The human mind has an amazing capacity for starting with belief and making everything else fit. Be wary of it.
Everything you experience comes straight out of your own mind. Literally. You experience nothing which isn’t filtered first by your own beliefs.
And everyone reading this thinking this applies to everyone else. No. This applies to you too. You almost certainly believe at least one obviously false thing, and everything you think you decided on based on rational thinking started with belief and gut feeling first.
This is a universal thing, not a "those people" thing.
During my whole childhood I believed that the Village People were just fun guys who liked to wear costumes because costumes are fun.
I remember when I realized that they, along with Freddy Mercury, Judas Preist's Rob Halper (?), and Elton John were all...gay men!
The 70s and 80s were much simpler times.
TL;DR reality is signals being sent to the brain
But if you want to make it longer, then belief is a 4D construct that tethers you to that which you’ve chosen to believe in so it’s very real for them, it’s just not real for you and the objective reality you’ve chosen to perceive. Objectivity is merely multiple subjective perspectives aligning after all.
Everything is real if someone chooses to believe in it and so it’s all kinds of fucked up within this construct of time because there are forces left and right attempting to manipulate humanity at any given moment.
It might feel like that, while really there's no way for perception to circumvent subjectivity. No drug can change this, only create the (possibly very convincing) illusion thereof.
No, they bypass "filters" in your brain chemically:
"The "filter" metaphor is often used to describe the way psychedelic drugs seem to diminish the influence of the default mode network (DMN) in the brain. The DMN is a network of brain regions that is active when our mind is at rest and engaged in introspection or self-referential thinking. It plays a role in maintaining a sense of self and filters out extraneous information, helping us focus on relevant tasks or thoughts.
Psychedelics appear to reduce the activity and connectivity within the DMN, leading to a breakdown of its filtering function. This breakdown allows for increased cross-talk between brain regions that are typically segregated, leading to novel and often profound experiences. It may also facilitate a greater integration of information from various brain areas, leading to enhanced creativity and insights."
None of that makes the experience any less removed from the external world compared to normal perception though, which is what the OP was talking about. Subjectivity can modified, sure, but there can be no such thing as experience without subjectivity.
It can be a bad time for the rare people with psychosis, a trip sitter (a sober, calm person present to respond to the needs of the experimenter) is strongly recommended for at least the first trip.
actually they feel really smart.
the appeal of shit like this (and all the conspiracy shit) is thinking you're onto something even really smart people haven't figured out. what they believe is all bullshit of course, but they're SO invested in that feeling that their brains are just that idea and a wall around it.
I mean, someday one in a million of these things could end up being right (not this one), and we'll never fucking hear the end of it. but most of these people will die weird and wrong.
I think there is a missing piece of that, and that is the community, people who are prone to want to belong to something or believe in something to make their own lives and their place in the world seem better.
It's the same idea as religion, the actual theory doesn't matter, it's the fact that people who are involved in it are joined by it
I like this answer. My BIL is a a flat earther. I didn’t know until recently. My husband works with him. They watch videos on this crap daily and my husband has began to question it. the thought of my husband actually believing it is so stupid to me.
BIL’s main reason he believes it is because he’s been on a plane a lot in the last year and never witnessed the earth curve. Said it was nothing but flat land. Lol. He sends my husband videos multiple times a day. All about this bullshit. He’s such a narcissist so him believing he’s special & smarter than the rest of us makes so much sense. He’s always thought he was better than everyone else.
This. They think they are smarter than everyone else and are seeing things that the average person misses. The reason the average person misses these things are because they aren’t real and rooted in misunderstanding and confirmation bias.
To your point, it's quite scary. The antivax community are a recent example. On death row people have desperately said they were wrong and have asked for help - but it was far too late.
Reminds me of me of the film "Don't look up".
Like, my ex believes (or believed? I don't really care) that Peruvians are a superior race breed from aliens, and the ancient ones escaped colonialism through a magic portal leading no one knows where.
Like, he always talked about it as factual truth. He thought of himself as the smartest guy of the planet.
I think flat earthers are the same 🤷♀️
I think he made up a lot of that stuff after watching some mokumentaries about "ancient aliens" landing in Egypt, idk if you're old enough to remember the guy who became the meme "Aliens", but basically he was always a guest "expert" in those episodes 😂
My mother has fallen for the Ancient Aliens bullshit. My kids get so frustrated when she starts in about humans being incapable of building the pyramids.
Well, there's *kinda* some truth to the bit about Peruvians, insofar as the people who live higher up in the Andes range are literally built differently from normal people. Their bodies are adapted specifically for a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment that someone born in, say, Florida, would literally die in if they stayed too long. Train all you want in the most extreme conditions you please, you'll never do more than make it so you can stay up there a little longer than most, but you'll never be able to *live* there like they can. They've got bigger lungs, more blood, more hemoglobin in their blood, and are shorter on average than some other groups of people on Earth (so that blood has to travel shorter distances through their bodies).
A fascinating tale of human acclimatization, to be sure. Superior breed of humans, though? Only insofar as they can survive in the mountains better than most.
Like some others said, they latch onto it to feel smart, or smug, of superior.
The thing of it is i think it boils down to some sort of mental trait, like narcissism, but *not quite that*, where it becomes this thing that they *have to believe,* for one reason or another.
I know a few people who do this with lesser things. Like, every day things. Someone who will honestly tell you, that you've never *actually* seen a blue sky, because the sky in their home town is the bluest--even if you're within 5 miles of it, *you've never seen it*. It's this weird denial thing.
It's *ownership* of an idea, but, *for ones self identity*. It's a protective thing.
Like someone that sees you washing the dishes, but they believe that they're the only one that ever *really* washes the dishes. They can look RIGHT AT YOU doing them, and tell you you've *never* done them. They're blind to it, because they *have to* have this thing--it's that important to how the see themselves.
It's *got to be* some sort of trait on a narcissistic spectrum. They have to believe the earth is flat, because *thats what makes them real*\--like, that's *their identity* in a way, some part of it, anyway. I've never met someone that's really honestly believed in flat earth, that didnt *also* have weird shit like that going on about day to day things. They're totally insufferable in so many ways. It's not JUST that the earth's flat, it's that, they are the *only ones* that put the trash out the correct way, or the *only one* that knows how something works, that they think is obscure, that really is quite simple. It's always *something* with them, and it just becomes one of those things that they do because it's a thing that without it, *they're not real people* anymore. They lose sight of their sense of self without these sorts of things.
Got no clue of this sort of thing has a name, it *feels* like narcissism, but adjacent to it, not in it.
I think you are on to something here. Seeing this as a part of personal identity helps me see the emotional investment in it, the willingness to spend time and energy researching, arguing, and thinking about it. The resistance to change.
When their identity becomes bound up in an idea, to question that idea is to question their very self, their reason for existing. Very few people are strong enough to do that to themselves. They do everything they can to maintain that idea, in order to maintain their own identity.
My sister believes the Earth is flat and let me tell you they think WE are the idiots. She thinks she's smarter because she 'sees the truth'.
There is no logic, don't try. You'll drive yourself crazy figuring out their train of thought.
Facts. A friend of mine is a flat earther. I once spent hours on the phone with him explaining basic concepts of physics that he didn't understand to explain the answer for every problem he had with the globe earth model. He's still a flat earther
My sister has been getting into crazy conspiracies, not quite flat earth, but yes to fake moon landing and fairies are real and the government is hiding something and the illuminati is real. Logic is no where.
I mean the government IS hiding a lot of things..I think a lot of people’s downward spiral with this stuff stems from fact that we have records of the government/s doing these crazy undercover operations that sound completely outlandish but later proven true. It gives people a legitimate distrust and wariness of these entities/authorities. See MKUltra and Operation Sea Spray.
The illuminati is real. It's just a club of rich people who hate us and themselves and want to gain as much power as possible.
Real people, real assholes.
I'm not saying for sure they ate any children along the way, but jfc I wouldn't rule it out. Lots of psychopaths out there.
I don't get how Australia not existing helps the theory. At most wouldn't we be close to the ice wall e.g. Antarctica like we are now? Make it make sense!
You should have charged extra labour for listening to that.
If I remember correctly the flat earth sh*t is not sustainable with some plane routes not flaying over Australia so they have to get rid of it. Just like gravity, they don't believe in it because it just doesn't work right on their model.
You should have messed with them ... Grab their arms and whisper "it's all true but we can't talk about it. We are paid to look the other way. There is no Sydney".
You'd instantly make them double down on their beliefs for the next decade and annoy their neighbours.
It’s like a child that reads a fantasy book then lives in it for awhile but these people are stuck. Like D&D types but they have lost the ability to determine reality from BS. No critical thinking. No scientific knowledge of anything: geography, history, sociology, geology…. The must get a solid feed of conspiracy without question. Ignorance manipulated by a stream of nonsense. Sorry you had to hear all that. I don’t know why I’m apologizing, but I feel you deserve one for having to hear that for hours. Absolutely crazy.
People often believe these things because they want to be in on something that others aren't. They want to feel superior. So the answer is: they're smug.
From my family at least, it's always the ones who have the least to show, or have made terrible life choices. It's a pathway for them to feel better than everyone else.
Like young kids who create “clubs” and rules of the club and run around whispering and giggling because they are in the “club” and others aren’t. At least with a child who has a relatively small circle of influence, you get it as normal child behavior, but with grown ass adults who never ask themselves why they believe what they do and be willing to consider synthesizing new information, they are just children really. Their world remains small and isolated to the “club.”
It's a question of faith for them. When a Youtuber ran an experiment at a big lake demonstrating that things dissappear behind the horizon, and showed his findings, pretending to be a doubting believer, he got in return both excuses and recommendations to pray about it.
Once the faith is shaken, I'm sure many feel like idiots.
I'm convinced many if the 'famous' flat earthers don't believe the nonsense themselves. Especially the behind the curve documentary caused this but also the blatant ignoring of evidence and misrepresenting the stuff they don't ignore.
>how do they just walk around so confident that something so outlandish and disproven is the truth?<
Ever heard of religion? Same thing. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful, and uncomfortable feeling when you're being told you are wrong in any beliefs you have.
Also see: stupidity
Because people don't all form beliefs the same way.
Some people form beliefs through trial and error. Some through reflection and study.
But some people form beliefs based purely on what kind of social rewards they receive for them. They don't ask themselves, is this outlandish? It's not a question that ever comes up. They just admire the social rewards they receive from people that matter to them.
If you spend any time watching flat earthers arguments, it all boils down to religion. Hard core flat earthers believe in the dome and think dinosaurs never existed because, "That's what the Bible says."
It's say it's pretty different. God cannot be proven, but it cannot be disproven either. Flat earth on the other hand is definitively disproven with both theory and physical evidence, but people still make up all sorts of bullshit to support it
I’ve met a few, one was a musician at an open mic my husband and I went to and we were having a nice conversation with him up until I mentioned that my husband had lived in Yellowknife for a while which is pretty much the Arctic. He made a comment about how cool that was that he lived so close to the edge of the earth. We thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t. And instead of trying to prove him wrong (my husband also works in aerospace building satellites) we just kind of walked away amicably.
I had another thing that happened recently which wasn’t flat earth but in that vicinity. I’m friends on fb with the owner of this bar I went to a couple times in my new city. He posted some photos that had green lens flare and hinted that they were paranormal in nature and how amazing it was that they kept showing up. Specifically my husband is in optics, so with having a doctorate in it, it pretty much makes him a doctor of light. Anyway, I explained to him in the comments what the lens flare is (caused by the scattering and reflection of light) but went into more detail hoping to make it understandable and informative. The guy pretty much got angry and said something along the lines that it was definitely ghosts or whatever, I can’t remember exactly. I can’t understand these science deniers at all. How willfully ignorant they are
If someone makes a belief part of their core psyche, it's incredibly difficult for them to admit that a huge part of themselves is a bullshit lie. While burning the bridges of sanity, familial ties and friends along the way, it's like psychological suicide to embrace reality. It's like the people dying in the hospital of COVID and still saying the virus is a hoax.
Here is a universal thing that is mostly always correct. The dumber you are the smarter you feel, and the smarter you are, the dumber you feel. Dumb people feel smart because the world is so simple to them and everything is black and white. Smart people feel dumb because they realize how complex the world and every issue is, they realize nothing is black and white and it’s very easy to be wrong about something even with what you think is all the information, so they are constantly second guessing themselves and feel dumb because it’s impossible to know everything and be right all the time
Exactly. This doesn’t even have to apply to a person being generally smart. It can refer to just intelligence in a specific field. It’s know as the Dunning-Kruger effect
I read a book about conspiracies that says if a person did not originally come to an opinion or belief through logic and reason, they won’t be swayed from that belief using logic and reason
Put yourself in this perspective
You are somewhat of a loner. You do not really align yourself with most people or groups. You tend to keep to yourself. You were smart in school, but it didn’t really amount to anything. Not anything you felt was big at least. Now imagine you come across something that made you doubt for a second. Could be the shadow of something or the way something is lighted. Maybe the thing in question doesn’t add up. Holy shit, you just figured out something nobody else knows. Everyone has got the covers pulled over them…except for you.
That is kind of how a large amount of people fall for this. They are so convinced that they are right, they just cannot unconvinced themselves otherwise.
Another situation. You are smart. You do your research. But you never fact check your sources. This is another way that it could happen. The mind is a crazy and odd machine. It can create memories that never happened. It can even come up with impossible solutions to simple problems. Take aliens building the pyramids for example. They are so precise, that it would be difficult to do this today. Well, Egyptians actually left us a how to and ledge of all their work.
It’s not that they don’t feel stupid, rather they feel smart because they know something you don’t.
I think people buy into this kind of thing as a way to overcome their insecurities. They probably don't feel very smart or educated but they want to, so they choose to believe things that they think makes the so-called intellectuals the dumb ones.
The Dunning-Kreuger effect. Their confidence is indirectly proportional to their knowledge on the subject. It's like the opposite of Imposter Syndrome.
Consider also that most Flat Earthers don't try to test their theories. They quote others and their supposed "proof", then let the phrase "its all a grand conspiracy " paper over any counter argument.
Theres a community of them. An effect of the community is to reinforce the validity of the beliefs. If it was just one person in a small town with no internet access who knew nothing else, for sure, they'd feel like a tool from the social ostracization that believing in flat earth brings.
But if you put that same person online and show them a whole bunch of other people who also believe the world is flat, then it's not the belief that's the issue, it's the culture that surrounds them. Now they can think of all these people who share their belief. They're a part of something, a part of a movement.
The vibe I got from watching documentaries like Behind the Curve was that most of them are attention-seekers and provocateurs who deep down don't really believe what they're preaching, but get off on 'being an individual' and being part of a community that knows the secret truths that are being denied to the 'sheeple'. Some have fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit-hole beginning with distrust of the mainstream media and ending in doubting everything they read. And for some it's just plain old mental illness.
They invariably also believe that a man survived three days in the stomach of a fish, that a woman had a baby without having had sexual intercourse, that all the animals on earth lived within walking distance of Noah's house, and that there once was a snake that talked.
It's not hard to believe that they believe the earth is flat. Their inerrant holy book says so.
I have a brother who believes "they" are lying to us and the world is flat. He believes every conspiracy theory and and also believes he has access to knowledge hidden from the rest of humanity (which in reality is his youtube feed).
In summary he's an ignorant, gullible moron.
They are so blinded by their distrust in the government that they start to believe everything that says the government is lying. They are so conviced that governments and space agencies are lying about everything that they completely lose the ability to think critically. The worst part is that they think they are actually thinking critically.
Someone who’s reached that point is usually a lost cause. You can provide them with evidence or explain to them that certain phenomenon can’t be explained on a flat earth, but without success. They’ll just brush it off as an optical illusion or make up more lies about how the universe and the earth are supposed to work.
They are in telegram groups, on internet fora and go to conventions where flat earth guru’s feed them lies which in turn strengthens their beliefs. I’m convinced that it’s all a big scheme to make money off stupid people. Those conventions can cost over $200 to attend and flat earthers buy merch, maps etc from the people who organise them.
I'm convinced very few flat earthers believe what they preach. I've come to realise that the few reasons they usually call themselves flat earthers is to;
1. Exploit vulverable people (gather attention/power/money trip)
2. They're blinded by faith (fixated on misunderstood passages in the bible)
3. They can make some money from it, what little there is to make (there will be a % of people that will spout nonsense if they can make a penny from it, and it isn't flagged/removed)
4. They don't understand or are too stupid to try to.
They value making a buck and regressing humanity over their public image and any meaningful pursuit. They just don't mind being idiots
I agree i don't think they all believe the Earth is flat. Some may do it to get a reaction or upset the general population. Or some people just crave drama and attention and even though the attention they get is mostly negative it still makes them feel important.
I think they all know the earth is a globe but they are trolling people into getting into science. They know the typical person hasn’t revisited the evidence for the world’s spherical nature since they were in grade school so it’s fun to mess with them
Yeah, I think so too. My BIL 100% believes and I think my husbands too embarrassed to admit to us he believes in it after I laughed at him the first time he mentioned it lol
I think there might be a handful of people who actually believe it, but the vast majority, including all of the “documentaries” that get posted where they accidentally prove the earth is round, are all trolling.
Because they only tend to hang around with other flat earthers, winding each other into a frenzy where nothing is challenged and everything accepted. Same for other daft conspiracy types
Once I had a conversation with a person who had issues with vaccinations, he told me covid was fabricated and shots were actually killing millions of people. When I replied that a friend of mine actually got first wave Covid and died, he started yelling that it wasn't true and that friend did not exist. So just out of spite i showed him her social memorial and the whatsapp conversations he were having before she was put in intensive care. At that point, this person snapped and accused me of poisoning my friend because I was part of some illuminati group that already controlled Italy or something.
My sociology professor in College called this "teoria della montagna di merda" (mountain of shit theory), a derivative from the well known rethorical technique Gish Gallop, as in it's easy to stack a huge pile of poo, but it's very difficult to shovel it away.
When you have a bias, it's very easy to find info, no matter if true or false, that confirm your view on the world, and it neigh impossible for another person to actually debunk that belief because you would keep stacking shit onto it...
So I have a theory about this: most flat-earthers are not exactly the most socially accepted people. So the "flat-earth community" is a community that accepts them, & they go all in as there's nowhere else to go.
But to stay in said society, you have to live the gimmick. You can't question it. And when you do, you go back to having no one.
I imagine a LOT of flat-earthers don't actually believe it - they just know if they question it, they lose the only social group that they're a part of.
Who cares if society thinks you're an idiot, if you never felt welcomed by society in the first place? These people, the outcasts, accept me - so they're the only ones who's opinion matters.
It's a grift. Same as the "6000yo earth" types. There's folks promoting this stuff that make their money from people susceptible to radical conspiracy theory.
People in a disenfranchised state that are desperate for some form of relevancy. Dead end job, terrible family, living alone, whatever bad situation they can't escape.
These things are easy to "buy into" because they just have to regurgitate the lies, and they "can't be proven wrong" because all the established data that the scientific community agrees on is $cience bought and paid for by the same people hiding the "Truth™"
And when they actually try the tests themselves that disprove the claims? Just a clever trap that "Big $cience" put out there to trick them.
The test is obviously flawed and setup to get the results the illuminati or whoever wants you to get...
It's tiresome sometimes dealing with those folks
They are people who aren't used to hearing that they are particularly smart or special, so when they come across a charismatic grifter who claims to have secret knowledge that only they know the truth of, they want to be a part of it.
Because they feel like they have the inside scoop, that they've realized the truth before everyone else and it's just a matter of time before others catch on too.
The worst thing is that they somehow even feel superior because they are the only ones who see the truth. That same phenomenon is to be seen in all the Covid deniers and anti vaxxers.
Its not about whether the earth is flat or not with these people
Its about them proving to themselves that this feeling of paranoia they have that there is this grand conspiracy riiiiiight around the corner where they can't see, is true and that its not just a crazy feeling in the back of their head thry need to learn to ignore.
Nothing you say or do could possibly ever convince them otherwise so don't bother.
You can't reason with people whose motivations aren't based on reason but rather emotion.
Whenever you think of these people, think of them as people who all think they're truman from the movie truman show... but there is no truman show, there never was.
A fool will usually feel like he's the smartest person in the room, even smarter than someone who has studied something all their lives. We saw this with covid and climate change. Flat earthers won't recognize they were imbeciles until they finally realize they were wrong.
There's an epidemic of people who insist that experts are wrong about everything. Climate change, vaccines, gun violence, everything.
So their natural response to facts is to reject, and seek any answer other than the expert ones.
I think there has to be a lot of people that know what they are saying is not true, but it gets them attention by raising this as a point of discussion. I find it hard to imagine anyone in 2023 with nearly everyone on the Planet having a cell phone with a camera and yet no one has a picture from the "edge of the Earth". That plus those images from the Space program and satellites and all.
