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Flat Earthers and YouTube


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No real shock that researching the moon landings leads to flat earth...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-49021903/flat-earth-how-did-youtube-help-spread-a-conspiracy-theory

 

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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The algorithm is all powerful.  The same effects can be seen with 9/11, MH17 truthers, the far right, etc.  

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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Back when I used Facebook a friend of mine was debating with a flat earther and frankly losing. He linked me in to the post to get my take on it. I just posted a link to a live webcam of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s really difficult to argue against that one (although they still try)

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3 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

I bet Dave voted Leave. Come on, you were all thinking the same, right?

I certainly wasn’t. I may disagree with leave voters and think it’s a bad decision personally but I know plenty of intelligent leave voters. 

The sad bit is there are plenty of leave voters that would think he’d probably have voted remain. Why hijack another thread that is in and of itself an interesting aspect of modern society with yet another brexit argument?

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18 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

I bet Dave voted Leave. Come on, you were all thinking the same, right?

To be honest I would bet he was a climate change denier!

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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There have been studies that show, if you believe in one conspiracy theory you are more likely to believe another.  The moon landings, 9/11 and climate change have been 'linked' like this.  Flat earth despite being the 'oldest' has only really reared its head again in the last few years.  

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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6 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

There have been studies that show, if you believe in one conspiracy theory you are more likely to believe another.  The moon landings, 9/11 and climate change have been 'linked' like this.  Flat earth despite being the 'oldest' has only really reared its head again in the last few years.  

It is the same personality.

Those  men (typically) who are a bit dimmer than average but think they are much brighter than average and feel socially sidelined. Someone explains to them that the reason they did not understand what they were told at school is because they are independent thinkers who saw through it. That makes sense to them and to convince them otherwise, you would have to make them accept that they are not brighter than average at all.

"You clearly have never met Bob8 then, he's like a veritable Bryan Ferry of RL." - Johnoco 19 Jul 2014

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I first became aware of this phenomenon when I was in the UK at Christmas. We were discussing a work colleague of my sister's who was a committed flat-earther. This piqued my interest as to how they could arrive at such a position. Having looked into it a little since, I've come to the following conclusions:

1. There are no 'flat-earthers' only globe denying conspiracy theorists. Although they like to use the 'believe what you see' mantra, they don't ever attempt to explain how things you can observe and experience could possibly work on a 'flat earth'. 

2. These conspiracy theorists can be split into 4 groups:

i) commercial 'flat-earthers' using it to make money from the gullible. They produce youtube videos and deny/deflect/ignore anything that challenges their position as a soothsayer & reduces their ad income. e.g. Nathan Oakley & Mark Sargent.

ii) religious 'flat-earthers' who reject anything which goes against their particular interpretation of their holy book. (mostly Americans). e.g. Nathan Roberts & Nathan Thompson.

iii) their gullible and needy followers as outlined by @Bob8  above.

iv) a sub-group of group iii) who take it upon themselves to try and prove the earth is not the shape we're told at school (note that they don't ever try to prove it's flat) using misinterpreted & misunderstood science e.g. 'sleeping warrior', RantyFlatEarth' & 'Phuket Word'. This group at least have some credibility for trying back up their views. However, they eventually trip themselves up by demonstrating that the globe model is the only one that fits the evidence. This is the only group ever worth engaging with at all and their explanations can be quite entertaining.

One of the best debunks I've seen is from 'Professor Dave'

 

 

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2 hours ago, Wholly Trinity said:

i) commercial 'flat-earthers' using it to make money from the gullible. They produce youtube videos and deny/deflect/ignore anything that challenges their position as a soothsayer & reduces their ad income. e.g. Nathan Oakley & Mark Sargent.

ii) religious 'flat-earthers' who reject anything which goes against their particular interpretation of their holy book. (mostly Americans). e.g. Nathan Roberts & Nathan Thompson.

Is being called Nathan part of the problem?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Back in the mists of time I can understand why people once thought that the earth was flat as the horizon looks like an edge that you can drop off.  But since the days of international travel - boats on the sea from many moons ago - I have no ability to grasp how anyone could think the earth is flat, even YouTubers.  I struggle to believe that people actually think it is flat.  Have I been in a coma and it's actually April Fool's Day?

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2 minutes ago, Saintslass said:

Back in the mists of time I can understand why people once thought that the earth was flat as the horizon looks like an edge that you can drop off.  But since the days of international travel - boats on the sea from many moons ago - I have no ability to grasp how anyone could think the earth is flat, even YouTubers.  I struggle to believe that people actually think it is flat.  Have I been in a coma and it's actually April Fool's Day?

You struggle to grasp how people could claim to believe something that flies in the face of the evidence, ignore facts and logic and rely on increasingly complex conspiracy theories, fake stories, deflection and outright lies to support their positions?

 

I can see no parallels here. None.

not a one.

no sirree Bob, not a one.

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17 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

No real shock that researching the moon landings leads to flat earth...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-49021903/flat-earth-how-did-youtube-help-spread-a-conspiracy-theory

 

There are all sorts of bizarre Moon related conspiracy theories out there. For example, just last year, some people in Leeds convinced themselves that he's a stand-off.

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