Submitted 11 months ago by Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
A few year back, there was a Netflix documentary about flat earther. They’ve done a couple of experiment to prove that the earth is flat which (Spoiler alert) demonstrated that the earth is round.
So now that these persons have demonstrated scientifically that the earth is round. How are they doing ? Still flat-earther ? or did they give up with the amount of evidence they collected ?
I know a guy who was involved in some of those “experiments” and spent a considerable amount of time and money on them. He still is very adamant that it just proves that there is some other unknown confounding variable that just proves that the experiment was valid and that the designers of the flat earth already expected the experiments. It’s really depressing. I used to really respect him when I was younger.
Hold the fuck up. Now theres DESIGNERS of the flat earth? Jesus Christ
God
I think they’re voting for Trump.
They illuminati killed them for their insolence
Most probbably just doubled down and made excuses. The main takeaway of the documentary was a lot of those people are just lost/lonely and being part of that club gave them a sense of belonging to a group of similar people.
Yea I’m glad the documentary uncovered that. It really shows why someone would get into this despite it being pretty easy to prove otherwise (even inadvertently proving themselves wrong) they have this little community of friends.
There was a short segment on 60 Minutes (maybe?) back in 2020 before the elections where they interviewed someone who had deprogrammed himself from Qanon.
It was the same story. He had no friends IRL, no social support, he had turned his mom onto Qanon and she was still down the rabbit hole.
He said that was the part that kept him in it for so long, even once he started questioning things. All his “friends” and close relations were part of the cult and he would have to cut ties with everyone or worse, they would turn on him and attack him as a traitor.
It would be sad if these online-cults weren’t so damaging to society.
People like to feel like they’re in on some truth that most people aren’t aware of.
The sad part is that the less intelligent someone is, then the stronger is the need for that hidden truth. Highly educated and intelligent people are more comfortable with ignorance and need less that validation of having secret knowledge.
A form of narcissism. The need to feel Superior and Special.
Did you watch the movie? Because the experiments showed that the earth was round, they decided that there must have been something wrong with the experiments.
Flat Earth Follower: “So what was the result of that laser gyroscope experiment we all gave you money for?”
Flat Earth Leader: “Well it showed a 15 degree an hour rotation… So we think ‘heaven energies’ are affecting it.”
Flat Earth Follower: Nods happily, knowing he doesn’t have to change his beliefs.
The documentary was called “Behind the Curve” and featured Bob Knodel. Unfortunately he passed away this year. www.robertsfhsc.com/obituary/RobertBob-Knodel
It looks like you still believed in the theory though. He had a YouTube channel that was devoted to flat Earth conspiracy.
The experiment he was involved in was the gyroscope one. The documentary showed what happened after his experiment “failed”: he decided the experiment was flawed and needed to be refined.
The aftermath of the wood slats with holes experiment at the end wasn’t shown, but based on the rest of the documentary (and the history of people with conspiratorial beliefs) it’s almost certain they did the same.
RIP to Bob, though. I hope his friends & family are coping well.
he decided the experiment was flawed and needed to be refined.
Ah yes, the scientific method:
You are correct, I had forgotten about the last experiment with the light shining across a distance. For some reason I thought that the gyroscope was the one that they ended on.
Bob may have been confused about the shape of the Earth, but he was still a person with family and friends. A good thing to remember about all of these people.
Very important question! Did they do the mind acrobat tango and still believe it’s flat or did they just go to the next conspiracy theory?
No idea, but the greatest predictor of whether someone will believe a conspiracy theory is if they already believe another conspiracy theory.
I’m sure they changed their minds… /s
Going to suggest the folding ideas YouTube channel on the same topic.
youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44?si=m2b1gAkCOlDOnCle
Spoiler: his hypothesis, well supported in my opinion, is that a large proportion of those formerly in flat earth are now neck deep in qanon, and since the film was made many are now into other conspiracy stuff. The election was fake etc.
Also, his video of minnewanka lake is just perfect flat earth debunking.
There is not a lot to laugh about with flat earthers. The theory stems from Christian fundamentalism, and it is tightly connected to the christofascist movements trying to coup the USA at the moment.
And no, they are not going to give up their beliefs, because they didn’t come by them through rational thought, so rational thought isn’t going to disprove it for them.
Just to piggyback off this for the uninitiated:
If the Earth is round, then that means Earth is just like any other planet; one in a trillion.
Flat Earthers are convinced “space” is an illusion, all the celestial bodies are there to trick us into feeling insignificant.
If the Earth is flat, then we are special.
The problem with their logic primarily stems from the presupposition that Earth is exceptionally special.
Truth is, Earth is special. Just not as much as they think it is.
It’s not specifically about those same individuals, but I want to mention Dan Olsen’s documentary In Search of a Flat Earth, which touches more on the ideology of the flat earth movement, and how it’s developed in recent years. No spoilers, peeps!
