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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... cd_gY60oSk

Hilarious.

This was back from when Mac was ranting about 9/11 and conspiracies. I brought it up because I found this VERY interesting video. He mentions "flight paths between southern continents", which according to flat earthers, should not exist. In fact, they CAN'T exist on a flat earth, no plane would have the range. Well, they DO exist. Here's a video about one, Quantas 27, from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile. Presented by a professional (Australian) airline pilot.



Of course, this could be a lie... (Mac's standard excuse..) And of course, Australia doesn't exist...

Iskandar

Just came across this. It's not a debunking video, or a video exposing the incredible ignorance and obtuseness of certain people, but instead, it's a video meant to inspire - a talk by a man who's flown on the Space Shuttle and has been on the ISS. I've also seen videos he's posted while up there. It is indeed an inspiring talk, about why he did it, and how one prepares for and deal with dangerous and risky situations. Unfortunately, Flat Earthers would claim he's a liar and nothing but an actor. Sad, huh? (You can see them popping up now and then in the video's comments..)



Iskandar

My daughter just flew from (non-existent) Australia to the UK, via Hong Kong. We watched the flight unfold using a flight tracking radar site. Of course, what could be seen out of the window matched exactly what shows on the flight tracking, but does NOT match a flat earth route. I wonder why that is?

BTW, I've stopped looking at any videos mac posts. If he can't do us the courtesy of answering simple questions, then I don't see why I should dignify his crap by looking at it.

Yeah, most of them are pretty much unwatchable. They usually meander around for 10 minutes and you wonder when they're getting to the point. That's why I've been watching a lot of THIS channel lately - he takes the "good" parts of the flat earth videos and you can avoid the rants and the pointless stuff. And the "good" stuff is howling funny a lot of the time.



I think I'll revise what I said earlier - SOME of these flat earthers aren't just scientifically illiterate, they're literal IDIOTS. This does make them very funny, though. And they don't realize how ridiculous they appear, or they'd stop making videos. "and if we had a car that was 2000 miles long, and we put the Earth on a planet that was thousands and thousands of times bigger..." "Don't mock. I'm not a fool." You can't make this stuff up.. you really just can't.

Iskandar

For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy


In other words.....propaganda 24/7 from cradle to grave including all schooling. Television is of course their other big way to cement belief.

'Prefabricated set of interpretations' - meaning a conditioned response such as gravity explains away opposing evidence to their ball theory.

'Opinion without thought' - again,just regurgitating what you've been told.


Approaching this subject with a open mind is almost impossible for the majority,for those that have that rare quality an open mind,their ball earth theory is easily debunked.

Based on what I've seen on YouTube, approaching this with an open mind seems to be impossible for flat earthers. Present them with concrete proof and they jump through hoops and bring out the mental gymnastics to "prove" that this proof is a "conspiracy". Things like claiming distortion through windows and lenses, CGI, etc. They don't understand the most BASIC stuff that's right in front of their eyes (like why the sun heads STRAIGHT FOR THE HORIZON in a straight line before GOING BENEATH IT instead of curving round to the north). And then they invent things like "perspective" (which they claim makes lines curve into the distance) and "angle of attack" (I'm not really sure what they mean by this, nor do I think do they, but it's supposed to explain why the sun hides behind a horizon). And then they claim EVERYONE ELSE has been brainwashed. Yeah, right. In other words, they're intellectually DISHONEST. They regurgitate everything they've seen on YouTube, and pretty much all of it is very easily refuted and laughable (the latter is why I watch it.. ). They are the ones who are brainwashed.

Quoting JFK isn't going to prove anything.

Iskandar

Iskandar wrote:


Yes, but quoting Trump might.

Just not what you might be trying to prove.

<GDR with added flame suit for political snark>

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Very true. However, analysing the quote might be revealing.


"For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest..."
Here JFK challenges the claims of flat-earthers. What do they claim? That we are being lied to, that some unknown and never revealed cabal deliberately contrive a dishonest explanation for why the earth is the shape it is. Their whole strange conspiracy theory rests upon this one claim - that we are being lied to.

"but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."
JFK deliberately employs the word "myth", but in which sense? There are, of course, a number of competing meanings for myth, with these two the most likely to be used in flat-earth argument:

1. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon, or
2. an unfounded or false notion

Examples of the former are the plethora of creation stories which exist in all corners of the world. They are culturally specific and relevant only to that group, primarily because they are part of a particular belief structure (e.g. Australian aboriginal dreaming means very little to American demagogues).
Examples of the latter are legion, and lie at the heart of the flat-earth conspiracy and its opponents. Is a spherical earth "an unfounded or false notion"? Or is a flat-earth "an unfounded or false notion"?

For me, the argument can only be resolved by proving one side's arguments are "unfounded", and therein lies the problem. Both sides insist the others (to quote JFK) "subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations". However, only one side of the argument has science to back it up. The other only has youtubers. I know which side I'll take.

Yeah, you're right. "deliberate, contrived and dishonest" does describe a lot of Flat Earthers and Flat Earther arguments. "but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic" - Where else can you see a grown man rolling a toy car down a toy globe and pretend it's got anything to do with reality? Yet, it's "persuasive" to someone like Mac, who's pre-disposed to believe that the rest of the world is brainwashed.

Iskandar

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/spor ... -race.html

This, of course, is a huge hoax. There is no way they're going to get past the NASA Coast Guard cutters, and if they do, the ice wall will be too high to climb. Or maybe they'll get to see the turtles...

Iskandar

The reason they were able to defeat the Van Allen radiation belt back in 1969 - well they didn't know about it back then.....


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11- ... anded-moon

The latest in YouTube conspiracy idiocy. I just couldn't believe ANYONE would believe this one, yet there are people dumb enough to believe it's true. Just absolute sheer idiocy. Check out the comments section.



Iskandar