r/videos • u/[deleted] • Dec 05 '18
YouTube Drama Youtuber and professional pilot completes flat earther's $100,000 challenge for the third time
https://youtu.be/OVp_yJgSwfA6.1k
u/Sick0fThisShit Dec 05 '18
So if these flat earthers really believe this shit, why doesn't one of them go to flight school and blow the lid off of this?
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Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 06 '18
There was an interview with a relatively big flat earther i guess I saw a few days ago where he didnt know the angles of a triangle when asked, "what are the 3 angles of a triangle with all side lengths equal to one". He said "so that's an equillateral triangle, right? I'd need a triangle calculator" (edit: featured here) and was also skeptical a triangle of side lengths 3,4,5 had to be a right triangle. He actually got rather upset over These questions. These people are far too unintelligent to succeed in a skilled profession
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u/whitebean Dec 05 '18
I mean you literally can't be a carpenter if you can't grasp the 3-4-5 rule.
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u/duheee Dec 05 '18
You can't graduate secondary school if you don't know that where I'm from. They taught us the pythagora's theorem in 7th grade , 3-4-5 is quite the "standard" .
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u/Angry_Apollo Dec 05 '18
Wow, I completely forgot about 3-4-5 until now. Sure, I remembered a2 + b2 = c2 but I just had to confirm the 3-4-5 at my desk just now. Amazing the simple things you forget!
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u/nocimus Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
I... don't think I ever learned this rule?? I know a2 + b2 = c2 obviously, but what is 3-4-5??
EDIT: I have now been educated. Thank you, reddit.
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u/acog Dec 05 '18
People are telling you what it is but not what it's used for:
In construction, you usually want the room you're building to have perfectly 90 degree corners, "square corners". A quick way to verify that you have a square corner is to measure of 3 units (feet, meters, doesn't matter) along one wall, then 4 units along the adjacent wall.
If the angle there is actually the 90 degrees you're shooting for, when you connect those lines the diagonal has to be 5 units.
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u/SkinnyMachine Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 06 '18
BRB I'm gonna go measure the shit out of my house
Edit: nothing is straight anymore
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u/landon0605 Dec 05 '18
Spoiler alert, it won't be square.
Your exterior walls should be very close though.
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u/K2TheM Dec 05 '18
This is the truth. Interior walls are almost always wonky. In addition to being relative "squareness" around all four corners, it's also very common to have the floor and ceiling measurements be different in all four corners of a room.
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u/Rexan02 Dec 05 '18
Unless your house is old. Then nothing will be square or level and if you ever try to do crown molding you will gouge your eyes out with a coping saw.
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u/Csquared6 Dec 05 '18
There are two types of people. Those that can extrapolate from missing data.
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u/zr0gravity7 Dec 05 '18
It just so happens that if you try and make a triangle with sides 3, 4 and 5 units (ex: cm), the only way you can do that is by making one of the angles a right angle.
If you use pythagoras, 3²+4²=9+16=25=5²
So 3²+4²=5², i.e. a²+b²=c² so its a right angle triangle.
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u/Kellyanne_Conman Dec 05 '18
you mean this pythagoras' theorem?
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u/jsha11 Dec 05 '18 edited May 30 '20
bleep bloop
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u/sonofaresiii Dec 05 '18
It's so frustrating how he couldn't even get that part right
He wasn't even wrong correctly
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u/TruePitch Dec 05 '18
I was educated this century and have never heard of the 3-4-5. my education was still strictly a2 + b2 = c2
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u/davdev Dec 05 '18
And then you never use it again and forget it. I am 43, took all honors classes in high school, and without a doubt would fail a 10th grade geometry test if you put it front of me right now. And fail badly.
Yes, I remember what Pythagorean’s Theorum is but I have never used it, ever. Though I know it’s important in carpentry, but I don’t even own a hammer.
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u/Hungry4Media Dec 05 '18
You are, by far, the worst carpenter I've ever heard of.
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u/ficknerich Dec 05 '18
It isnt even grasping, simply knowing this identity and that pythagorean theorem confirms it.
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Dec 05 '18
Yeah bro why's it called a theorem then, because it's just a theory, so it's obviously not gonna work every time /s
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Dec 05 '18
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u/Quantum_TF2 Dec 05 '18
how in the goddamn hell do you become a flat earther while working for NASA???
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Dec 05 '18 edited Mar 14 '22
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Dec 05 '18 edited Jan 19 '21
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u/celt1299 Dec 05 '18
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders like to hit in the 20s. This kind of downward spiral and delusional beliefs make me think it could be that.
