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> the overwhelming majority of "Flat Earthers" are joking, pulling your chain, and refuse to admit it because keeping a straight face is part of the joke for t

by titzer 9y ago

> the overwhelming majority of "Flat Earthers" are joking, pulling your chain, and refuse to admit it because keeping a straight face is part of the joke for them. There is little double that some do, but I think you underestimate just how stupid people can be in general. E.g. just using the normal distribution for IQ (mean 100, stddev 15), 9% are below 80. Now, to be clear: I just want to stretch your imagination. There are tons of people out there who just aren't that bright. Ok fine. The problem is people who are a nasty combination of low IQ, ignorant, and militant. Basically, you have people who could be cured of flat Eartherism by going out just one whole night and watching the stars rotate around the pole, just one trip to the ocean with binoculars to watch a ship disappear over the horizon, just one full day of measuring the shadows of the sun and doing trig, yet they refuse and instead sit inside and watch fucking dumbass YouTube videos made by other fucking dumbasses and then will literally get in your face and irate about something they clearly have zero actual direct knowledge of. It really makes you wonder wtf. But then again, what are you gonna do? I tell them to predict eclipses, but so far no one has taken me up on it.

JackCh 9y ago
> "Basically, you have people who could be cured of flat Eartherism by going out just one whole night and watching the stars rotate around the pole, just one trip to the ocean with binoculars to watch a ship disappear over the horizon, just one full day of measuring the shadows of the sun and doing trig, yet they refuse" Somebody who's fucking with you would refuse to do this and instead laugh at you for being so naive as to not know binoculars have circular lenses, or some other nonsense excuse more creative than that. Refusal to engage in honest investigation of the truth doesn't prove somebody is unintelligent. Furthermore the incontrovertible existence of unintelligent people doesn't prove that flattists must be unintelligent people. It's very easy for a reasonably smart person to pretend to be very dumb because they consider it entertaining (or for other motivations.) As for sincere expressions of anger, I've seen it more often from round-earthers than flat earthers. Phrases like "fucking dumbass YouTube videos" betray some strong emotion that I suspect (but cannot prove!) you aren't faking. >But then again, what are you gonna do? I tell them to predict eclipses Did you know the Babylonians could do this without a heliocentric model of the solar system? I suppose you could say that a working knowledge of EAE would be a demonstration of reasonable intelligence, but the lack of such knowledge could hardly be considered proof of lacking intelligence. Most intelligent people have never bothered to learn how to use Babylonian astronomy omens.
- true_religion 9y ago
  You don't need a heliocentric system to predict an eclipse. The moon rotates around the Earth. It's the one causing the eclipse.
  - mchahn 9y ago
    Why can't you see an eclipse from a flat-earth?
    - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
      You could. But if you're going to model the eclipse's track on a flat earth, it wouldn't match the eclipse's track on a round earth.
mchahn 9y ago
> by going out just one whole night and watching the stars rotate around the pole A flat earth can also spin.
- titzer 9y ago
  If you can explain why the sky seems[1] to rotate counterclockwise around the north pole (from the North Hemisphere) and clockwise around the south pole (from the Southern Hemisphere) with a flat Earth, I'll be impressed. [1] Obviously, the sky does not rotate, the Earth rotates.
  - mchahn 9y ago
    That would be impressive. I'm not sure, but I think if the north pole was at the center of the flat-earth disc and the disk was spinning on the axis through the north pole you would see the sky rotate around the north pole. You would see this from anywhere on the disk, which would not be a problem if you never traveled south of the equator (decent assumption for most of the population). I'm just putting on the flat-earther's hat for fun.
  - hi41 9y ago
    I have trouble imagining the rotation. If Earth is still and sky rotates wouldn't it still be counter clock wise at North Pole and clock wise at South Pole?

by titzer 9y ago

JackCh 9y ago

> "Basically, you have people who could be cured of flat Eartherism by going out just one whole night and watching the stars rotate around the pole, just one trip to the ocean with binoculars to watch a ship disappear over the horizon, just one full day of measuring the shadows of the sun and doing trig, yet they refuse" Somebody who's fucking with you would refuse to do this and instead laugh at you for being so naive as to not know binoculars have circular lenses, or some other nonsense excuse more creative than that. Refusal to engage in honest investigation of the truth doesn't prove somebody is unintelligent. Furthermore the incontrovertible existence of unintelligent people doesn't prove that flattists must be unintelligent people. It's very easy for a reasonably smart person to pretend to be very dumb because they consider it entertaining (or for other motivations.) As for sincere expressions of anger, I've seen it more often from round-earthers than flat earthers. Phrases like "fucking dumbass YouTube videos" betray some strong emotion that I suspect (but cannot prove!) you aren't faking. >But then again, what are you gonna do? I tell them to predict eclipses Did you know the Babylonians could do this without a heliocentric model of the solar system? I suppose you could say that a working knowledge of EAE would be a demonstration of reasonable intelligence, but the lack of such knowledge could hardly be considered proof of lacking intelligence. Most intelligent people have never bothered to learn how to use Babylonian astronomy omens.

true_religion 9y ago
You don't need a heliocentric system to predict an eclipse. The moon rotates around the Earth. It's the one causing the eclipse.
- mchahn 9y ago
  Why can't you see an eclipse from a flat-earth?
  - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
    You could. But if you're going to model the eclipse's track on a flat earth, it wouldn't match the eclipse's track on a round earth.

mchahn 9y ago

> by going out just one whole night and watching the stars rotate around the pole A flat earth can also spin.

titzer 9y ago
If you can explain why the sky seems[1] to rotate counterclockwise around the north pole (from the North Hemisphere) and clockwise around the south pole (from the Southern Hemisphere) with a flat Earth, I'll be impressed. [1] Obviously, the sky does not rotate, the Earth rotates.
- mchahn 9y ago
  That would be impressive. I'm not sure, but I think if the north pole was at the center of the flat-earth disc and the disk was spinning on the axis through the north pole you would see the sky rotate around the north pole. You would see this from anywhere on the disk, which would not be a problem if you never traveled south of the equator (decent assumption for most of the population). I'm just putting on the flat-earther's hat for fun.
- hi41 9y ago
  I have trouble imagining the rotation. If Earth is still and sky rotates wouldn't it still be counter clock wise at North Pole and clock wise at South Pole?