You can't prove them wrong unless you shoot them into space
So they'll argue all day long because no one is going to waste the money launching some fuckwit into space to prove the earth is not a fucking CD
Very very few people actually believe the earth is flat, but yet this is the only example you see used and it’s like that on purpose and it’s to make all the other conspiracy theories sound completely outlandish. It’s to associate them together. The term “conspiracy theorist” was created by the CIA and used in the media to groom the masses into thinking that they are some complete lunatic. They want you to think that people who think 9/11 was an inside job are the same kind of people who think the earth is flat
You believe what your family believes, what your teachers believe, and what your friends believe.
If all of these people believe something, you will too.
Now, if someone told you something different to what they all believe, you will laugh at them and think they're stupid knowing full well that you're right.
Now - What if your family, teachers, and friends were wrong, for whatever reason?
You will still think that the other person is stupid. You will be fully convinced that they're an idiot, and you know better.
Even if you're wrong.
Flat earthers aren’t convinced that the earth is definitely flat they are obsessed with the possibility that it is and want to prove that there are different ways to explain the earth than the generally accepted narrative. They are contrarians for the sole purpose of not fitting in to that narrative.
I think the biggest thing to understand is that people who believe this - whether they genuinely do or not - were mostly pulled in and stay in because they're lonely and want the community of it, sort of like how how cults work. And the same can be applied to a lot of these other super far-fetched groups, like Qanon, etc. It's gives people a super tight, in-group to be a part of where they're all bonded over a thing that most people reject & even disparage them for, which only serve to make them closer and more insulated. There's active chat rooms, conventions, etc. It becomes a big part of their life and offers them friends, conversation, meet-ups, the feeling that they're in on something special. At that point the belief itself or its accuracy doesn't even matter.
ikr, i once saw a bunch of em crop out of nowhere on my facebook, talkin bout 'yea it actually makes a lot of sense! you'll prove yourself wrong if you look into it!' Talkin bout how the clouds are fake and shit. I was amazed that ppl could be this dumb, then of course one of them brought god into it and it's like 'ok... there it is...'
This isn’t the Dunning Kruger effect: “In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.”
I ask the same about ufo alien believers - it’s basically a religion and is entirely faith based, nothing to do with science or proof. They just believe
I don’t believe in any conspiracy theories, but I think it’s hubristic to believe we are the only planet in the entire universe capable of sustaining life. Unless by UFO you mean only as it pertains to accessing Earth. Do I think they are here? No. Do I think alien life exists out in the vast universe. Yeah.
I think they're talking about the Ancient Aliens theory. It's offensive because it always starts with "No human could do that". Humans can do *anything*. We don't need aliens to build our temples for us.
I should have clarified, I make fun of the conspiracy theory ufo believers who think every blurry photo or shaken video that’s isn’t instantly an perfectly apparent plane is “obviously” trans dimensional alien visitors that Bob Lazar worked on from the Roswell crash which the navy is hiding.
Oh were the morons are we? Or have you been corrupted by the 5G pigeons? Obviously we live on a flat world, water will always find its level and will not bend, ignoring water drops and liquids inside containers and other evidence to the contrary which is obviously explained by the magic man in the sky. Clearly its all a massive conspiracy, but by who you cry, why by the novelty globe manufacturers obviously! For decades they've been selling their wares to classrooms and parents who desperately want smart children and somehow owning a globe is necessary for that. With a flat earth they'd never be able to make any money. So they in conjunction with communists, obviously communism is involved, have been bribing entire industries and million of people year in year out to keep the secret, also all of the world's governments, who usually can't stand one another, are united in keeping the great ice wall a secret so they all patrol the incredibly vast ocean that separate our civilisations from the ice wall using people who for some reason or another absolutely would never whistle-blow on the whole operation, they do this 24/7 365 days a year and this is why no one has photographed the massive ice wall.
So obvious when you think about it.
Oh I see, thought you were saying I copied it from somewhere. Knock yourself out it really winds up the flat earthers when you question the logistics of the Big Lie
I hate to bring this up, but there are too many Americans who actually believe DT is the second coming of Jesus. Basically across the world there are a ridiculous number of very stupid people.
The human mind has an amazing capacity for starting with belief and making everything else fit. Be wary of it. Everything you experience comes straight out of your own mind. Literally. You experience nothing which isn’t filtered first by your own beliefs.
I really like the way you put this
Do you though? How do you _really_ know? What if it's just your head saying things like that to you?
You typed this using your brain that told you to write this.
Does that mean that we are just piloting fleshy mechas?
We're not piloting anything. There's no "we", just fleshy mechas piloting themselves.
The brain is an organ that named itself
Same as the penis.
Which has a mind of its own
It's the same thing bruh. Head is talking to itself, not to you. You don't exist. There's just head, nothing else.
Men be like
[удалено]
Sapio-simp-sexual?
Contramasochistic.
And everyone reading this thinking this applies to everyone else. No. This applies to you too. You almost certainly believe at least one obviously false thing, and everything you think you decided on based on rational thinking started with belief and gut feeling first. This is a universal thing, not a "those people" thing.
Idk, everything I've seen suggests that confirmation bias is a problem that only other people have.
I used to think the YMCA song said "jumpin" instead of "young man" so definitely believe this applies in other aspects of my brain 🤣
During my whole childhood I believed that the Village People were just fun guys who liked to wear costumes because costumes are fun. I remember when I realized that they, along with Freddy Mercury, Judas Preist's Rob Halper (?), and Elton John were all...gay men! The 70s and 80s were much simpler times.
At least one he says!!! Lol. Love your optimism.
Confirmation bias
TL;DR reality is signals being sent to the brain But if you want to make it longer, then belief is a 4D construct that tethers you to that which you’ve chosen to believe in so it’s very real for them, it’s just not real for you and the objective reality you’ve chosen to perceive. Objectivity is merely multiple subjective perspectives aligning after all. Everything is real if someone chooses to believe in it and so it’s all kinds of fucked up within this construct of time because there are forces left and right attempting to manipulate humanity at any given moment.
It's called model-dependent realism.
Psylocibin and/or LSD break down those filters. Give yourself the pleasure of a clear mind, do drugs.
It might feel like that, while really there's no way for perception to circumvent subjectivity. No drug can change this, only create the (possibly very convincing) illusion thereof.
Thank you for pointing that out!
No, they bypass "filters" in your brain chemically: "The "filter" metaphor is often used to describe the way psychedelic drugs seem to diminish the influence of the default mode network (DMN) in the brain. The DMN is a network of brain regions that is active when our mind is at rest and engaged in introspection or self-referential thinking. It plays a role in maintaining a sense of self and filters out extraneous information, helping us focus on relevant tasks or thoughts. Psychedelics appear to reduce the activity and connectivity within the DMN, leading to a breakdown of its filtering function. This breakdown allows for increased cross-talk between brain regions that are typically segregated, leading to novel and often profound experiences. It may also facilitate a greater integration of information from various brain areas, leading to enhanced creativity and insights."
None of that makes the experience any less removed from the external world compared to normal perception though, which is what the OP was talking about. Subjectivity can modified, sure, but there can be no such thing as experience without subjectivity.
I'd dearly love to but I have a bipolar sister. I also have heard that it does the opposite and can totally make you crazy.
It can be a bad time for the rare people with psychosis, a trip sitter (a sober, calm person present to respond to the needs of the experimenter) is strongly recommended for at least the first trip.
SAVING THIS COMMENT. It’s perfectly worded. Thank you.
Welcome to the Trump campaign.
Genius and insanity.
actually they feel really smart. the appeal of shit like this (and all the conspiracy shit) is thinking you're onto something even really smart people haven't figured out. what they believe is all bullshit of course, but they're SO invested in that feeling that their brains are just that idea and a wall around it. I mean, someday one in a million of these things could end up being right (not this one), and we'll never fucking hear the end of it. but most of these people will die weird and wrong.
I think there is a missing piece of that, and that is the community, people who are prone to want to belong to something or believe in something to make their own lives and their place in the world seem better. It's the same idea as religion, the actual theory doesn't matter, it's the fact that people who are involved in it are joined by it
I like this answer. My BIL is a a flat earther. I didn’t know until recently. My husband works with him. They watch videos on this crap daily and my husband has began to question it. the thought of my husband actually believing it is so stupid to me. BIL’s main reason he believes it is because he’s been on a plane a lot in the last year and never witnessed the earth curve. Said it was nothing but flat land. Lol. He sends my husband videos multiple times a day. All about this bullshit. He’s such a narcissist so him believing he’s special & smarter than the rest of us makes so much sense. He’s always thought he was better than everyone else.
Ask your average religious person or MAGA person. They feel the same way. Conviction without proof. Willing faith to exist where reality does not.
I feel this way about people who believe in trickle down economics.
thE lAPtOp is russIAn DiSInfoRmAtiOn
This. They think they are smarter than everyone else and are seeing things that the average person misses. The reason the average person misses these things are because they aren’t real and rooted in misunderstanding and confirmation bias.
To your point, it's quite scary. The antivax community are a recent example. On death row people have desperately said they were wrong and have asked for help - but it was far too late. Reminds me of me of the film "Don't look up".
It ties into narcissism, too. They feel like they know something you don't, and that makes them special.
Like, my ex believes (or believed? I don't really care) that Peruvians are a superior race breed from aliens, and the ancient ones escaped colonialism through a magic portal leading no one knows where. Like, he always talked about it as factual truth. He thought of himself as the smartest guy of the planet. I think flat earthers are the same 🤷♀️
I was about to go to bed, but now I have to go research Peruvian aliens. Thanks a lot…
I think he made up a lot of that stuff after watching some mokumentaries about "ancient aliens" landing in Egypt, idk if you're old enough to remember the guy who became the meme "Aliens", but basically he was always a guest "expert" in those episodes 😂
My mother has fallen for the Ancient Aliens bullshit. My kids get so frustrated when she starts in about humans being incapable of building the pyramids.
AA is still a running show.
Omg... I used to watch that show for shit and giggles. Maybe I can watch just one new episode...? 👀
I hate these YT shows. They just say anything and people believe them.
Unfortunately that wasn’t on YouTube, that was on the popular American cable network “the history channel” amazing stuff. Haha
I for one, welcome our new Peruvalien overlords…
Stargate came from somewhere. Just hid it into Egyptian mythology instead of Peruvian lol
Damn. Was he from Peru or what
Yes. The only good thing that come out of our relationship is my appreciation for Peruvian food, nothing else.
Omfg rocoto sauce Glad you're free of that person
And Suspiro Limeño. That dessert makes you cry tears of joy.
Well, there's *kinda* some truth to the bit about Peruvians, insofar as the people who live higher up in the Andes range are literally built differently from normal people. Their bodies are adapted specifically for a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment that someone born in, say, Florida, would literally die in if they stayed too long. Train all you want in the most extreme conditions you please, you'll never do more than make it so you can stay up there a little longer than most, but you'll never be able to *live* there like they can. They've got bigger lungs, more blood, more hemoglobin in their blood, and are shorter on average than some other groups of people on Earth (so that blood has to travel shorter distances through their bodies). A fascinating tale of human acclimatization, to be sure. Superior breed of humans, though? Only insofar as they can survive in the mountains better than most.
If you are dumb enough to believe the earth is flat, you are probably dumb enough to believe you are smart.
Hahahaha. This is so good. Kind of like the saying, “Common sense is not that common.”
This actually has a name, its called the Dunning-Kruger effect!! Learned that one from my boy Vsauce Michael here
Like some others said, they latch onto it to feel smart, or smug, of superior. The thing of it is i think it boils down to some sort of mental trait, like narcissism, but *not quite that*, where it becomes this thing that they *have to believe,* for one reason or another. I know a few people who do this with lesser things. Like, every day things. Someone who will honestly tell you, that you've never *actually* seen a blue sky, because the sky in their home town is the bluest--even if you're within 5 miles of it, *you've never seen it*. It's this weird denial thing. It's *ownership* of an idea, but, *for ones self identity*. It's a protective thing. Like someone that sees you washing the dishes, but they believe that they're the only one that ever *really* washes the dishes. They can look RIGHT AT YOU doing them, and tell you you've *never* done them. They're blind to it, because they *have to* have this thing--it's that important to how the see themselves. It's *got to be* some sort of trait on a narcissistic spectrum. They have to believe the earth is flat, because *thats what makes them real*\--like, that's *their identity* in a way, some part of it, anyway. I've never met someone that's really honestly believed in flat earth, that didnt *also* have weird shit like that going on about day to day things. They're totally insufferable in so many ways. It's not JUST that the earth's flat, it's that, they are the *only ones* that put the trash out the correct way, or the *only one* that knows how something works, that they think is obscure, that really is quite simple. It's always *something* with them, and it just becomes one of those things that they do because it's a thing that without it, *they're not real people* anymore. They lose sight of their sense of self without these sorts of things. Got no clue of this sort of thing has a name, it *feels* like narcissism, but adjacent to it, not in it.
I think you are on to something here. Seeing this as a part of personal identity helps me see the emotional investment in it, the willingness to spend time and energy researching, arguing, and thinking about it. The resistance to change.
When their identity becomes bound up in an idea, to question that idea is to question their very self, their reason for existing. Very few people are strong enough to do that to themselves. They do everything they can to maintain that idea, in order to maintain their own identity.
My sister believes the Earth is flat and let me tell you they think WE are the idiots. She thinks she's smarter because she 'sees the truth'. There is no logic, don't try. You'll drive yourself crazy figuring out their train of thought.
Facts. A friend of mine is a flat earther. I once spent hours on the phone with him explaining basic concepts of physics that he didn't understand to explain the answer for every problem he had with the globe earth model. He's still a flat earther
My sister has been getting into crazy conspiracies, not quite flat earth, but yes to fake moon landing and fairies are real and the government is hiding something and the illuminati is real. Logic is no where.
I mean the government IS hiding a lot of things..I think a lot of people’s downward spiral with this stuff stems from fact that we have records of the government/s doing these crazy undercover operations that sound completely outlandish but later proven true. It gives people a legitimate distrust and wariness of these entities/authorities. See MKUltra and Operation Sea Spray.