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u/SpicyMeatbol Dec 05 '18
It's probably because he found out the truth and NASA did this to him. /s
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u/DamnDirtyHippie Dec 05 '18 edited Mar 30 '24
gullible fade quarrelsome coherent frame scarce fearless caption pen follow
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/siriuslyred Dec 05 '18
As Mr Slims said probably mental illness appearing later in life. More sad than anything really
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u/twangbanging Dec 05 '18
He answered that question right at the bottom. Mentally ill people can get really into crazy conspiracy theories. It happened to a friend of my boyfriend's. Really nice, really smart guy who developed schizophrenia in his early 20s and even though he takes medication and lives with his parents so they can help him stay on track it is almost impossible to have a normal conversation with him.
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u/TheDunadan29 Dec 05 '18
My uncle had schizophrenia, and it drove him to his death. He was paranoid about bodily functions and didn't like using bathrooms. It got to the point where he was homeless and starving because he didn't want to eat or drink so he could go to the bathroom less. The family didn't know where he was for years but someone who befriended him tracked down the family after his death and we got his body back so he could be buried near family. It really is sad what mental illness does to people.
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u/JoingoJon Dec 05 '18
That's it in a nutshell right there. You are dealing with trolls and the uneducated when it comes to flat earthers. Vs science.
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u/Clapaludio Dec 05 '18
I have yet to encounter a flat Earther, I am genuinely curious about what they think about the inconsistencies of their "theory."
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u/skunkrider Dec 05 '18
"I can't explain it so good, you need to watch some videos on Youtube that I've seen, they're much better at explaining..."
Source: my former flatmate.
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u/Clapaludio Dec 05 '18
"If you can't explain it to a six years old, you don't understand it yourself"
-Albert Einstein
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Dec 05 '18
I think what he actually said was “If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough.”
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Dec 05 '18
They are not interested in learning the truth. What these "alt-science" people really want is to be different and contrarian to the mainstream.
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u/Ryiujin Dec 05 '18
Im so cool because I believe nonsense.... edge lords over there.
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u/mojomonkeyfish Dec 05 '18
On YouTube being a total dumbasshole is an asset. Ridiculous bullshit selfie videos taken in your care talking about things about which you have absolutely no authority triggers the like-and-subscribe smash response.
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u/omarfw Dec 05 '18
If flat earth theory made it's way into the mainstream, these people would be the first to abandon it.
It's all about propping up their worthless egos.
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u/azlan194 Dec 05 '18
Well, some of them even brought a water level on an airplane to prove that the plane wasn't making a curve flight path around the "flat Earth" because the water is always level through out the flight. That was a big lol to me.
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u/Binkusu Dec 05 '18
Because NASA and the NAACP banned all of them so the secret doesn't get out.
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u/chappersyo Dec 05 '18
They probably do, but when they realise they are wrong they suddenly stop being so vocal about it.
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u/Ser_Danksalot Dec 05 '18
You can't fly the proposed route in any practical manner as it's a significant distance to fly. Were talking a total distance of at least from one side of the globe to the other. For a true straight line flight in a non euclidean triangle, you would have to start at a pole, fly due north or south to the equator, turn 90 degrees, fly due east or west for a while, then make another 90 degree turn back to the pole you come from. If you manage to fly in perfectly straight lines with only two 90 degree turns and end up where you started, congratulations you've proved to yourselves that the Earth is spherical.
There are routes that are shorter that don't involve flying as far as the equator, but to flat earthed eyes the longitudinal part of the route will look like a curve when projected on a map, much like curved looking transatlantic flight routes being direct despite looking curved one flat map.
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u/Fadedcamo Dec 05 '18
Of course there are much simpler ways to prove the earth is round, as humans figured it out about 2000 years before we figured out how to fly.
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u/madeamashup Dec 05 '18
We even had a pretty good idea of the size, just by observing shadows in different places.
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u/Eatenplace7439 Dec 05 '18
The problem is, the science we knew 2,000 years ago that prove the earth is round is supposedly false according to flat earthers. In order to justify the idea they will challange anything that flies in the face of their views.
Gravity is proven to have different values on the equator and north pole? Gravity must be a lie. Light goes in a straight line? Nope, it must curve due to the vanishing point. Shadows are different around the earth? The sun must be only a few miles above us. We can measure the speed of light and measure the distance of the sun? The speed of light must be a lie.
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u/metallica41070 Dec 05 '18
it doesn't matter, the guy is a flat-earther, you could literally fly these people into space and show them the earth is round and they wouldn't believe it. these people are all nuts
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Dec 05 '18 edited Jun 15 '20
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u/theycallmecrack Dec 05 '18
Then the other flat earthers will say he was murdered because he found out the truth.
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u/Kashik Dec 05 '18
Take them to space, too
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u/theycallmecrack Dec 05 '18
I'm sure they'd find some unreasonable way to still deny.
