Flat Earth

[gillianren]

That just proves that you're better than I am. I'm no longer interested in convincing anyone. I live in the southern United States, and if I couldn't call idiots idiots, my blood pressure would be uncontrollable.

We have to keep trying to convince people.  Maybe not you personally, but in general.  I keep going back to vaccines, but that's the one where it's literally life-or-death to change minds.  If we don't change minds, people will die.  People are already dying.

[ka9q]

I'm hoping those deaths (and ICU stays) will finally convince people. If not, we're even worse off than I thought.

[Allan F]

The vaccine deniers just do what conspiracist do: They don't take the real world evidence into account. Their own opinion - how uninformed it is - has more meaning to them than anything else.

[ka9q]

Yeah, but seeing your own kid (or even other kids) suffer has got to have some effect. Or at least I hope it does.

[Glom]

Yeah, but seeing your own kid (or even other kids) suffer has got to have some effect. Or at least I hope it does.

Hasn't worked so far. It is bizarre dissonance that says polio is a price worth paying, but it seems that the attitude of "my way even if it kills us" is become prevalent at the moment. I could point to other issues that follow this pattern.

I don't know why it has gotten worse. Is there something in the water? The air? Vaccines?

[gillianren]

Diehard anti-vaxxers won't change.  But fence-sitters can be changed, and that's where I concentrate.

[Peter B]

Yeah, but seeing your own kid (or even other kids) suffer has got to have some effect. Or at least I hope it does.

Hasn't worked so far. It is bizarre dissonance that says polio is a price worth paying, but it seems that the attitude of "my way even if it kills us" is become prevalent at the moment. I could point to other issues that follow this pattern.

I don't know why it has gotten worse. Is there something in the water? The air? Vaccines?

A comment that got to me recently, IIRC from an Aussie stand-up comedian, was along the lines of, "Stop saying that you'd prefer your child to be dead than to have autism."

But another interesting thing I've noticed is how people from completely different backgrounds can come to the same (kooky) position by very different paths.

For example I'd long considered that anti-vax attitudes were strongest in people of a left-wing, green/hippy persuasion. Only, reading an article on Breitbart showed similar popularity of anti-vaxism among the alt-right too. The first group develop it from their love of nature and dislike of all those nasty chemicals. But the second group appear to be anti-vax because they dislike medical corporatism, embrace rugged individualism and want to Stick It To The Man.

The first example I found was how those people of a left-wing, green/hippy persuasion, and socially conservative pentecostal Christians, shared a strong interest in "natural foods" and a dislike of additives.

[Zakalwe]

Yeah, but seeing your own kid (or even other kids) suffer has got to have some effect. Or at least I hope it does.

Hasn't worked so far. It is bizarre dissonance that says polio is a price worth paying, but it seems that the attitude of "my way even if it kills us" is become prevalent at the moment. I could point to other issues that follow this pattern.

I don't know why it has gotten worse. Is there something in the water? The air? Vaccines?

A comment that got to me recently, IIRC from an Aussie stand-up comedian, was along the lines of, "Stop saying that you'd prefer your child to be dead than to have autism."

But another interesting thing I've noticed is how people from completely different backgrounds can come to the same (kooky) position by very different paths.

For example I'd long considered that anti-vax attitudes were strongest in people of a left-wing, green/hippy persuasion. Only, reading an article on Breitbart showed similar popularity of anti-vaxism among the alt-right too. The first group develop it from their love of nature and dislike of all those nasty chemicals. But the second group appear to be anti-vax because they dislike medical corporatism, embrace rugged individualism and want to Stick It To The Man.

The first example I found was how those people of a left-wing, green/hippy persuasion, and socially conservative pentecostal Christians, shared a strong interest in "natural foods" and a dislike of additives.

It's the Horseshoe Theory at work.
A simpler view is that cranks and kooks all suffer from crank magnetism regardless of their political leanings.

[twik]

It's the Horseshoe Theory at work.
A simpler view is that cranks and kooks all suffer from crank magnetism regardless of their political leanings.

Once a crank has found a satisfactory target for crankery (vaccines, round earth, etc.), they can always find a justification based on their own political leanings.

[Glom]

This headline on its own is funny.

https://thinairtoday.com/2019/08/21/flat-earth-society-makes-promotional-round-the-world-trip/

[rocketman]

This headline on its own is funny.

https://thinairtoday.com/2019/08/21/flat-earth-society-makes-promotional-round-the-world-trip/

I think the headline is funnier without the article, than with.

It's not my intention to come to the defence of people who actually believe the world is flat, but if you think it's a disc, centered at the north pole, it's rather easy to come back to the same place just by flying in a circle.

How do these people think the sun works?  If the world were flat, wouldn't it either, at any particular time, be day everywhere or night everywhere?

[Glom]

I think the headline is funnier without the article, than with.

That happens a lot with satirical news sites. There's been countless times when the Daily Mash have posted a hilarious headline that the article kind of lames over.

[ka9q]

Same with The Onion.

[ApolloEnthusiast]

How do these people think the sun works?  If the world were flat, wouldn't it either, at any particular time, be day everywhere or night everywhere?

This is going to sound like a joke, but I promise it isn't.  Many of them believe the Sun is like a spotlight that moves around over the disc.  The Sun rises when it gets close enough to see it and sets when it moves too far away.

It doesn't seem to matter to them that this is obviously false to anyone who has seen a sunrise or sunset. 

[benparry]

Did anyone see 'This morning' the other day (UK breakfast show) with that idiot on talking about the Flat Earth.

Why don't the ITV make it a discussion where they put an actual scientist in front of these people.

They had another guy on not so long back called Martin Kenny. I actually messaged him after the show which resulted in him blocking me. I asked him my fav's which are the behaviour of the dust and the tracking and he couldn't answer them but apparantly i'm brainwashed.

Surely if i could argue with him a proper scientist could do a damn sight better. They had a lady on ( i can't remember her name) and all she really said was about JAXA. I can think of at least 4 members here who i have spoken to who would have taken him apart.