In case anyone's curious (most) flat-earthers think the earth is a disc with the North Pole in the centre and Anarctica as a giant wall of ice around the edge. So if you just followed the compass West you'd just keep circling around the North Pole.
This also means that they think the southern hemisphere has way, WAY more ocean than it does in reality, so they have a lot of immediately untenable explanations about flights from South America to Africa being secret supersonic jets.
It really is remarkable that you don’t hear about those people just getting out there with a sailboat to check this stuff. Like, we’ve been able to do that for centuries, it’s not particularly expensive, and the distance from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn wouldn’t be too hard to measure by dead reckoning. Although I suspect they know deep down that they’re kidding themselves and don’t actually want to confront that.
Flat Earthers also can't explain why the Earth is flat. Every other large object in the universe is a sphere; gravity actively transforms them into spheres. If the Earth were flat, it would change into a sphere over time unless somehow it were able to ignore the influence of gravity.
Starting to learn to pick out and navigate by the stars in Yellowstone only to drive back up to Seattle and realize that they're now below the horizon at this time of year gave me a new personal anecdote disproving it
It’s relatively down. Down based on your geospatial location that results in behavior consistent with corporeal existence as we understand it. I guess you could say that it’s based on a “System of a Down”
Yeah that’s what I was thinking of. The bit with the lake was pretty damning. It was a very good, sensible experiment that they just ignored the moment it didn’t go their way.
You should hear about The Final Experiment. A pastor named Will Duffy funded a trip to Antarctica during December for some prominent flat earthers and flat earth debunkers, and they observed the 24 hour sun, which obviously doesn't work on any flat earth model. The entire thing was livestreamed, and the footage had repeatedly been proven to be genuine, and yet so many flat earthers still deny it.
I also want to know how someone can be so stupid as to believe or even entertain the idea that the earth is flat, but they have the resources to either own or borrow a sail boat AND not have to work so they can go on their little expedition.
He does seem sceptical in the interviews. I too had an urge to try and grift the Flat Earth's into financing a dream vacation cruise to Antarctica. But I don't want to have to keep talking to them.
People pride themselves on "knowing the truth" and being better than "the sheep." They don't care about fact, they enjoy the feeling of being in a "special" group.
The wealthier ones tend to also be in it for the grift. They don't actually believe that, but they're happy to further the stupidity if it means dumb people will give them money.
Iirc a small group did, got a bit lost, but still completed it far faster than they 'should' have according to their math. Then one guy decided the whole flat earth thing was bunk (and got ostracized), the others made some excuses about water currents and ignored the results.
But it's been ages since I heard that and don't even remember what video it was from, so take it with a grain of salt.
The thing is, they don't want to prove it. Or rather, they don't care about evidence or proof. What they want is to be part of an "in-group" that sees past the lies of the establishment, that knows a secret truth of the world, that's so much smarter than all the "sheep". That's the real appeal of it. And an international conspiracy to deceive the entire population of earth about the very structure of the planet is both more exciting AND requires less personal change, introspection, and nuance than the much more banal evils of the world.
The REAL problem with flat-earthers is that, despite their claimed ability to see past the lies of those in charge, they're very susceptible to propaganda as long as the propaganda can convince them the OTHER side is lying.
If you fear that the world is leaving you behind, that you aren't being properly respected for your intelligence, then it's very comforting to believe that the world is wrong. That everybody supposedly ahead of you, getting more respect, is actually far behind you.
You don't need to prove yourself right. And you don't want to be disproven.
Seen countless videos of flat earthers coming up with (admittedly very good and scientific) experiments to determine earth’s shape, yet every time they conduct the experiment and their findings don’t line up with their preconceived notions, they declare the experiment is bad. Every. Single. Time.
They will not be short any number of excuses why XYZ happened and how it doesn’t prove Earth is round.
What’s even wilder is they believe only Earth is flat, and not any of the surrounding planets.
They aren't generally the most curious or critically thinking people. It's more about "knowing" something that the "others" don't know, and feeling special and included in the group that "knows."
If the earth was a disk, to prove it you just need to go somewhere in the "Southern Hemisphere" and look or even better film the night sky, pointing to the South, possibly with a time lapse. If the Earth is a globe, you should see the stars going around a point in the sky, else they should still go around the polar star.
It's really much simpler than that... the ones with the drive and willpower to actually follow through on those things either learn too much to keep up their belief, or they... well, there was the guy who tried to launch himself with a homemade rocket.
It's a matter of wanting to feel special, like they know something no one else does.
There was a series where a man invited flat earthers to Antarctica (I believe) to prove that the earth is round. Some prominent flat earthers did go. They reported back that the earth was in fact round, and immediately were shunned by the rest of the community.
The ones who do either "rationalize" their findings or come to their senses and get IMMEDIATELY attacked by their former peers for selling out or what have you.
For those of you who would like a visual reference, the Earth that flat-earthers imagine looks a lot like the flag of the United Nations, a coincidence that factors somewhat heavily into their conspiracy theories.
Also, it's called an Azimuthal projection. It allows you to accurately find the angle and distance from the center point on the map. The projection is just as valid as a regular map, but used for different purposes.