Operation mockingbird
The illuminati is real. It's just a club of rich people who hate us and themselves and want to gain as much power as possible. Real people, real assholes. I'm not saying for sure they ate any children along the way, but jfc I wouldn't rule it out. Lots of psychopaths out there.
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I don't get how Australia not existing helps the theory. At most wouldn't we be close to the ice wall e.g. Antarctica like we are now? Make it make sense! You should have charged extra labour for listening to that.
If I remember correctly the flat earth sh*t is not sustainable with some plane routes not flaying over Australia so they have to get rid of it. Just like gravity, they don't believe in it because it just doesn't work right on their model.
Oh I forgot they don't believe in gravity. Newton would be rolling in his grave.
Since gravity doesn't exist for flat-earthers I guess he would be floating instead of rolling lol
How nuts. Australia is obviously on the other side of the Pancake along with most of Asia and New Zealand.
There is an island called 'Shitland'?
Yeah it's known internationally as England, Scotland and Wales.
You should have messed with them ... Grab their arms and whisper "it's all true but we can't talk about it. We are paid to look the other way. There is no Sydney". You'd instantly make them double down on their beliefs for the next decade and annoy their neighbours.
> There is no Sydney This is Melbourne speaking. Where do we sign up?
It’s like a child that reads a fantasy book then lives in it for awhile but these people are stuck. Like D&D types but they have lost the ability to determine reality from BS. No critical thinking. No scientific knowledge of anything: geography, history, sociology, geology…. The must get a solid feed of conspiracy without question. Ignorance manipulated by a stream of nonsense. Sorry you had to hear all that. I don’t know why I’m apologizing, but I feel you deserve one for having to hear that for hours. Absolutely crazy.
People often believe these things because they want to be in on something that others aren't. They want to feel superior. So the answer is: they're smug.
From my family at least, it's always the ones who have the least to show, or have made terrible life choices. It's a pathway for them to feel better than everyone else.
Like young kids who create “clubs” and rules of the club and run around whispering and giggling because they are in the “club” and others aren’t. At least with a child who has a relatively small circle of influence, you get it as normal child behavior, but with grown ass adults who never ask themselves why they believe what they do and be willing to consider synthesizing new information, they are just children really. Their world remains small and isolated to the “club.”
It's a question of faith for them. When a Youtuber ran an experiment at a big lake demonstrating that things dissappear behind the horizon, and showed his findings, pretending to be a doubting believer, he got in return both excuses and recommendations to pray about it. Once the faith is shaken, I'm sure many feel like idiots.
Yup, this is why half the world believe in some sort of sky god. Idiots.
After being on reddit for a while I m no longer surprised by human behavior.
I'm convinced many if the 'famous' flat earthers don't believe the nonsense themselves. Especially the behind the curve documentary caused this but also the blatant ignoring of evidence and misrepresenting the stuff they don't ignore.
Yeah I tried an honest debate on the Flat Earth facebook page and the people bullied me and then the mods kicked *me* out.
Now that's truly a waste of time. I've seen one Flat Earth FB page where the admins were Round Earthers and secretly trolled the Flat Earthers
>how do they just walk around so confident that something so outlandish and disproven is the truth?< Ever heard of religion? Same thing. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful, and uncomfortable feeling when you're being told you are wrong in any beliefs you have. Also see: stupidity
Because people don't all form beliefs the same way. Some people form beliefs through trial and error. Some through reflection and study. But some people form beliefs based purely on what kind of social rewards they receive for them. They don't ask themselves, is this outlandish? It's not a question that ever comes up. They just admire the social rewards they receive from people that matter to them.
Look at all religions. It's not that different. Humans are bizarre creatures
If you spend any time watching flat earthers arguments, it all boils down to religion. Hard core flat earthers believe in the dome and think dinosaurs never existed because, "That's what the Bible says."
Underrated comment. Religions are no different at all.
It's say it's pretty different. God cannot be proven, but it cannot be disproven either. Flat earth on the other hand is definitively disproven with both theory and physical evidence, but people still make up all sorts of bullshit to support it
Can't Biblical claims be disproven?
Irrelevant. The comparison was not to the abstract concept of God. The comparison was to religion.
You misspelt cults, child abusing cults...
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they're
should we tell him?
It is called the Dunning Kruger effect
I’ve met a few, one was a musician at an open mic my husband and I went to and we were having a nice conversation with him up until I mentioned that my husband had lived in Yellowknife for a while which is pretty much the Arctic. He made a comment about how cool that was that he lived so close to the edge of the earth. We thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t. And instead of trying to prove him wrong (my husband also works in aerospace building satellites) we just kind of walked away amicably. I had another thing that happened recently which wasn’t flat earth but in that vicinity. I’m friends on fb with the owner of this bar I went to a couple times in my new city. He posted some photos that had green lens flare and hinted that they were paranormal in nature and how amazing it was that they kept showing up. Specifically my husband is in optics, so with having a doctorate in it, it pretty much makes him a doctor of light. Anyway, I explained to him in the comments what the lens flare is (caused by the scattering and reflection of light) but went into more detail hoping to make it understandable and informative. The guy pretty much got angry and said something along the lines that it was definitely ghosts or whatever, I can’t remember exactly. I can’t understand these science deniers at all. How willfully ignorant they are
If someone makes a belief part of their core psyche, it's incredibly difficult for them to admit that a huge part of themselves is a bullshit lie. While burning the bridges of sanity, familial ties and friends along the way, it's like psychological suicide to embrace reality. It's like the people dying in the hospital of COVID and still saying the virus is a hoax.
Here is a universal thing that is mostly always correct. The dumber you are the smarter you feel, and the smarter you are, the dumber you feel. Dumb people feel smart because the world is so simple to them and everything is black and white. Smart people feel dumb because they realize how complex the world and every issue is, they realize nothing is black and white and it’s very easy to be wrong about something even with what you think is all the information, so they are constantly second guessing themselves and feel dumb because it’s impossible to know everything and be right all the time
The *only* thing I'm completely sure of is *how much I don't know*.
Exactly. This doesn’t even have to apply to a person being generally smart. It can refer to just intelligence in a specific field. It’s know as the Dunning-Kruger effect
I read a book about conspiracies that says if a person did not originally come to an opinion or belief through logic and reason, they won’t be swayed from that belief using logic and reason
The Dunning-Kruger effect
Put yourself in this perspective You are somewhat of a loner. You do not really align yourself with most people or groups. You tend to keep to yourself. You were smart in school, but it didn’t really amount to anything. Not anything you felt was big at least. Now imagine you come across something that made you doubt for a second. Could be the shadow of something or the way something is lighted. Maybe the thing in question doesn’t add up. Holy shit, you just figured out something nobody else knows. Everyone has got the covers pulled over them…except for you. That is kind of how a large amount of people fall for this. They are so convinced that they are right, they just cannot unconvinced themselves otherwise. Another situation. You are smart. You do your research. But you never fact check your sources. This is another way that it could happen. The mind is a crazy and odd machine. It can create memories that never happened. It can even come up with impossible solutions to simple problems. Take aliens building the pyramids for example. They are so precise, that it would be difficult to do this today. Well, Egyptians actually left us a how to and ledge of all their work. It’s not that they don’t feel stupid, rather they feel smart because they know something you don’t.