It might asbwell be: when his experiment failed, he got told to “pray about it and try again”
They fell off the earth.
Bobby got to close to the edge… Damn. Well I guess he’s on the other side now
Apparently their theory fell flat in a round-a-bout way.
I dont know, I think they came around.
They persisted in their flat disagreement with the earth being a sphere
I saw some of them in the zoo last sunday.
It’s been a while since I saw it, but I remember most people thought something was wrong with the experiment setup or equipment.
Appreciate the spoiler alert
The documentary details ideas of the flat Earth from different perspectives, including prominent flat-Earthers Mark Sargent and Patricia Steere…
After the release of the film, Sargent and Steere both claimed their fanbase has grown considerably.
That’s unfortunate, but understandable, I guess. As for the others, I see one has a following that use his last name as sort of a religious title, and didn’t feel like clicking on the flat earth website to add to their ad revenues…
The film that is the subject of the question is called “Behind the Curve:” www.behindthecurvefilm.com
CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The movie is called Behind the Curve, and imo is a great move.
It doesn’t try to ridicule the people in it. Instead it tries to make a point that if a group like the flat earth society is being made fun of rather than engaged in discussions, then the gap just gets larger and the problem worse. (If everyone else makes fun of you, you avoid them and stay in the community that supports you.)
As far as I can tell, Mark Sargent is still believing in those theories and continues doing his part in it. This doesn’t surprise me, he’s quite prominent in that community and I guess if he stopped, he’d lose quite a lot of his personal achievements, friends, hobbies, etc.
I don’t know about the others who were in the movie, it would be interesting to know. Especially about those who were directly doing the experiments, yeah.
snooggums@kbin.social 11 months ago
It tries to show that good faith engagement is better than ridicule, but in the end it shows that flat Earthers are so contrarian that they will actively ignore the results of their own experiments and engaging in good faith is pointless.
dustyData@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Basically, treat all humans with dignity. In psychiatry you’re told to treat all patients with good faith, but don’t let the guy who thinks he is Napoleon run the hospital.
HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My takeaway is there is something driving that contrarian attitude. We need to figure out how to address those underlying causes rather than exacerbating them through ostracization.
Really good documentary. I watched it while trying to engage over at reddit’s AskTrumSupporters. It was interesting to see that community become more and more radicalized as the years went on, as the insane bullshit piled up. Helped me come to terms with the fact that engaging on that level is counter productive if anything.
Phanatik@kbin.social 11 months ago
The problem with flat earthers is that they don't listen to reason.
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
jettrscga@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The takeaway I got from the movie is it’s not really about the theory, it could be literally anything that brings people together. It’s just about being part of a community and being respected somewhere. Of course you can’t logic someone out of that.
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Have you considered that there is actually more virtue in containing stupid than trying to rescue it. The audience for such communication is rarely the person afflicted because its almost impossible to convince such folks its the folks at the margins who might be convinced either way.
Consider an imaginary belief say 0.5% of the population believes that flu can be treated by shoving pancakes up your ass. If ridicule keeps the percentage at 0.5% instead of growing to 1% its incredibly virtuous whereas more respectful treatment of the belief might help you convince 0.01% to stop shoving starch in their rectum while allowing the mental virus to spread to far more people.
This theory is applicable everywhere. Every time you engage with a crazy person or a nazi imagine your audience is the other folks reading the discussion not the person you are engaging.
HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That if is doing a lot of lifting. One of the points of the movie is that people and media was laughing off the flat earthers and they grew in strength to have a national movement.
TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Hey now don’t be kink shaming. I’d be fine with people shoving pancakes up their ass. It’s better than the bleach some of them drank to try and kill coronavirus.
Rhoeri@lemmy.world 11 months ago
These people deserve to be ridiculed. It’s time we stop catering to these Idiots and slow them to face the consequences of their ignorance. Same with the MAGA minions.
Aabbcc@lemm.ee 11 months ago
What consequences are there for being a flat earth idiot?
I don’t understand how you can see a comment that says “being mean is unproductive” and conclude “we should be mean anyways”
Do you carry the same principle for fat shaming?
twisted28@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is how I feel about every religious person
sirboozebum@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The village should not change for the village idiot.
seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
I agree, except WTF is catering to flat earth?
Tedesche@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Didn’t they also establish that Sargent is a hyper-religious Christian and that the majority of American flat-earthers are? If this is a religious belief for them then there’s absolutely no hope that they’ll change their views.
cogman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s mostly a religious belief. There are a couple of Bible verses that say things like “the earth will be rolled up like a scroll” and “spread to the four corners of the earth”.
Biblical literalists cannot handle the Bible being incorrect about anything, so it’s everyone else that’s wrong.
trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
I agree.