This is not a joke. This is genuinely what a significant number of flat earthers believe.
Flat earthers don’t believe in a flat earth. What they actually believe is that Satan is fighting a war for the minds of people, and education is a tool of satan to lead you away from god. All other nonsense they spew stems from that— they don’t believe the earth is flat because evidence shows it, they find evidence to support the earth being flat because the education system, which they believe to be from Satan, tells you it’s spherical.
And most (but not all) flat earthers have moved on to the next conspiracy that supports their central belief (Satan is fighting a war for your mind) and don’t care much about flat earth anymore. Flat earth was never the point, not being swayed by Satan is always the center.
Also, they believe the earth is flat because the Bible says so; and the earth is young because the Bible says so, and that science is the devil’s work because it contradicts a book written by Bronze Age goat herders retconned by a guy in the Iron Age that got killed for telling the Roman’s he was king of the Jews.
This is one of my favorite summaries of just how ridiculous religion can become. Only thing I want to find a way to add would be a condemnation of monotheism. Seems that had a whole lot to do with how the concept of religion has become so corruptible. Instead of the point being the betterment of your own tribe it becomes about how every other tribe is less than you.
yeah. its ridiculous. Rather than accept that there's some inaccuracies and that parts of the bible contain mistakes and say something like "but most of it is true" .... they double down, triple and quadruple down. They have to get increasingly improbable theories to explain how all this evidence isn't really real. Fossils are planted by satan, to lead people astray; there's a massive World Order whose sole job is to keep this secret for some strange reason.
like. they could just build a rocket and launch it into space and see for themselves. Or some really simple experiments involving sticks and shadows. that allowed them to determine the distance of the sun from the earth, it's circumference, and can be replicated with some lumber and fifty bucks in the gastank.
Technically, this isn't even a case of religion going crazy. The flat Earth conspiracy actually started out in the German Nazi party and were eventually pushed out because even the Nazis thought they were too crazy.
Notice how many of them mention a vague "they" as the ones maintaining the conspiracy. That's them referring to Jewish people. While this is notmal for most conspiracy theories, few directly originated from the Nazis.
If you want more detail, there's a couple episodes of Behind the Bastards explaining it. I recommend giving them a listen
they don’t believe the earth is flat because evidence shows it, they find evidence to support the earth being flat
Similar with the anarcho capitalist types
But.. but.. I posted it as a joke, so it is?? Please??
It's all fun and games tricking idiots into believing dumb shit, until they become fundamentalists.
And then vote
flat earthers=flat personality and flat brains.
Flat EEG
I think it is a joke, though not one we're supposed to be in on.
The hint is that that is a very well made map for someone who doesn't understand how water flow really works. They turned the ocean trenches into rivers. It's a parody of someone who doesn't understand gravity but still uses it properly in demonstrating how it should look incorrectly.
It all started as a joke. The purpose was to fool people to believe in this dumb shit. Then people did, and there was much rejoicing. Then more people did, and it got old. Then even more people did, and it got worrying. Then even more people did and now we have a whole industry of dumbfucks basing their lives and identities around something that started out as a joke at their expense.
Who's laughing now?
I'm reasonably convinced that the flat earther explosion was at least encouraged by nefarious actors to see what dumb shit people will actually believe. I feel like the flat earth videos on YouTube are directly related to the recent rise of the extreme right, it primed so many of these people to reject reality so completely.
When I say this was meant as a joke, it picked up steam in the /r/flatearth sub, which I saw back early, and it was kind of an inside reddit joke much like /r/birdsarentreal is today. Mark my words, that shit will be the next flat earth.
People work like this. A sub with 50K subscribers? Maybe there's something to it!
I had subs once. Big ones. They were taken from me. I know. Buy me a beer and I'll tell you about it.
Edit: And I swear unto god- I told'em. I TOLD'EM this would happen.
Hah, check out this guy who thinks birds are real!