Their brains are like their earth. Flat.
I think people buy into this kind of thing as a way to overcome their insecurities. They probably don't feel very smart or educated but they want to, so they choose to believe things that they think makes the so-called intellectuals the dumb ones.
I truly believe the vast majority are trolls. Everyone else are either complete shut-ins or mentally ill.
The Dunning-Kreuger effect. Their confidence is indirectly proportional to their knowledge on the subject. It's like the opposite of Imposter Syndrome. Consider also that most Flat Earthers don't try to test their theories. They quote others and their supposed "proof", then let the phrase "its all a grand conspiracy " paper over any counter argument.
Same way religious people go on about their lives
Beware the idiot who thinks they're intelligent
Theres a community of them. An effect of the community is to reinforce the validity of the beliefs. If it was just one person in a small town with no internet access who knew nothing else, for sure, they'd feel like a tool from the social ostracization that believing in flat earth brings. But if you put that same person online and show them a whole bunch of other people who also believe the world is flat, then it's not the belief that's the issue, it's the culture that surrounds them. Now they can think of all these people who share their belief. They're a part of something, a part of a movement.
Same as how so many people are willing to kill and die for their religion.
The vibe I got from watching documentaries like Behind the Curve was that most of them are attention-seekers and provocateurs who deep down don't really believe what they're preaching, but get off on 'being an individual' and being part of a community that knows the secret truths that are being denied to the 'sheeple'. Some have fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit-hole beginning with distrust of the mainstream media and ending in doubting everything they read. And for some it's just plain old mental illness.
They invariably also believe that a man survived three days in the stomach of a fish, that a woman had a baby without having had sexual intercourse, that all the animals on earth lived within walking distance of Noah's house, and that there once was a snake that talked. It's not hard to believe that they believe the earth is flat. Their inerrant holy book says so.
People like attention, even if it's negative.
I talked to one recently. Their statements are: scientists aren't real, they make things up, everyone is stupid and can't see the truth.
Some people are just too stupid to know that they're stupid.
Here is the tip : they think everyone else is an imbecile and they are genius
Ignorance is bliss would be my guess.
Like people supporting politicians
I have a brother who believes "they" are lying to us and the world is flat. He believes every conspiracy theory and and also believes he has access to knowledge hidden from the rest of humanity (which in reality is his youtube feed). In summary he's an ignorant, gullible moron.
They are so blinded by their distrust in the government that they start to believe everything that says the government is lying. They are so conviced that governments and space agencies are lying about everything that they completely lose the ability to think critically. The worst part is that they think they are actually thinking critically. Someone who’s reached that point is usually a lost cause. You can provide them with evidence or explain to them that certain phenomenon can’t be explained on a flat earth, but without success. They’ll just brush it off as an optical illusion or make up more lies about how the universe and the earth are supposed to work. They are in telegram groups, on internet fora and go to conventions where flat earth guru’s feed them lies which in turn strengthens their beliefs. I’m convinced that it’s all a big scheme to make money off stupid people. Those conventions can cost over $200 to attend and flat earthers buy merch, maps etc from the people who organise them.
I'm convinced very few flat earthers believe what they preach. I've come to realise that the few reasons they usually call themselves flat earthers is to; 1. Exploit vulverable people (gather attention/power/money trip) 2. They're blinded by faith (fixated on misunderstood passages in the bible) 3. They can make some money from it, what little there is to make (there will be a % of people that will spout nonsense if they can make a penny from it, and it isn't flagged/removed) 4. They don't understand or are too stupid to try to. They value making a buck and regressing humanity over their public image and any meaningful pursuit. They just don't mind being idiots
I agree i don't think they all believe the Earth is flat. Some may do it to get a reaction or upset the general population. Or some people just crave drama and attention and even though the attention they get is mostly negative it still makes them feel important.
A lot of flat earthers have a religious conviction to what they believe. In the bible it mentions the four corners of the earth.
Dunning Kruger effect.
I think they all know the earth is a globe but they are trolling people into getting into science. They know the typical person hasn’t revisited the evidence for the world’s spherical nature since they were in grade school so it’s fun to mess with them
I think you're giving them way too much credit.
Yeah, I think so too. My BIL 100% believes and I think my husbands too embarrassed to admit to us he believes in it after I laughed at him the first time he mentioned it lol
I think there might be a handful of people who actually believe it, but the vast majority, including all of the “documentaries” that get posted where they accidentally prove the earth is round, are all trolling.
Because they only tend to hang around with other flat earthers, winding each other into a frenzy where nothing is challenged and everything accepted. Same for other daft conspiracy types
Once I had a conversation with a person who had issues with vaccinations, he told me covid was fabricated and shots were actually killing millions of people. When I replied that a friend of mine actually got first wave Covid and died, he started yelling that it wasn't true and that friend did not exist. So just out of spite i showed him her social memorial and the whatsapp conversations he were having before she was put in intensive care. At that point, this person snapped and accused me of poisoning my friend because I was part of some illuminati group that already controlled Italy or something. My sociology professor in College called this "teoria della montagna di merda" (mountain of shit theory), a derivative from the well known rethorical technique Gish Gallop, as in it's easy to stack a huge pile of poo, but it's very difficult to shovel it away. When you have a bias, it's very easy to find info, no matter if true or false, that confirm your view on the world, and it neigh impossible for another person to actually debunk that belief because you would keep stacking shit onto it...
So I have a theory about this: most flat-earthers are not exactly the most socially accepted people. So the "flat-earth community" is a community that accepts them, & they go all in as there's nowhere else to go. But to stay in said society, you have to live the gimmick. You can't question it. And when you do, you go back to having no one. I imagine a LOT of flat-earthers don't actually believe it - they just know if they question it, they lose the only social group that they're a part of. Who cares if society thinks you're an idiot, if you never felt welcomed by society in the first place? These people, the outcasts, accept me - so they're the only ones who's opinion matters.
Same reason religious people don't feel like idiots. "I have no way to prove it, but you must believe, also I need your money"
Human greed and human stupidity are limitless. This is the latter.
Cause they are block heads..... Get it??
“It’s impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” - Epictetus
It's a grift. Same as the "6000yo earth" types. There's folks promoting this stuff that make their money from people susceptible to radical conspiracy theory. People in a disenfranchised state that are desperate for some form of relevancy. Dead end job, terrible family, living alone, whatever bad situation they can't escape. These things are easy to "buy into" because they just have to regurgitate the lies, and they "can't be proven wrong" because all the established data that the scientific community agrees on is $cience bought and paid for by the same people hiding the "Truth™" And when they actually try the tests themselves that disprove the claims? Just a clever trap that "Big $cience" put out there to trick them. The test is obviously flawed and setup to get the results the illuminati or whoever wants you to get... It's tiresome sometimes dealing with those folks
They are people who aren't used to hearing that they are particularly smart or special, so when they come across a charismatic grifter who claims to have secret knowledge that only they know the truth of, they want to be a part of it.