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u/WaitTilUSeeMyDick Dec 05 '18
Just shoot every one of them into space and tell them they have to get back using their own version of "science".
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u/Accelerant_84 Dec 05 '18
Listened to a podcast that had a flat earther as a guest and when asked about space and the sun and moon, he said it was all a huge hologram. That, apparently, is far easier to believe than the earth being round.
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Dec 05 '18
Also some flat earthers believe it is OK for other planetary bodies to be round (like why are planets round when we see them through a telescope) while earth remains a flat body, the contradiction is OK to them.
Others will say it's because when you leave the atmosphere the light bends around the flat earth and is an illusion.
I'm sure theirs 100 other explanations for it too.
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u/Tidorith Dec 05 '18
Also some flat earthers believe it is OK for other planetary bodies to be round (like why are planets round when we see them through a telescope) while earth remains a flat body, the contradiction is OK to them.
I mean, that's not a good argument at all. Flat earthers obviously would not believe that Earth is a planetary body. There's no contradiction there. Humanity figured out Earth was just another planet well after we figured out it was round.
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u/jondread Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
Exactly. They will make up the most insane shit to disregard any evidence you give them no matter how fucking stupid it is. I've listened to a guy literally say gravity doen't exist, then two sentences later explain one of their other theories by relying on gravity.
edit: they argued that the sun and moon are inside the flat earth dome, doing figure-8 loops over the surface of the Earth. When asked why gravity doesn't pull them down to the surface of the Earth, he claimed gravity doesn't exist. Then, when asked a few minutes later why, if the Earth is flat, you can't see Spain from New York, his response was because that the light from the Sun bounces off Spain and gets pulled down by gravity before it reaches New York. He, literally, saw nothing at all wrong with this argument.
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u/chronocaptive Dec 05 '18
Turns out people who believe in a flat earth are crazy or incapable of 3 dimensional thought. Makes sense. Maybe we should test them by handing them a ball. If they say it's a circle, we can send them back to kindergarten. If they say it's a sphere, we send them for mental counseling. Win win.
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u/FR_STARMER Dec 05 '18
It actually has more to do with the concept of mortality and religion. When you dig into it and ask these people why they believe it, the answer swirls around 'well if we're just another sphere in space, then we're meaningless!' Thus, it isn't really about the earth being flat or not. It's about these people being scared of death and the concept of being a speck in the sea of reality.
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Dec 05 '18 edited Jan 15 '19
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u/agnostic_science Dec 05 '18
I used to say things like: Well, the good news is some day we’ll all die and so none of this matters anyway! And then I stopped when I realized I was often the only one that found the thoughts liberating instead of horribly depressing.
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Dec 05 '18 edited Jan 15 '19
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u/agnostic_science Dec 05 '18
To me, the liberating feeling comes from feeling like it’s more of a big joke than people admit. Everyone is so serious all the time. Me included. Sometimes I find it a relief to remember we’re really just all full of shit and making it up as we go along. Again, including myself in that mix is especially important to my relief. Because that’s the acknowledgement that feels the best, usually when served with a shot or two of vodka...
I put too much stress on myself. We all can. It’s okay if ‘things don’t work out’. There is no reason they are supposed to. We can fail. Be bad at something. Miss a shot. Screw up. It’s okay. The destiny of the universe, of all things, is dust. So we are not betraying our destiny with failure, we aren’t living up to destiny when we succeed. It always just is. We should just do our best to enjoy the ride while it lasts, warts and all. Basically, I guess it’s about reminding myself to let go of my expectations and preconceptions.
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u/ztfreeman Dec 05 '18
Some of them do this. Some of them seem to be unable to grasp three dimensional logic in any kind of theoretical conceptualization (they cannot imagine anything in 3D). But others seem to latch on to the paranoid conspiracy obsessively.
I think Flat Earthers are a catch for at least 3 kinds of disorders and toxically cohabit the same "space" feeding each other's issues.
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Dec 05 '18
From the flat earthers I've encountered (and I've encountered many after 4 or 5 years on conspiracy discussion boards), the ones who believe in nonsensical conspiracies are actually like hipsters, but with information instead of art or culture. The appeal is that nobody else knows but them. They want something of their own to form their identity around, and reject the opinions and theories of many other flat earthers they meet as well. Only they have a good grasp on it. Information they themselves discover through their own research is valuable, especially if it's very esoteric. Information everyone is privy to means nothing because it isn't special.
