At Flat-Earth Conference, Attendees Want People to Know They're Not Crazy

[TexasTowelie]

Believing that the Earth is round is a scientific axiom, one we're taught at a young age. After all, globes are in classrooms around the world to help even the smallest of children picture the spherical shape of the Earth.

But there is a growing movement of people who reject this centuries-old idea, and about 600 of them are meeting in Denver through today, November 17, for the Flat Earth International Conference.

Maligned by much of the scientific community, flat-Earthers, as they're known, want people to know that they're not crazy and don't actually reject science. They just reject what they consider to be the greatest hoax of all time.

Event organizer Robbie Davidson wasn't always a flat-Earther. Hailing from Canada, Davidson used to be as skeptical of the flat-Earth theory as most people. But in April 2015, Davidson came across a YouTube video making fun of flat-Earthers. After watching the video, Davidson started looking for ways to disprove this fringe idea.

Read more: https://www.westword.com/news/gathering-in-denver-flat-earthers-say-theyre-not-crazy-11009761

[DetlefK]

1. I have talked to Flat-Earthers. Let me explain how they think:

They do not actually care about whether Earth is flat or round. They only care about being cool outsiders who challenge the system, man. They are not interested in solving the scientific question of what is the shape of Earth.

They are more interested in proving that Earth is NOT ROUND and that there is a big, evil conspiracy to make us believe that Earth is round.

Flat-Earth is at its core a conspiracy-theory that all evidence for Earth being round has been faked by evil-doers.

[Princess Turandot]

4. And that NASA, aided and abetted by other space agencies, has spent God-only-knows how much money...

..creating the greatest CGI show of all time, and making millions of faux media, data and text files available to the world, because they want to...

Oh wait, why would anyone who is even mildly sane bother to do any of this? That's one aspect that these CT'ers never seem to explain.

[JHan]

2. ....

[Solly Mack]

3. OK. Not crazy. Just stupid.

Better?

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, ok, Not Crazy, just demented and delusional. n/t

[HopeAgain]

6. Why are crazy conspiracy theories so prevalent now?

I suspect it is the internet. Most, like flat-earth and moon landing hoaxers are relatively benign. But others, like Alex Jones, the Russians and Trump are discovering significant political power in manipulating those with conspiratorial minds, so it is becoming a dangerous phenomena.

[DetlefK]

7. It's a symptom of general distrust towards authorities.

Be it governments or celebrities or scientists... people are nowadays far more likely to take a hostile and defensive stance towards the "elite" we look up to.



The most frustrating thing about Flat-Earthers is that they pride themselves in being researchers and scientists, while showing no interest to conduct experiments in a scientifically rigorous manner and to analyze the results in a mathematical manner.

One Flat-Earth video I have seen (I kid you not) was a guy, standing at sea, pointing at the horizon and proclaiming over and over again that the horizon looks flat to him. It somehow didn't occur to him to use an instrument to quantitatively measure whether the horizon actually is flat or not.

And there was another guy who thought, he had disproven gravity because strawberries float in water.

[Shell_Seas]

8. I don't think they're crazy, just stupid.

[VMA131Marine]

9. Damn that Eratosthenes!

He started the whole conspiracy with observation and science:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

[Rhiannon12866]

10. The Daily Show: Back in Black - Flat Earth International Conference

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017521226

Lewis Black has a few choice words for Flat Earthers now that they’re organizing their own conference in Denver.