this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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187
What happened to the flat earthers who demonstrated that the earth is round in the netfilx documentary ? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago by Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A few year back, there was a Netflix documentary about flat earther. They've done a couple of experiment to prove that the earth is flat which (Spoiler alert) demonstrated that the earth is round.

So now that these persons have demonstrated scientifically that the earth is round. How are they doing ? Still flat-earther ? or did they give up with the amount of evidence they collected ?

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[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 118 points 10 months ago (4 children)

The movie is called Behind the Curve, and imo is a great move.

It doesn't try to ridicule the people in it. Instead it tries to make a point that if a group like the flat earth society is being made fun of rather than engaged in discussions, then the gap just gets larger and the problem worse. (If everyone else makes fun of you, you avoid them and stay in the community that supports you.)

As far as I can tell, Mark Sargent is still believing in those theories and continues doing his part in it. This doesn't surprise me, he's quite prominent in that community and I guess if he stopped, he'd lose quite a lot of his personal achievements, friends, hobbies, etc.

I don't know about the others who were in the movie, it would be interesting to know. Especially about those who were directly doing the experiments, yeah.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 94 points 10 months ago

It tries to show that good faith engagement is better than ridicule, but in the end it shows that flat Earthers are so contrarian that they will actively ignore the results of their own experiments and engaging in good faith is pointless.

[–] Phanatik@kbin.social 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The problem with flat earthers is that they don't listen to reason.

You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

[–] jettrscga@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The takeaway I got from the movie is it's not really about the theory, it could be literally anything that brings people together. It's just about being part of a community and being respected somewhere. Of course you can't logic someone out of that.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

-Upton Sinclair

[–] Phanatik@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't remember if it was said in the doc itself or it was a video discussing the doc (I think Hbomberguy), that said "they (flat earthers) are attempting a form of science".

To me, what that says is, if they were intellectually honest with genuine curiosity, then they would've changed their views in the face of contradictory evidence. Time and time again, they showed that they weren't willing to do that even after seeing the results of their own experiments.

As you said, they've staked too much on this notion that the Earth is flat and can't afford to give up the grift now.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 3 points 10 months ago

You're right. It isn't about proving something with science. It's about the community. In this community you always hear the same things over and over again, so if you start questioning your beliefs you also have to question all this "evidence" you saw. You have to question all your beliefs. The beliefs that you defended in the Internet and real life against other people. Doing so can cause an "existential crisis". It isn't comfortable to question yourself. Humans don't like change, so they won't question anything and hold onto their beliefs, since it's easy. Also all the people always positively engage with each other so breaking with your beliefs also means breaking with your social circle.

[–] lgmjon64@lemmy.world 89 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I know a guy who was involved in some of those "experiments" and spent a considerable amount of time and money on them. He still is very adamant that it just proves that there is some other unknown confounding variable that just proves that the experiment was valid and that the designers of the flat earth already expected the experiments. It's really depressing. I used to really respect him when I was younger.

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Hold the fuck up. Now theres DESIGNERS of the flat earth? Jesus Christ

[–] Player2@sopuli.xyz 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Actually, it's his father

[–] Vaginal_blood_fart@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Its his father, him

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 7 points 10 months ago

The Time Traveling adventures of Yahweh and his selfson, Jesus.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Hi Dad. It's me, you.

[–] BallsInTheShredder@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Luke, I am.. my own father

[–] asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

~~This just makes me want to rewatch red dwarf~~

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Most probbably just doubled down and made excuses. The main takeaway of the documentary was a lot of those people are just lost/lonely and being part of that club gave them a sense of belonging to a group of similar people.

[–] Arcane_Trixster@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There was a short segment on 60 Minutes (maybe?) back in 2020 before the elections where they interviewed someone who had deprogrammed himself from Qanon.

It was the same story. He had no friends IRL, no social support, he had turned his mom onto Qanon and she was still down the rabbit hole.

He said that was the part that kept him in it for so long, even once he started questioning things. All his "friends" and close relations were part of the cult and he would have to cut ties with everyone or worse, they would turn on him and attack him as a traitor.

It would be sad if these online-cults weren't so damaging to society.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Yup. Eerily similar with what people getting out of MLMs experience.

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you watch the movie? Because the experiments showed that the earth was round, they decided that there must have been something wrong with the experiments.

[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

Flat Earth Follower: "So what was the result of that laser gyroscope experiment we all gave you money for?"

Flat Earth Leader: "Well it showed a 15 degree an hour rotation... So we think 'heaven energies' are affecting it."

Flat Earth Follower: Nods happily, knowing he doesn't have to change his beliefs.

[–] NoiseColor@startrek.website 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Very important question! Did they do the mind acrobat tango and still believe it's flat or did they just go to the next conspiracy theory?

[–] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

No idea, but the greatest predictor of whether someone will believe a conspiracy theory is if they already believe another conspiracy theory.

[–] yata@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There is not a lot to laugh about with flat earthers. The theory stems from Christian fundamentalism, and it is tightly connected to the christofascist movements trying to coup the USA at the moment.

And no, they are not going to give up their beliefs, because they didn't come by them through rational thought, so rational thought isn't going to disprove it for them.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Just to piggyback off this for the uninitiated:

If the Earth is round, then that means Earth is just like any other planet; one in a trillion.

Flat Earthers are convinced "space" is an illusion, all the celestial bodies are there to trick us into feeling insignificant.

If the Earth is flat, then we are special.

Truth is: we aren't, not in any cosmic sense.

[–] cpw@lemmy.ca 15 points 10 months ago

Going to suggest the folding ideas YouTube channel on the same topic.

https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44?si=m2b1gAkCOlDOnCle

Spoiler: his hypothesis, well supported in my opinion, is that a large proportion of those formerly in flat earth are now neck deep in qanon, and since the film was made many are now into other conspiracy stuff. The election was fake etc.

Also, his video of minnewanka lake is just perfect flat earth debunking.

[–] kevin@programming.dev 15 points 10 months ago

The documentary was called "Behind the Curve" and featured Bob Knodel. Unfortunately he passed away this year. https://www.robertsfhsc.com/obituary/RobertBob-Knodel

It looks like you still believed in the theory though. He had a YouTube channel that was devoted to flat Earth conspiracy.

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

I saw some of them in the zoo last sunday.

[–] KISSmyOS@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

They fell off the earth.

[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's not specifically about those same individuals, but I want to mention Dan Olsen's documentary In Search of a Flat Earth, which touches more on the ideology of the flat earth movement, and how it's developed in recent years. No spoilers, peeps!

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It might asbwell be: when his experiment failed, he got told to "pray about it and try again"

[–] jmbreuer@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago

... And it's rather quite... interesting... how long this has been going on...

[–] cabbagee@sopuli.xyz 3 points 10 months ago

It's been a while since I saw it, but I remember most people thought something was wrong with the experiment setup or equipment.

[–] nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Appreciate the spoiler alert

[–] em2@lemmy.ml -1 points 10 months ago

It came out in 2018...