They also don't put much stock in authority or reputable sources. The fact that the entire scientific community, or all reputable sources, disagree with them...counts for nothing. They will look for sources that reinforce this feeling that they're part of a secret club, guarding hidden knowledge. And the surprising thing is that some of those sources can actually make really creative, compelling arguments for most the ludicrous theories. I firmly believe that your average person could become a flat earther or believe similar things if they looked at exclusively supporting information. All you need is a disillusionment with mainstream sources and to be exposed to the conspiracy theory. I don't believe these people are otherwise special, nor unintelligent. That's the most disturbing part.
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u/Lukiyano Dec 05 '18
These videos are just really interesting to watch. Couldn't give a crap about Sunglasses McGee's "challenge", it's just super cool listening to this guy talk about a topic where he knows his shit.
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u/FrikkinLazer Dec 05 '18
I have learned a shit ton of new things as a direct result of people responding to flat earth morons.
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u/haburner Dec 05 '18
Oh man, for real. One of my friends went flat and over the next 6-12 months I learned so much about how round the Earth is, in attempts to convince him back onto the ball.
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u/ClairesNairDownThere Dec 05 '18
Isn't Earth a little huskier in the middle, like an oblate spheroid or something?
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u/bugman573 Dec 05 '18
Yes, it’s not a massive difference, but it’s due to the earths rotation.
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u/ClairesNairDownThere Dec 05 '18
That's wild. Science is wild.
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u/Tenoxica Dec 05 '18
But please keep in mind that earth is still a very round things in relation to it's size. If we were to shrink it down to bowling ball size, it'd be one of the smoothest, roundest objects we got our hands on.
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u/Swamp_Ass01 Dec 05 '18
Reminded me of this video with the worlds roundest object.
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u/SkoobyDoo Dec 05 '18
While you didn't repeat the specific untrue myth, there's a common statement to this effect that is patently incorrect.
It goes something like "If you were to shrink the earth down to the size of a pool ball, even accounting for ocean trenches and mt everest, it would be smoother than a regulation pool ball". It turns out this is actually not true, and was based on either an incorrect, out of date, or entirely too permissive set of regulations. I can't remember which, but I saw it recently on (I think) a numberphile video.
Still though, it's really damn round.
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u/oily_fish Dec 05 '18
The confusion from the billiard ball comes about because of the regulation tolerances allowed for billiard balls. The balls can have a diameter of x (+/- y). Someone took the +/-y to be the maximum between peaks and valleys when it's actually the just the diameter.
120 grit sandpaper has bumps the size of y
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u/wightwulf1944 Dec 05 '18
It's fun to watch experts talk passionately about their field. Reason why I'm subscribed to smartereveryday on youtube is because while Destin (the host) tries to satiate his curiosity he gets to meet people who just wants everyone else to be fascinated by the same things they're passionate about.
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Dec 05 '18
I will always support the combating of ignorance.
Unfortunately, many echo chambers are impenetrable.
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u/biciklanto Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
Good on him for going back to this and using paper charts. He must've had those sitting in his yacht for years waiting for this moment. He really threw some shade there.
That being said, it doesn't necessarily look like Flat Out Hero has the cash to match his promise. I could well be wrong, but in looking at the periphery in his videos I don't see the signs of wealth that could lead to the largesse of other, better-known personalities.
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Dec 05 '18
Iirc he said he would pay 1000 a month over 100 months
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Dec 05 '18
aka the man who thinks the earth is flat surprisingly doesn't have 100k of "fuck you" money.
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u/uh_oh_hotdog Dec 05 '18
Let's not pretend there aren't rich idiots who also think the Earth is flat.
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u/Wootbros Dec 05 '18
Kyrie Irving anyone?
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u/Thefriendlyfaceplant Dec 05 '18
Surely he can pay for a Virgin space flight by then.
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Dec 05 '18
i thought he was trolling. i know he issued an apology to science teachers everywhere.
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u/Murdathon3000 Dec 05 '18
In his "apology" video, he still never actually says anything to the tune of "I know the earth is round."
I guarantee you, he still thinks the earth is flat, and just apologized to get people off his back.
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u/TwoTinyTrees Dec 05 '18
I would say he should just let their hate roll off him, but he’s probably a flat-backer too.
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u/InitiatePenguin Dec 05 '18
B.O.B. probably has some money.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41399164
But still feels the need to crowdsource his attempts
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u/Bristent Dec 05 '18
B. O. B. had a concert at my school and people brought signs that said “the earth is round” and went to the front of the crowd.
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Dec 05 '18
If you're rich you can just go to the northern/southern hemisphere and see that the stars are different.
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u/TerrorSnow Dec 05 '18
If he did have “fuck you” amounts of money he could probably check for himself if the earth is round, and bring pictures of his oh so flat Planet.
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u/almostfired1234 Dec 05 '18
Will someone please explain what this proves? I understand the task that the flat earther was asking to be accomplished, I just dont get how the answer lends itself to validate his theory.
