• dessimbelackis@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Far more respect gained when someone realizes they’re wrong and changes their view then stubbornly sticking with incorrect beliefs

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Has anyone seen Behind the Curve? Most of these flat earth people seem to possess some level of critical thinking, just… not enough. That, or their pride or obstinacy get in the way. At the end of the documentary, a team of flat-earthers perform an actual, well thought out experiment. It’s… well, just watch.

    Best part? Immediately after this, they discard the results of the experiment saying the premise was faulty. Somehow.

    • Zozano@lemy.lol
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      4 months ago

      The problem doesn’t stem from their critical thinking skills, but rather, a combination of indoctrination and religious beliefs which cause a series of presuppositions to supersede the conclusions the rest of us have taken as presuppositions.

      In some sense I admire their dedication to challenge established facts about reality, that should be done in general.

      To clarify the statement about indoctrination and religion: many people are not aware that flat earthers are religious wackjobs. Their thought process is as follows:

      “If the universe contains trillions of celestial bodies and they’re all spherical, then we are inconsequential. It must be the case that we are special, and earth is not a sphere, but is flat.”

      Some flat earthers will claim space doesn’t exist, even though their bible tells them God created other planets.

      • Well, Columbus, Galilei, Kepler & co. challenged what was considered “established fact” about the shape and place of the earth in their times.

        It is not wrong to challenge what is considered “established facts”. Problem is when you discard results that are going against your preoposition. I wouldn’t consider flat earthers to be particular religious as a crowd though. At least in my country they mostl come from the esoteric scene, where you get a mixed bowl of esoteric nonsene, conspiracy theories, and fascist ideology.

        • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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          4 months ago

          One thing to point out is that Columbus wasn’t challenging established thinking about the earth’s shape, but rather its size. The educated populace at the time was on the ball with the earth being a sphere.

          • limelight79@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            And the critics of Columbus WERE RIGHT! He was vastly underestimating the size of the earth. If North America hadn’t existed and it had just been one big ocean, he and the expedition would have perished in the middle of nowhere. Of course, the size had been calculated before his expedition (the actual values turned out be extremely close to what had been calculated), so he should have known better. There’s a reason he had trouble getting funding for his expedition…

            I’m still somewhat frustrated that our history classes taught (maybe still do, I’ve been out of high school a long time) that all the naysayers thought the earth was flat.

    • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Try being in their shoes: you set up an experiment to prove the earth is not flat and is indeed round, you run the experiment and at the end you realise your experiment fail and would prove the earth is flat. Would you changwe your point of view ? I know I wouldn’t, I would immediately assume I am an idiot and messed up the experiment, because I am so much convinced it is round, it would be much more realistic to assume I messed up.

      • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If I do it 10 times and each time the result is ‘flat’, and 99.99% of scientists in the field say it’s flat, at that point I would do some self evaluation to see why I was so hell bent on being wrong

  • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I feel like it’s been memory holed, but I remember 00’s flat earth being genuinely smart people using it to illustrate the ridiculousness of teaching creation beside evolution, which was a push around that time. It was a Church of Satan style mockery, but I guess the arguments were too convincing.

    • Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social
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      4 months ago

      I member… i learned of it from a vsauce video i watched when it first dropped. Was mindblown years later when ppl were touting the flat earth society seriously. Their tagline was literally, “We Have Members Around the Globe!”

    • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Poe’s Law

      Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.

      • sheogorath@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        This is what happened at the Donald on reddit. It was a place to meme Trump’s idiotic presidential bid. But as soon as he got real chance at the election it was soon overran by the MAGA crowd.

      • unphazed@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m kinda hoping for a Cthulu Church myself. Can you imagine how cool the aesthetics of the building would be?

          • unphazed@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I need to become an author, create a Cthulu religion, buy lots of boats, and an island with a giant Cthulu statue with no explanation to keep it a mystery. I’ll build a church and instruct everyone to stay away from the island. Inside the statue I’ll pay a person to sell merchandise…

  • big_slap@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    it takes a lot to admit you are wrong, however, it only benefits yourself. it’s something I still struggle with emotionally, but it is what it is

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I am crazy impressed that anyone could follow that path and not just drop off the internet in shame when they realized. I hope if anything I view in the same manner ever comes up as fabricated I’m as brave.

  • Zozano@lemy.lol
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    4 months ago

    3 months is a very short time to come… (Puts on glasses)… Full circle.

    YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAAAAAA