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The Flat Earth movement is simply about trolling.
by V-2 7y ago
The Flat Earth movement is simply about trolling.
- DanBC 7y agoThat's a dangerous mistake to make. Some of them clearly are trolling, but there are people who genuinely believe the Earth is flat.
- V-2 7y agoThere is no such notion in this world that you wouldn't find some people who genuinely believe it :) I specifically said "the movement", my point being it's not the "true believers" who built and lead the movement. Every trolling platform will attract some people who aren't really in on it. That's one of the core elements of trolling.
- anigbrowl 7y agoYes, but like many other kinds of jackassery trolling can go really bad. Look at the qanon conspiracy; there have been several suicides already and there's a lot of people emotionally involved to an unhealthy degree. The things that make conspiracies engaging are very similar to those of cults, and what starts out as an ironic joke can devolve. Scientology is an example of something that started as an ironic grift and is now regarded as a rather skeevy cult. The extreme case is something like Jonestown or Aum Shinrikyo.
- V-2 7y agoSure, I'm not saying it can't be harmful. My point is just that I see it as something more akin to the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" than "AIDS was created in government labs".
- turk73 7y agoFrom a photon's perspective, the earth is indeed flat.
- godelski 7y agoI definitely believe it started that way, and that is why I suspect it has different features to it, but I do not believe it is purely trolling now. I think idiots found themselves in "good company".