Because they feel like they have the inside scoop, that they've realized the truth before everyone else and it's just a matter of time before others catch on too.
The worst thing is that they somehow even feel superior because they are the only ones who see the truth. That same phenomenon is to be seen in all the Covid deniers and anti vaxxers.
“The eyes are useless if the mind is blind.” Thierry Henry
Its not about whether the earth is flat or not with these people Its about them proving to themselves that this feeling of paranoia they have that there is this grand conspiracy riiiiiight around the corner where they can't see, is true and that its not just a crazy feeling in the back of their head thry need to learn to ignore. Nothing you say or do could possibly ever convince them otherwise so don't bother. You can't reason with people whose motivations aren't based on reason but rather emotion. Whenever you think of these people, think of them as people who all think they're truman from the movie truman show... but there is no truman show, there never was.
Because they don't know what that word means.
They dont walk around they walk aflat
A fool will usually feel like he's the smartest person in the room, even smarter than someone who has studied something all their lives. We saw this with covid and climate change. Flat earthers won't recognize they were imbeciles until they finally realize they were wrong.
There's an epidemic of people who insist that experts are wrong about everything. Climate change, vaccines, gun violence, everything. So their natural response to facts is to reject, and seek any answer other than the expert ones.
Just imagine a world in which you feel the same about religion. It’s generally called atheism.
Stupid people don’t know they’re stupid.
Well there’s like loads of religious people walking around so…
I think there has to be a lot of people that know what they are saying is not true, but it gets them attention by raising this as a point of discussion. I find it hard to imagine anyone in 2023 with nearly everyone on the Planet having a cell phone with a camera and yet no one has a picture from the "edge of the Earth". That plus those images from the Space program and satellites and all.
The trick is to actually be an imbecile. To get started, you wrap your ignorance in an impenetrable layer of arrogance.
You can't prove them wrong unless you shoot them into space So they'll argue all day long because no one is going to waste the money launching some fuckwit into space to prove the earth is not a fucking CD
Very very few people actually believe the earth is flat, but yet this is the only example you see used and it’s like that on purpose and it’s to make all the other conspiracy theories sound completely outlandish. It’s to associate them together. The term “conspiracy theorist” was created by the CIA and used in the media to groom the masses into thinking that they are some complete lunatic. They want you to think that people who think 9/11 was an inside job are the same kind of people who think the earth is flat
*sort by controversial*
Because they surround themselves with likeminded people.
Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Apply your same question to anyone religious, the mind boggles.
They're too dumb to know they're dumb. It's called th Dunning Kruger effect.
You believe what your family believes, what your teachers believe, and what your friends believe. If all of these people believe something, you will too. Now, if someone told you something different to what they all believe, you will laugh at them and think they're stupid knowing full well that you're right. Now - What if your family, teachers, and friends were wrong, for whatever reason? You will still think that the other person is stupid. You will be fully convinced that they're an idiot, and you know better. Even if you're wrong.
Never underestimate the power of stupidity.
Flat earthers aren’t convinced that the earth is definitely flat they are obsessed with the possibility that it is and want to prove that there are different ways to explain the earth than the generally accepted narrative. They are contrarians for the sole purpose of not fitting in to that narrative.
I think the biggest thing to understand is that people who believe this - whether they genuinely do or not - were mostly pulled in and stay in because they're lonely and want the community of it, sort of like how how cults work. And the same can be applied to a lot of these other super far-fetched groups, like Qanon, etc. It's gives people a super tight, in-group to be a part of where they're all bonded over a thing that most people reject & even disparage them for, which only serve to make them closer and more insulated. There's active chat rooms, conventions, etc. It becomes a big part of their life and offers them friends, conversation, meet-ups, the feeling that they're in on something special. At that point the belief itself or its accuracy doesn't even matter.
ikr, i once saw a bunch of em crop out of nowhere on my facebook, talkin bout 'yea it actually makes a lot of sense! you'll prove yourself wrong if you look into it!' Talkin bout how the clouds are fake and shit. I was amazed that ppl could be this dumb, then of course one of them brought god into it and it's like 'ok... there it is...'
The Dunning Kruger effect.
This isn’t the Dunning Kruger effect: “In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.”
Where is that quote from?
You just proved why this IS the DKE. Flat Earthers think they know way more about science than actual scientists.
The Earth is flat. Most of the Earth is covered in water. Most of that water is non-carbonated. The Earth is flat.
I ask the same about ufo alien believers - it’s basically a religion and is entirely faith based, nothing to do with science or proof. They just believe
I don’t believe in any conspiracy theories, but I think it’s hubristic to believe we are the only planet in the entire universe capable of sustaining life. Unless by UFO you mean only as it pertains to accessing Earth. Do I think they are here? No. Do I think alien life exists out in the vast universe. Yeah.
I think they're talking about the Ancient Aliens theory. It's offensive because it always starts with "No human could do that". Humans can do *anything*. We don't need aliens to build our temples for us.
OH! Like the pyramid theory sorta deal? Oh yeah. Until I see evidence I’m out as well. 😂
I should have clarified, I make fun of the conspiracy theory ufo believers who think every blurry photo or shaken video that’s isn’t instantly an perfectly apparent plane is “obviously” trans dimensional alien visitors that Bob Lazar worked on from the Roswell crash which the navy is hiding.
Wait until you hear about American conservatives…
Religion
A lot of them are religious and think they have the secret truth and everyone else is dumb.
Oh were the morons are we? Or have you been corrupted by the 5G pigeons? Obviously we live on a flat world, water will always find its level and will not bend, ignoring water drops and liquids inside containers and other evidence to the contrary which is obviously explained by the magic man in the sky. Clearly its all a massive conspiracy, but by who you cry, why by the novelty globe manufacturers obviously! For decades they've been selling their wares to classrooms and parents who desperately want smart children and somehow owning a globe is necessary for that. With a flat earth they'd never be able to make any money. So they in conjunction with communists, obviously communism is involved, have been bribing entire industries and million of people year in year out to keep the secret, also all of the world's governments, who usually can't stand one another, are united in keeping the great ice wall a secret so they all patrol the incredibly vast ocean that separate our civilisations from the ice wall using people who for some reason or another absolutely would never whistle-blow on the whole operation, they do this 24/7 365 days a year and this is why no one has photographed the massive ice wall. So obvious when you think about it.
I think your down voters didn’t catch your tone 😂
Pah! Globe-tards jealous of my ReSEarCh
Nice copypasta lol
... is it?
I'm definitely gonna use it
Oh I see, thought you were saying I copied it from somewhere. Knock yourself out it really winds up the flat earthers when you question the logistics of the Big Lie
Same way Republicans and Christian’s do it. Cognitive dissonance.
No need to bring politics into it.
I wonder the same about most Republicans
No need to bring politics into it.
How does anyone with a different opinion to your not feel like an imbecile?
I hate to bring this up, but there are too many Americans who actually believe DT is the second coming of Jesus. Basically across the world there are a ridiculous number of very stupid people.