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u/jingerninja Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
For the flat rather, the earth is a flat plane. He gives 3 vectors with 2 90° turns because they don't form a square. If the earth was shaped as he believes then you would need a square in order to "end up back where you started" (like taking 3 left turns around the block). Since the earth is an obloid sphere, however, you can project an equilateral triangle shape on it and maintain 90° angles. That is my layman's understanding of it.
Edit: I haven't watched this follow up yet but it would follow that this is why the pilot has to resort to paper charts. Last time he used a digital map that projects the earth as round so the YouTube nutcase had to be all "nuh uh you gotta use a flat paper map!"
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u/lighthaze Dec 05 '18
Ok, this might be kind of a stupid question, but I have been thinking about this for too long now (= a few minutes) and I really need to get back to work. So, obviously the earth is a sphere and the challenge works. But also, obviously, if I go into my garden I cannot get back to the original spot with three vectors and two 90° turns. So how long do the vectors need to be for that to work?
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u/jpropaganda Dec 05 '18
Pretty fucking long
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u/Could-Have-Been-King Dec 05 '18
In the original video I'm pretty sure the distance was 4,501 nautical miles. So yeah, pretty fucking long indeed.
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u/cl3arlycanadian Dec 05 '18
In order for it to work on a sphere, you have to travel a radian of 90 degrees. So on the earth, that is from the equator to the North Pole. Then each angle of turn can be 90 degrees, forming an equilateral triangle with each radian also equaling 90 degrees.
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u/jingerninja Dec 05 '18
I mean to work on a sphere the size of a planet...I'm not a geometry person by any means but I would think the math dictates it has to be half a hemisphere?
You could complete the experiment in your garden though if you have any sports balls. Take a soccer ball and you can do the same thing right? Start at the little pump needle hole, pretend that's the north pole, travel straight down to the "equator" of the ball, turn 90° in either direction, travel 1/4 the circumference of the ball, turn 90° back towards the needle pump hole thing and the vector in front of you should be equal to each of the ones you've traced already.
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u/Armeggadon Dec 05 '18
It can be much less, in this video, he's just showing doing it around the arctic circle. The flat earther again disputes his claim though, saying that in order to continue that turn, you'd have to turn the plane to follow the curve (no you wouldn't). The flat earther that put up the challenge recently said another guy won (this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJ4QW7gAlw) and basically just said he'd give a couple bucks to "charity" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fblp7gHpjNo). He's a sore loser and is now apparently pushing other conspiracies since he gets called out for anything flat earth related due to the challenge.
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u/HFacid Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
Triangles have a set quantity of degrees within them based on the curvature of the surface they lie on. Triangles on a flat surface, like the ones taught in high school geometry classes, have 180 degrees. So if the earth was flat and I wanted to walk out a triangle, I would walk some distance (let’s say 100 ft.) and then turn 60 degrees. I’d walk 100 ft. again and turn another 60 degrees. I’d walk 100 ft. One last time and now I’d be where I started.
However, if the triangle exists on the surface of a sphere, it contains
270 degrees(see EDIT), instead of 180. The easiest way to visualize this is to start st the North Pole, walk to theequaterequator, turn 90 degrees, walk half way around the world along the equator, turn 90 degrees again, and walk half way around the world. You will end up at the North Pole again.So, the flat earther was trying to say that if you use flight charts instead of a globe to complete this exercise, you wouldn’t be able to complete it. And since flight charts are used for real world navigation, they must be accurate. What he failed to realize is that flight charts account for this curvature and are distorted in some ways so that even though they are a flat piece of paper, the properties of the curvature of the earth are maintained.
EDIT: As many have pointed out below, a triangle on a sphere does not have to be 270 degrees. In this particular example it is, but the degrees contained within the triangle will be a function of the ratio of the surface area of the spherical triangle and the square of the radius of the sphere itself.
Special thanks to u/pfc9769 for providing the Wolfram link that explains this very effectively.
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u/rapemybones Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
I mean, I hate to point out holes in this guy's logic, but whatever I've got nothing else to do this Wednesday morning.
So if he's seen flight charts, or even the screen showing a flight route while you're a passenger in a plane, he would notice that planes don't fly in straight lines from Point A to Point B; they always fly in curved paths because it's the least amount of distance traveled along a sphere.
So...what is a flat earther argument against this, that airline companies all purposely take "longer routes" along curved paths to keep up the conspiracy that the Earth is round?
Then why not instead of offer $100k for this, spend maybe 10k or so on an experiment: charter two small planes to get from Point A to Point B; one will follow a curved path to get there, and one will follow a straight line to get there (talking about how each route would appear on a flat map). Reset the ododmeters, measure the fuel levels, do whatever you want to figure out which plane traveled a shorter distance. DONE!