I still can't tell if most instances of them are a) genuine, b) trolling stupid people into believing dumb shit, c) trolling smart people into believing they believe something stupid and enjoying the frustration as they fail to convince them otherwise, or d) conning true believers like that guy who just wanted to fund his private rocket launch did.
Like it started with group B, but it's impossible to tell group A and C/D apart, if they are really dedicated to the bit. Like those youtubers who did various expreiments that would show which way it was, got results consistent with ball earth, then dismissed those results as something being wrong with their experiment could be strong denial but also just sounds like trolling and if I had to bet, I'd probably bet on it being a troll (or someone knowing their video will get way more hits like that because it's a hilarious result that did get a lot of round earthers to watch to mock it).
Tldr, I think we might all be getting played, though none as much as the poor fools that really do believe and donate to "flat earth science".
Who's laughing now?
@tomiant@piefed.social who started selling t-shirts and slowly had to hire more employees as the demand steadily outgrew supply.
At the end they retired to their vineyard villa, now worth substantially more after the devaluation of half the planet. They appear to the public every now and then for million € speaking engagements, and mostly ignore their controversy section on Wikipedia.
I wish I could ignore the controversy section on my Wikipedia
Well, that’s MAGA for ya.
This is a cogent and succinct analysis of MAGA's genesis, yes. I mean that's why we all were like, "hey, guys, funny joke and all but you do realize that if you repeat it often enough, people will start believe you and join your ranks and try to overthrow our democratically elected government, right?"
And they were like
"DA, comrade. Understanding is absolute."
This literally sums up Americas current situation
We are not evolved for being capable of seeing the thoughts, reactions and feelings of so many people, especially in the form of text written on a screen that your brain reads in its own voice. We have not adapted to nor even begun to study and understand how vulnerable our minds are to outside influence.
But it's okay because we're building giant artificial neural systems in data centers that take the power of small cities to run, with the express purpose of predicting and exploiting those vulnerabilities with superhuman effectiveness.
Because in australia down is up, so their gravity pull all the water back up north
The stupidest possible way to say the truth. Now that's a .ml comment
Bro, stop trying to other people
That would make all water bulge at the equator.
I mean you joke, but the earth does bulge in the center a little
so do I
OwO
What's this?
If water flows down then why do I get it up my nose? Explain that Big Sciece!
I'm sorry my mind is stuck on
If gravity is not strong enough to stop a small stream from flowing to its lowest point
I mean... what...
Hahahh check out this idiot believing in "north" and an "upright" earth.
Explain Australians walking on their hands. You're not walking, you're hanging on.
But if the world would wear pants, how would it wear them? 🤔
looks around at the state of the world
On its head? Seems to be the default.
Hahah...
aww now I'm sad
*lowest relative to the center of the spherical celestial body
Out of curiosity of this argument, what direction in the universe is "down" to be considered the lowest point?
this is really stupid, but have you considered that the rotational speed of the earth at the equator is like 400 meters per second? How tf are we not flying into space under those speeds?? The answer is obviously that the center of rotation is ABOVE us (that's right baby hollow earth is back) we're inside rotating globe OH AND BTW that's how gravity works, thank me later physicists.
Gravity is just centrifugal force.
Let's follow on this. Water goes down to the south hemisphere (why? Gravity is a lie). Then it stays there, attached to the ground. Why? Gravity again? An invisible barrier?
I doubt this is something anybody except the fringiest of flat earthers would approve, but I'm down for further explanation
Invisibly barrier makes sense. Up in the sky. I think the Bible mentions something similar.
I’m tired Boss…
funfact: because water itself has weight, it produces gravity, therefore it pulls more water towards itself, therefore more water collects in some parts of the world than other.
for example: most of the extra water that comes from global warmings, collects at the pacific because it has a larger surface, therefore US Eastcoast and Europe see very little change in sealevel, while some pacific islands are already gone.
epistemic status: I remember reading this info a couple years ago, but the best source I can found now is that sentence from wikipedia:
Changing ice masses also affect the distribution of sea water around the globe through gravity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise
dont you mean mass.
The problem with the picture is, it's upside down.
🥴
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