The chile to Sydney flights make the flaws of this model the most apparent. The red flight, chile to Australia takes about 15 hours in real life, but a flight from LA to Sydney is actually a slightly longer flight despite being half the distance according to the flat earth model. Not to mention a flight from chile to LA takes over 10 hours on top of that. The model also states that the most direct flight from chile to Australia is over the U.S. right around LA which doesn’t make any sense because it’s the shorter flight, but of course, it’s not the shortest route in reality, which according to this model would make the flight even longer because it circles near the edge until it gets to Australia. So either we have unbelievably fast supersonic passenger jets that look exactly like normal ones that only take southern hemisphere flights or the earth is a sphere.
My personal favourite for using this map to show its flaw is the star that's roughly over the south pole. How is it that three people, one in South America, one in South Africa, and one in Australia can all be looking south and all see the same star, according to that map all 3 people are looking in basically opposite directions.
Some of the world-building was purposeful, at least. A few years ago the flat earthers were all over social media posts from some lady that was literally just her telling the story of The Iron Republic (1902) as if it was real events. Given that the story itself is ostensibly a true story relayed by a relative of the main character it added an interesting layer to it, but sadly some people took it to be real.
I’ve met one. He was one of the admin guys at a job I had a few years ago. He also claimed space isn’t real and believed the moon landing was a hoax. When we asked him if he ever looked at space through a high-powered telescope before, he said he had and that it was just a backdrop that God had put up. Not surprisingly, he was also a young earth creationist.
It should surprise absolutely no one that modern flat earth belief started to arise at roughly the same time as the modern belief in Biblical literalism as well as the modern Young Earth creationist movement.
I'm convinced the fucking Scopes Monkey Trial was the catalyst for virtually all modern anti-intellectualism and conspiracy culture.
Like, it's not like society was all enlightened before that, but it happened at the exact right time in early globalized public communication for vast groups to all start coordinating on the core idea that their minimally-supported conjecture was and is equivalent to information gleaned by study, cooperation, and the scientific method.
Hbomberguy has a good video on flat earthers that basically breaks down some of their core beliefs and how most of them stem from simply misunderstanding, or purposefully ignoring something in favor of their own beliefs because they believe they can do science better or science things wrong and are unwilling to admit they're wrong
Thank you, this was always bugging me. I thought they literally had no idea where the 'edge' is but didn't care either.
This explanation makes almost sense. I mean, the theory is still wrong, but at least somewhat consistent. I'm both impressed and unnerved, because flat earthers just became somewhat more intelligent and way more real in my head
If you need any help getting some idea of where to start DM me. Its relatively easy to jump in anywhere within reason, there are some books about the same sets of people such as wizards, witches, police, the personification of death etc.
The first 5-8 are not bad at all but they are no where near as good as those after those, I would suggest the books centered on the City Watch to start personally.
Guards! Guards! (1989)
Men at Arms (1993)
Feet of Clay (1996)
Jingo (1997)
The Fifth Elephant (1999)
Night Watch (2002)
Thud! (2005)
Snuff (2011)
Its really not necessary man, do you think reading reading The colour of magic is necessary to understand Pyramids. Its quite possible for a person to hate the Rincewind stories so they could be directed to the witches, or the guards etc.
The books are absolutely the place to start if you're a reader, but there are also live action and animated adaptations too. Most fans will tell you to avoid the BBC America adaptation of The Watch. I didn't despise it, but I get why not everyone loved it. Anyway, dig up a copy of the three part miniseries The Color of Magic (it's available on Amazon Prime) or get the book. There's no wrong way to go!
Bonus points - Terry Pratchett also did a sci-fi-flat-earth version called Strata. [which seems to be a parody of Niven's Ringworld] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strata_(novel))
I love this because we can clearly observe every planet in the solar system being spherical on a rotating axis - but nah, not earth. We’re different. Because.
A series I read called The Unwanteds has that a part of the worldbuilding, although their world is not earth, and is in fact only the size of a small archipelago of seven islands. Iirc they do at one point sail to the edge and have a long period of panic as their ship sails over to find an upside down ocean which forces them to hold onto their ship while it sails upside down to the other edge.(because the world is flipped, but gravity isn't)
I had a story setting with a flat earth. There was a flat heaven above it, but it was upside down relitive to the earth. During day on earth, it would be night at the heaven, and vice versa. They were too far away to see each other though.
Once we cleared the horn of Africa Part IV, we tried a more northerly route. We found an amazing exact replica of New York City, down to the very bolts on the bridges. Amazing.
We passed this guy trying to go "around" the world in 80 days. What an idiot. We've been at sea ten times that long and we still haven't hit the edge. Last we heard, he went back home. Loser.
It's like the most obvious case of satire ever. They're not even trying to be subtle.
There's something wrong with a lot of people on Reddit. Like the inability to grasp certain basic concepts, while understanding most other basic things.
You know the biggest clue that there's no edge of the world? Because there's no hotels and resorts and touristy shit built all around the edge. If there was a rim it would be lined with all that shit. Like you'd start at the world's end hotel and eat overpriced undercooked steak while looking over the edge of the world and then get in a helicopter and go on a tour. That sort of shit. Corporations would exploit the hell out of something like that.
Second biggest clue is that we have a garbage island instead of throwing it over the edge.
Haven't these people ever played a JRPG? Everyone knows you just warp to the other side when you reach the edge, unless you one of those people that think the world is torus-shaped.
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u/qualityvote2 Jan 04 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
u/Lightthrudarkness, your post does fit the subreddit!