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> It’s not clear how strongly he held the conviction, or if he really believed it at all. His publicist, Darren Shuster, said Saturday that the “flat Earth thin
by jessriedel 7y ago
> It’s not clear how strongly he held the conviction, or if he really believed it at all. His publicist, Darren Shuster, said Saturday that the “flat Earth thing … was a PR stunt we dreamed up” to get publicity and attract sponsors for the rockets that the self-taught engineer made in his garage at his home in Apple Valley, Calif.
https://archive.md/1QX2W#selection-2017.0-2017.330 https://archive.md/1QX2W#selection-2017.0-2017.330
Sounds like he wanted to build and ride rockets, and this was a way to get strangers to pay for it.
- lolc 7y agoInteresting. That would make him much worse in my book. Now should I remember him as an irresponsible fraud or a mistaken fool? It is one thing to be so misinformed as to believe a flat earth has any plausibility. It is another to reinforce people in this mistaken belief to take advantage of them!
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoI mean, he grifted a bunch of flat earther's into funding his hobby. That's a win in my book
- lolc 7y agoThat's because you think flat-earthers "deserve" being cheated because they're stupid. I wonder how you'd react to cons that exploit your own ignorance. In my ethics it is fraud to keep people in a mistaken belief to profit from it. By adopting their beliefs as his own, he crossed into that zone. If he'd just announced that he'll check curvature for them, that would have been alright.
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoFlat Earther's are more convicted than stupid. They're more than welcome to give money to anyone they please. > In my ethics it is fraud to keep people in a mistaken belief to profit from it. See: all of organized religion.
- lolc 7y agoIt's not fraud if you believe it yourself. Sure there are frauds in organized religion, but that doesn't make the religions as a whole a fraud.