up a heck of a lot more than that and offering nothing to replace it. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it justifies some empathy, to me. After thinking about this, it's going to be harder for me to dismiss flat-earthers as simply delusional or stubborn.

 

[Ishina]

This is a symptom of many of the same dynamics that led to Trump's election.

Growing numbers of people are feeling ineffectual, overlooked, irrelevant. They are lost in a world of increasing complexity, bewildered by the "math" and all the other information with which they are bombarded. [...]

The internet plays a role. Now an individual can exist completely unsocialised and walled off from reality. We need human beings around us for feedback, to see if our ideas stand the pressure test of peer scrutiny, otherwise it's just unchecked garbage in, unchecked garbage out. With no human face to read, there's nothing at stake when they say stupid or hateful shit. There's no social price to pay. No character growth or maturation. Nobody to disabuse them of bad ideas. They can just virtual chat with reinforcing voices and foster an overinflated sense of how robust their ideas are together, and delete any criticism from their sphere of existence.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

In the past, perhaps someone would believe an off-the-wall theory. They might be the only one in their, let's say small town, who did. They would get feedback from others. Now, they actively seek out others online who believe as they do. No more are they the oddball in the community. Now, they've become part of a community of like-minded individuals. They reinforce each other and contribute to the idea that "Only they know the truth and everyone else is either misled or more dangerously, actively hiding the truth." Add to that the proliferation of sites created which hold no brook with the truth. They hold these sites up and the misinformation published within for all the world to see. They read them as if they are an encyclopedia rather than what they actually are; individual voices pretending to have extra-knowledge of the world with no demonstrated ability to actually understand it. Combine that with the active anti-educational stance that many in the world seem to have taken on and a dedicated group of people who would like to see people remain ignorant and we have a problem.

 

[Kara Spengler]

I think this is a very important point that's made in the documentary:



It's important for us to realize, I think, that convincing these people they're wrong isn't as simple as "they're just so delusional they refuse to believe the evidence". We don't have Round Earth Societies for the same reason we don't have The Sky Is Blue Societies or Water Is Wet Societies; to you and me, the fact that the Earth is round is a simple truism that doesn't mean anything to us. But to them, the fact that the Earth is flat means everything. They've built not just their own identities around it, but a whole community. These people have close friendships and meaningful relationships with people whom the only reason they ever met was because they agree the Earth is flat. They've had meetings and created memories and commiserated together over the struggle of believing the "truth" that everyone else refuses to see. There's a sense of belonging that they enjoy because of their belief.

So when you ask them to reject the flat-earth hypothesis and concede that the Earth is round, you're not just asking them to trade one fact for another; you're asking them to give up a heck of a lot more than that and offering nothing to replace it. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it justifies some empathy, to me. After thinking about this, it's going to be harder for me to dismiss flat-earthers as simply delusional or stubborn.

Time to form a 'Water is Wet' Society.

 

[Free]

How the Internet Made Us Believe in a Flat Earth – World Wide WTF – Medium

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Time to form a 'Water is Wet' Society.

You for sure must have meant the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division division in Newark, Delaware: DHMO.org – Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Apropos of nothing, I've always felt that "hydrogen monoxide" would be a more standard and acceptable formulation than "dihydrogen". Consider the common names of other hydrogen compounds; H2O2 is "hydrogen peroxide", not di-. It could be called "dihydrogen peroxide", but nobody ever does. Likewise H2S is hydrogen sulfide (and H2SO4 famously gives you hydrogen sulfate); H2Te is hydrogen telluride. And on and on it goes.

Dihydro- is technically correct, but I usually only see it actually used in the case of like seriously complex chemical compounds, like medicines for instance.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

We are on the inside of a torus, light bends due to quantum centripetal forces making the horizon look like it's curved the opposite way. Derrr.. totz obv.

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

I heard the flat earth community has been growing with believers from all around the globe. (^_^)

 

[Kara Spengler]

If you've a vague interest in what flatearthers believe, why they may think the way they do, and you have 45 minutes to spare, hbomberguy recently published an entertaining and insightful examination of the "movement."

Finally got around to watching it. I subscribed to his channel since he used captions.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

I heard the flat earth community has been growing with believers from all around the globe. (^_^)

What I want to know, do these flat bastards from all four corners of the earth... do they believe in planar warming?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

We are on the inside of a torus, light bends due to quantum centripetal forces making the horizon look like it's curved the opposite way. Derrr.. totz obv.

Actually some do think the topology of the whole universe just might be a torus, err donut: Three-torus model of the universe - Wikipedia

 

[Brenda Archer]

Three-torus - Wikipedia

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

I like this guy's take on such theories @14:35...

"When you believe that [flat earth], you de-facto become smarter in your own head than every expert and scientist on the planet."

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Not exactly flat earth, but free energy devices/magnet motors are close enough:

 

[Caete]

We are on the inside of a torus, light bends due to quantum centripetal forces making the horizon look like it's curved the opposite way. Derrr.. totz obv.

What's the land impact of this torus?

 

[Kara Spengler]

Not exactly flat earth, but free energy devices/magnet motors are close enough:

A class of conspiracy theories around perpetual motion machines now? Just tell them to apply TANSSAAFL to physics if they do not believe the equations that say the same thing.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Do you know Beakman's world from the 90s? Actually the video I linked is a magnet motor debunking video, which gives off strong nostalgic vibes, just like the 90s are back and hit you with a brick made out of science.

 

[detrius]

We are on the inside of a torus, light bends due to quantum centripetal forces making the horizon look like it's curved the opposite way. Derrr.. totz obv.

A topopolis would actually be amazing.


Remember Larry Niven's Ringworld? That's small fish compared to a structure like that.