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Are flat-earthers being serious? (contrarian hobbies)

#1
C C Offline
https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-e...elief.html

EXCERPTS: A 2017 national poll by Public Policy Polling found that only 1% of Americans believed the Earth was flat, with an additional 6% saying they weren't sure. There was very little evidence of differences in this belief by political affiliation, with any differences between Trump voters, Clinton voters and third-party voters falling within the poll's margin of error of 3.2%.

A 2018 article in the Colorado Sun on a flat Earth convention in Denver found that many attendees believed a whole suite of conspiracy theories, such as that all politicians are actors and that powerful shadowy forces control the world. Flat-earthers occasionally get a boost from celebrity believers...

[...] The leading flat-earther theory holds that Earth is a disc with the Arctic Circle in the center and Antarctica, a 150-foot-tall (45 meters) wall of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc.

[...] It's worth noting that all of the above is completely contentious even within the flat Earth community. "None of us believe that we're a flying pancake in space," Davidson told CNN in the 2019 article. At the Flat Earth International Conferences, it's more common to believe that space simply does not exist at all and the disc of the Earth sits still, he said. One speaker at the 2018 FEIC even argued that Earth is neither a sphere nor a disc, but instead is shaped like a diamond, according to The Guardian.

[...] Flat Earth opinions about the moon vary. Some think that while Earth is flat, the moon and sun are spheres, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported...

[...] If flat-earthers seem hard to dissuade based on standard scientific evidence, there's a reason for that: flat Earth theorizing follows from a mode of thought called the "Zetetic Method." The Zetetic Method is an alternative to the scientific method, developed by a 19th-century flat-earther, in which sensory observations reign supreme.

"Broadly, the method places a lot of emphasis on reconciling empiricism and rationalism, and making logical deductions based on empirical data," Flat Earth Society vice president Michael Wilmore, an Irishman, told Live Science in 2017.

[...] In Zetetic astronomy, the perception that Earth is flat leads to the deduction that it must actually be flat; the antimoon, NASA conspiracy and all the rest are just rationalizations for how that might work in practice. [...] In short, they aren't kidding.

[...] Wilmore and the society's president Shenton both think the evidence for global warming is strong, despite much of this evidence coming from satellite data gathered by NASA, the kingpin of the "round Earth conspiracy." They also accept evolution and most other mainstream tenets of science. This is in contrast to Davidson, who disputes other scientific theories and findings, such as evolution, that contradict a strict interpretation of the Bible.

[...] As inconceivable as their belief system seems, it doesn't really surprise experts. Karen Douglas, a psychologist at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories, says flat-earthers' beliefs cohere with those of other conspiracy theorists she has studied ... The self-assured way in which conspiracy theorists stick to their story imbues that story with special appeal. 

[...] In a study published online March 5, 2014, in the American Journal of Political Science, Eric Oliver and Tom Wood, political scientists at the University of Chicago, found that about half of Americans endorse at least one conspiracy theory ... He says conspiratorial belief stems from a human tendency to perceive unseen forces at work, known as magical thinking.

However, flat-earthers don't fit entirely snugly in this general picture... (MORE - missing details)
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#2
Kornee Offline
Quote:
"A 2018 article in the Colorado Sun on a flat Earth convention in Denver found that many attendees believed a whole suite of conspiracy theories, such as that all politicians are actors and that powerful shadowy forces control the world. Flat-earthers occasionally get a boost from celebrity believers... "

Pick the hackneyed conflation going on there. One take on internet flat-Earth craze as CIA disinfo op:
https://themillenniumreport.com/2017/05/...rth-psyop/
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
Only time I object to belief is if it leads to deaths, like religion. Go ahead and believe what you want, just don’t get people killed over it. Flat Earth belief is like belonging to the Liar’s Club or Procrastinator’s Club, something you can pin on your lapel, use to open a conversation or maybe garner media attention. You think the media gives FE believers false hope, free publicity or is it delivering sarcasm?
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