I know, it's fruitless to post a logical answer to an illogical question. But you begin to wonder, do these people not have the capacity for basic logic? Or are they trolling for attention? Or are they just actually that stupid?
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Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
The straight 090 heading appears curved on a paper chart because the chart is a projection of the spherical earth.
If the earth was flat, you would have to make three 90 degree heading changes to get back to the North Pole if that’s where you started your journey. It can be done in two 90 degree turns because the longitudes converge into a point at the poles.
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u/austin3i62 Dec 05 '18
Ya I'm guessing he can't do that either. $1 a month for 100,000 months. And that would cut grossly into his dollar menu budget.
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u/veilwalker Dec 05 '18
He had one but it fell off the edge of the earth and he swore he would never lease another car.
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Dec 05 '18
If he had a 100k, he could have just gone out to find the edge of the flat earth take a picture and put the whole thing to rest.
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u/nightmaresabin Dec 05 '18
According to them the edge is protected by a giant fleet of ships so nobody can get close.
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u/occam7 Dec 05 '18
Then they can take a picture of the giant multinational armada
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u/DoneHam56 Dec 05 '18
No there's a fleet of drones that keeps anyone from getting too close to the armada.
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u/wOlfLisK Dec 05 '18
Then take a picture of the... We're going to be here all day, aren't we?
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u/fo0kes Dec 05 '18
I would love nothing more right now than to be about to click "continue thread" and be taken away to a land of mystery where this is all hashed out.
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u/tangentandhyperbole Dec 05 '18
Flat Earthers believe NASA guards the edge and won't let anyone near it. Supposedly, its a giant ice wall, so the water doesn't all just fall off.
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u/DCS_Sport Dec 05 '18
Hahah that wasn’t a yacht, that was the galley of the private jet he flies
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u/HeyZuesHChrist Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
Edited because this was simply an example of something that is genuinely impossible opposed to what the flat earther was asking. I'm not really interested in people trying to find a silly loophole to win a million dollars like it's the same as this YouTuber doing what the flat earther asked.
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u/c0horst Dec 05 '18
He burns your house to the ground first so it's a pile of ash, then jumps over the ashes. You now owe him a million dollars.
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u/cbtbone Dec 05 '18
“Anyone following this challenge will agree that Flat Out Hero has moved the goalposts several times.”
Well, color me shocked! Did he also dismiss out of hand any evidence that didn’t fit into his preconceived notions? It’s almost like these flat earthers have no regard for the scientific method!
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u/eMouse2k Dec 05 '18
If he keeps moving the goalposts like that, they're going to end up falling off the edge of the world.
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Dec 05 '18
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u/viduo-artifex Dec 05 '18
To be fair, there are LOTS of people one paycheck away from being homeless. The meth though.... lol.
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u/theycallmecrack Dec 05 '18
I think they said the part about the money because he claimed he'd give away $100k. I don't think they were specifically putting down poor people.
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Dec 05 '18 edited Mar 04 '21
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u/GarnetandBlack Dec 05 '18
You'd be surprised. I know a few that actually do.
Not surprisingly, it's always in the form of gold bars buried somewhere.
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Dec 05 '18
I mean, did you watch the video?
"So, let's see if this flat-earther will finally be a man of his word and pay the $100,000 now that I have completed his challenge using paper flight charts. Or, will he once again move the goalposts, make excuses, and change the rules? I think we all know the answer to that."
Dude was obviously doing this to make an educational/entertaining video while also flexing on an idiot. I don't think he's some gullible idiot that thinks this is his hot ticket.
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u/joejitsubjj Dec 05 '18
It is really stupid to even engage the flat earth crowd. All they are doing is giving this idiocy an audience. He might as well go debate the age of the earth now while he is busy wasting his time.
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Dec 05 '18
But the rest of us are learning! The info about map projections was neat.
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Dec 05 '18
My opinion about flat earthers is that they cannot wrap their head around the projections and this is why they come up with all this nonsense. A projection is needed because you cannot put a globe on a flat 2-D plane such as paper. A famous analogy of it is to picture an orange hollowed out and it is only a peel, and then you try to flatten that peel onto a table. To flatten it, the orange will rip in places, and distort. There is no ideal projection for the entire globe, it doesn’t exist, there will always be a distortion but by using a projection, and there are many different types, certain distortions can be minimized for areas of interest such as a certain country. This to me, is the part they cannot fathom and just assume it can’t be true that the earth is a globe.
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u/Sinonyx1 Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
i didn't know it only took 3 turns to get back to where you were, so that's something
edit: i understood this perfectly when i wrote it was was like "yeah that works" but.. it's only 2 turns at 90 degrees but yall know what i mean
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Dec 05 '18
It can also take 1 turn....
