this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
 
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[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I don't think flat earthers believe that earth is oriented like that.

And for that matter, I don't think the majority of self proclaimed flat earthers actually believe earth is flat. I think they're some kind of paid troll group or something.

[–] Syd@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

There's a lot that actually believe the earth is flat. A disturbing amount of people have seriously tried to convince me of it. Same crowd that believes in chemtrails, or the moon is fake, or believe in reptilians. I always think they're joking at first about the flat earth, sometimes they are, but when they bring up the ice wall they're serious.

[–] cobra89@beehaw.org 2 points 7 months ago

Lol did the ice wall "theory" even exist before game of thrones?

[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There’s a lot that actually believe the earth is flat. A disturbing amount of people have seriously tried to convince me of it.

And who are these people? And who are you? When did this happen?

I still believe that flat earthers are a group of trolls being paid by some corporation or something to just clutter up online spaces with as much bullshit as possible to make people talking about real conspiracies that are actually happening look like lunatics.

"What? you think there weren't any WMDs in Iraq? Do you think the earth is flat too?"

[–] Syd@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

So you're implying a conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory.

First person I remember trying to convince me was about a decade ago, and there's been plenty of others since then. All of them conservative and believing in a mix of other popular conspiracies from 5g control, to bigfoot, to reptilians controlling the planet. These are physical people in my life that not only believe, but passionately defend their theories. I really don't think they're getting paid by a corporation to tell me about the flat earth.

It's weird that they all lean right though.

[–] fishos@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Fyi, "chem trails", or "cloud seeding", as it's actually called, is very much real. When you search by it's real name, you'll find programs going back to the 60s. California, for example.

MANY conspiracy theories are based on a shred of truth. UFOs are mostly classified craft(the Blackbird was one, once known as the UFO "Aurora").

Flat Earth was just a group that liked to jokingly entertain crazy ideas for shits and giggles that got coopted by people who took the satire seriously.

We'd do ourselves a great service if we stopped seeing every issue in broad strokes and saw the nuance and context behind it. You're no better with your rant broadly denouncing a wide array of topics in mass.

[–] Syd@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Most people are talking about contrails, and I've been told that they're full of boron as a means of population control, that it's a new thing because "I don't remember planes doing that when I was younger." Cloud seeding is in the news a decent amount here and it's definitely considered different from the contrails that most every plane leaves.

What's your shred of truth behind reptilians?

[–] daltotron@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

What’s your shred of truth behind reptilians?

Oh, well that one's just true. The only falsehood is that the lizard people are evil. They're actually great and epic, and it's the humans who are bad.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I do wonder if it's something like the Birds Aren't Real organized conspiracy; but snowballed out of control.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I always assumed it was something like that. A thought experiment that someone who wasn't "in the know," stumbled upon, latched onto, and created an entire subculture.

[–] sazey@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

I always assumed it was a 4chan troll gone wild.

[–] GCanuck@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

As I understood it back in the old times…. The Flat Earth Society was a groups of logical rationalist who got together and for shits and giggles (as well as practicing rational debate) would pick an indefensible argument (eg. the earth is flat) and attempt to use rational arguments to support that indefensible claim.

Basically a rowdy drunk philosophers get together.

Edit: there is no proof of this, just something I read online in the early days of the internet.

[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

but snowballed out of control.

I don't think it "snowballed" out of control or whatever. I think that group is full of trolls that don't believe what they say.

Each one of them is a black hole that eats all of your time while you try to debate them.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You have more faith in human intelligence than I do...

Human intelligence, but not morality.

People aren't always stupid, many people are stupid, but some people are only pretending to be stupid to do evil things.

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The proportion of flat earthers to people who talk about them is staggering. Post gets a downvote from me

[–] Syd@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

Sounds like something someone trying to spread round earth propaganda and discredit the true flat earth would say.

[–] MinekPo1@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 7 months ago

pretty sure that there are actually people who do believe the earth is flat

but yeah AFAIK the model that most flat earthers use does not allow for either lunar nor solar eclipses , requiring a fourth object to cause the effect

[–] hash0772@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The flat earthers you see posting on social media, going on TV, making videos are conmen that are well-aware that the Earth is round, just trying to exploit people and make money off of this. The others are either trolls or ignorant people that actually believe the conmen.

The others are either trolls or ignorant people that actually believe the conmen.

I think they're all trolls that are part of some kind of agenda that will ultimately result in something like the ministry of truth from 1984, we almost got exactly that here in the US, they were going to call it "the board of misinformation"

And it turns out, as usual, the official narratives about many things the government and corporations were trying to control was all bullshit. And the people who got removed from social media for various reasons weren't actually wrong about what they talked about.