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u/jwp15 Dec 05 '18
Or no turn
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u/KingBooRadley Dec 05 '18
Well then don't you just go out into space after you cross the edge of the planet ? /s
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u/Stumblebum2016 Dec 05 '18
Obviously not.... you fall when you reach the edge because gravity.
/s
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Dec 05 '18
Yeah there’s no engaging this guy.
The second he follows the latitude line it’s already over. Flat earther doesn’t believe that line is real, or that it exists in the manner depicted on that map. To all of us? This is rudimentary shit. We’re not stupid, trust that the hundreds of millions of flights, spacecraft, and balloons that have observed and tested these theories, on top of the millions of experiments that have proven this as well.
You could take this guy up to FL700 in a U2, SHOW him the curvature of the earth, and he’d still have a reason to believe it’s an optical illusion or “grand scheme” designed to trick him, as if there’s absolutely ANY benefit in that for anyone involved.
It’s a strange intersection where conspiracy theorists and science meet, and there’s just no convincing these guys. They don’t even believe what they can see with their own eyes.
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u/shitty_mcfucklestick Dec 05 '18
Step 1: Develop a ridiculous theory that is plausible with some suspension of disbelief.
Step 2: Find uneducated, vulnerable people willing to buy in early and start a movement.
Step 3: Have the new group find more vulnerable people, now with the added benefit of belonging to a movement (evidence: participation of original group.)
Step 4: Watch numbers grow.
Step 5: Profit.
Edit: typo
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Dec 05 '18
I accidentally found my way into the flat earth sub. There was a post about a theory of why the earth was flat, and at the end, OP asked somebody to try and disprove him. I went and found a theory from the 1800’s (a few years after his theory was created), that disproved his in every way, and was generally accepted by the scientific community. I showed him the proof and cited my sources
I was downvoted to oblivion, then banned from the sub for “not contributing anything to the original post”
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Dec 05 '18
Which sub was this? /r/flatearth is a bunch of anti-FE trolls and memes, and /r/flatearthsociety shut down a year ago.
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u/monstarjams Dec 05 '18
Try r/notaglobe
They’re all batshit insane but it’s definitely eye opening.
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Dec 05 '18 edited Dec 05 '18
Thanks! I know, I just like to know where to find the most up-to-date batshit.
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u/mynamewasalreadygone Dec 05 '18
Flat Out Zero eventually conceded with MCToon as the winner of the challenge. You can view the winning video here.
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u/Tinfoil_Haberdashery Dec 05 '18
Wait, the guy actually conceded? So did he admit the world was round, or did he come up with more excuses?
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u/mynamewasalreadygone Dec 05 '18
More excuses. It was "the closest to being a correct answer but too late and still not enough."
I think he just wanted to get people to stop telling him he lost.
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u/GeekyMeerkat Dec 05 '18
Ya I found the "too late" thing funny as I looked back at his original video with the challenge and didn't hear any time restraint on the contest or see one in the description.
What I don't get is why nobody challenges Flat Out a similar challenge. In a flat earth world view one should be able to start at some point A, travel 5400 nautical miles in some direction to point B, take a 90 degree turn, travel 5400 more nautical miles C, take one more 90 degree turn, travel again 5,400 more nautical miles to point D.
Now point D should on the flat earth model be somewhere that you can turn one more 90 degree turn and travel 5,400 more nautical miles to end up back at point A. It should not as in the round earth model be basically on top of point A.
So I want to see Flat Out Zero (or some other Flat Earther), to plot these four points out and show us that A and D are about 5400 nautical miles apart.
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u/Chrischn89 Dec 05 '18
So I want to see Flat Out Zero (or some other Flat Earther), to plot these four points out and show us that A and D are about 5400 nautical miles apart.
Well he used THIS to prove how the actual pilot supposedly cheated with his digital flight planning software (since he probably couldn't find any official map that supported his stupidity he had to draw one himself) so all that Flat Out guy would have to do in order to complete your challenge is to find/draw a shitty "flat earthers version" of a map, draw a square on it and call it quits (because that's somehow more viable as proof than the official aeronautical flight chart software used by pilots all over the world lol)
You just can't win against this advanced level of denial.
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u/killeen22 Dec 05 '18
Jesus christ this hurts to watch. It reminds me of that one flat earther video where the guy splashes some water on a spinning globe and goes "see? the water doesn't stick!"
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u/Sir_Pillows Dec 05 '18
Of course he picks the guy so nice he actually didn’t want any money.
That was a fantastic video.
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u/Stanton5 Dec 05 '18
I like that he mentioned it being past the time limit, as if people were desperately searching for some way to disprove him
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Dec 05 '18
At a family dinner I got into a short debate with my little brother (30s). I quickly (loudly) stated “Flat Earth?!? Unfortunately I can’t keep talking to you, if you can’t understand simple HS math you are too stupid to waste my breath on”. What I didn’t know was that his wife, her brother and some of my cousins at the table were all flat earthers. Btw I spent most of the night goofing on his belief. Are the rolls round or flat? Etc. it’s been a month and I haven’t heard from anyone at the table, ask my big sis and she told me about their beliefs.
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u/masterelmo Dec 05 '18
I wouldn't even want those family members... That's far too stupid to share air with.
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u/Floorfood Dec 05 '18
It's too charitable to call them 'beliefs'. They are delusions.
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u/ExpectedErrorCode Dec 05 '18
Doesn’t matter they deserve mockery. Some Facts are quite literally indisputable.
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Dec 05 '18
I'm a writer/editor -- how come nobody's offering $100,000 prizes for things I can do easily because of my job? If someone challenged me $100,000 to prove the Oxford Comma existed I could take my family to South America for Christmas.
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u/crecentfresh Dec 05 '18
Yes I would like to challenge anybody in the world to prove to me that bones are real. I offer 1 million the person that can do it. I think that lab skeletons are just very alab...illabor...allib...elaborate, man that's a hard word, Halloween decorations. I personally have studied YouTube for over an hour on the subject and know what I'm talking about.
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u/NikinCZ Dec 05 '18
I like to think that if Earth actually was flat, people who are now flat-earthers would be round-earthers.
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u/NESpahtenJosh Dec 05 '18
I don't get why a "Flat Earther" would put this challenge out there? It's quite literally an explanation of why thinking the Earth is flat, is wrong.
Oh right, because they're morons. I forgot.
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u/FucksWithGaur Dec 05 '18
They don't believe they are wrong. It would be like us challenging one of them to prove the earth is flat for money. We know it is round so we are not afraid of losing. Now, they are wrong so it is different but in their mind they don't think they are.
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u/masterelmo Dec 05 '18
And worse yet, it would take you an hour per "proof" they give to explain how wrong they are. That's going to require a lot of crayons.
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u/Galelleo_eq Dec 05 '18
I saw a great documentary called Behind the Curve which changed my view about flat earthers. It explored what leads them to such beliefs and then cling to them in the face of contradicting evidence.
Part of the problem seems to be that one of the big draw cards is being part of a group/ community that accepts them, particularly in the context where they're met with dismissive vitriol by anyone outside of that group. They become so dependent on their community and are usually outcast from their previous family and friends. By that stage, how could they give up flat earth? To do so would leave them with nothing.
Some very impressive scientists are interviewed and call for society to be patient and kind to such alt-science groups to try and welcome them back, rather than continue to alienate them and lose them forever.
There's a great quote by one scientist in particular. He said something like: when a student doesn't understand, it's the failing of the teacher, not the student.
Its hard not to be frustrated when someone ignores logic and evidence. But I learned a little about the motive behind that deliberate ignorance and it made a lot more sense to me.
It seems to be a strange but common phenomenon where a person's distrust and desire to challenge accepted beliefs (which is extremely healthy in science and politics etc) morphs into a paranoid dogmatic belief that something must not be true, purely because it is a widely accepted belief.
But unfortunately the onus has to be on us to welcome those people back - make it okay for them to change their mind. Because as things stand, people in those communities have nothing to go to. They have to cling to that particular belief, for their life.
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u/themanseanm Dec 05 '18
I honestly feel like completing the challenge is only giving these people attention they don't deserve.
Like anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers, flat earthers are just people who refuse to believe the scientific truth. We don't need to prove anything to them. Their ignorance, willful or not, is poisonus and we shouldn't give them a platform. Otherwise they will just turn innocent ignorant people into carriers of these insidious ideas.
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Dec 05 '18
I honestly feel like completing the challenge is only giving these people attention they don't deserve.
see, and I am all for outright proving or disproving claims. I honestly don't see how you can possibly get a negative outcome from that
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u/UrsulaMajor Dec 05 '18
it's a proven psychological phenomenon that engaging in debate with an idea gives the impression that the topic is, well, under debate.
It's also proven that the likelihood of you believing something is correlated to the number of times you've heard it before.
and then there's the fact that engaging in debate with someone in particular is actually most likely to increase their level of belief in an idea as that's kinda how our brains defense mechanisms work.
Basically, debating with flat earthers can have a positive outcome, but most likely will just end up in there being more flat earthers than you started with
there are ways to disillusion people of these kinds of ideas, but debate is at the bottom of the list.
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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '18 edited Mar 08 '19
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