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Flat earth theory is real
https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=29637		 Page 41 of 65
Author:  PRW [ 07 Dec 2018, 16:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
well, this is awkward... https://beyondblindfold.com/australia-d ... ers-claim/
if mac33 is a flat earther, and he lives in Australia - does he not exist?
Author:  birchamboi [ 07 Dec 2018, 18:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
iskandar taib wrote:
Still waiting for my answer. Why doesn't the sun circle around to the North if the Earth is flat??? Here near the equator, on the equinox it rises due East, climbs STRAIGHT UP, then plunges again straight down in the West. Anyone can make this observation, NASA obviously isn't paying the sun to do it.

Iskandar
You'll be waiting for a very, very, very long time for mac to ever answer a question. It's perfectly obvious, however: NASA obviously IS paying the sun to do it !!!
Author:  birchamboi [ 07 Dec 2018, 18:49 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
It turns out the ultimate rebuttal of mac's nuttiness is simple maths:

Image
Author:  darucla [ 07 Dec 2018, 22:54 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
I lived in Australia for 10 years. Does this mean I am an actor, and if so, where's my money, NASA? Plus I went there and came back (to the U.K.) by sea, so pilots were not involved. Nor did I drown out at sea, never to be heard from again. Maybe I am just terribly wrong.

P.S. I wonder how many of those 200 people in Birmingham just went along for fun. I mean, the "No Australia" guy was just winding them up, right?
Author:  iskandar taib [ 08 Dec 2018, 02:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
PRW wrote:
well, this is awkward... https://beyondblindfold.com/australia-d ... ers-claim/
if mac33 is a flat earther, and he lives in Australia - does he not exist?


That IS awkward. Either his friends are wrong (or are lying), or he does not, indeed, exist and we're all responding to an actor. Either way, someone is lying. Or maybe he's really in South America but doesn't realize it. Considering he's never been on a plane before, that might be the likely answer... :lol:

Iskandar
Author:  keme [ 09 Dec 2018, 00:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
You all know the paradox (based on George Berkeley's philosophical views) about a falling tree. "If nobody is there to hear it, does a falling tree then make any sound?" Can we not take this conversely: "If you hear a tree falling, can you be sure that there was ever a tree which made the sound?"

Can nonexistent objects make a sound? Are you hearing voices that come from no-one in existence? Does anyone ever hear such voices?

And if so, can we then not draw this further towards our digital age: Can you read posts which were not posted by anyone? Is it possible that the poster behind the mac33 posts actually never existed?

Is this really a dream? And if so, why does it make me so uneasy?

Sanity, and the related state of rationality, are perhaps not static, well defined entities. Most of us possess them to varying degrees. That is how we achieve our degrees, or don't. Alas! I digress.

Is this awkward and silly? Yes, perfectly silly and unbelievably awkward! Sometimes I am awkward, and sometimes I prefer silly. I guess that is why I keep reading and responding to this thread. Also, there is a serious vein below all the silly, and that is perhaps what mostly makes me uneasy.

Terminating this with a quote from a less acclaimed philosopher than GB, though possibly held in higher acclaim for other reasons aside of philosophy:
I'll be back!
Author:  birchamboi [ 20 Dec 2018, 13:33 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
OMG! This photo is real! It's unedited, not doctored in any way! This proves mac33 is right: there is a conspiracy going on here!

Image
Author:  keme [ 20 Dec 2018, 19:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
birchamboi wrote:
OMG! This photo is real! It's unedited, not doctored in any way! This proves mac33 is right: there is a conspiracy going on here!

Image

Nah, it's just how it looks on the other side of the earth. Obviously everything there will be turned upside down.

So, to me it's just another proof that the earth is round ...


And, again in the words of that non-philosopher of sorts:
I'm back.
Author:  iskandar taib [ 21 Jan 2019, 14:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real


Wow. Apparently there's a word to describe the condition that afflicts flat earthers. You know, the one where you subscribe to a conspiracy theory because it makes you feel grand to be better than the "sheeple", since YOUR "eyes are open".

Schizotypy.

Iskandar
Author:  iskandar taib [ 21 Feb 2019, 14:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real


I must admit.. that first guy on the video just had me laughing hysterically for some reason. Really felt sorry for him.

Iskandar
Author:  darucla [ 21 Feb 2019, 22:58 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
It's not even funny any more. Just sad.
Author:  iskandar taib [ 22 Feb 2019, 13:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
Actually, it's getting quite entertaining. It's becoming clear to even the most die-hard flat earthers that the usual "it looks flat" arguments don't work any more, there's so much footage of stuff like ships disappearing over the horizon (a lot of it actually shot by flat earthers) that they've had to come up with crazier and crazier ad-hoc concepts to explain these things, such as "perspective" and "angle of attack". And they do all sorts of doomed-to-fail experiments (such as setting up small objects on the grass at the end of a running track and expecting them to disappear when they walk 200m away and zoom in on them). Then there's this guy Subirats, who does this video outlining an experiment involving a tube, coming across as confident and smug about how it will show the Earth is flat. Problem is he doesn't check it himself to see if it works the way he says it will BEFORE he posts the video, and a bunch of people had a field day doing the experiment showing that it shows the earth is a sphere using the exact same criteria the Subirats guy spent so much time explaining (blah blah blah yeah? blah blah blah blah YEAH?):



Now Subirats is jumping through hoops trying to explain why this experiment doesn't work... :lol:

And then you have the guy who spent $20,000 on a ring laser gyro to prove that the Earth doesn't spin. He fires it up, and guess what... 15 degree per hour drift... :lol: He WAS going to shoot videos about it, now he's got to scrap the idea and suppress his findings. He's tried encasing the gyro in lead, because he thinks it's picking up mysterious emanations from the sky (which he says IS rotating), same results. He wants to try a box of bismuth next.



Iskandar
Author:  Japsican [ 22 Feb 2019, 22:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
Can we move on to a different conspiracy theory now? Like chem trails, the moon landing hoax, the 911 WTC hoax?
Bigfoot is still going strong. We could chat about that.
Author:  iskandar taib [ 23 Feb 2019, 11:15 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
But those aren't nearly as funny. In fact, some of those are deadly serious in terms of consequences (the anti-vaccine people for instance). And if you're a flat earther you probably subscribe to at a least a half dozen of the others, too.. :lol:

Iskandar
Author:  keme [ 24 Feb 2019, 21:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: Flat earth theory is real
iskandar taib wrote:
But those aren't nearly as funny. In fact, some of those are deadly serious in terms of consequences (the anti-vaccine people for instance). And if you're a flat earther you probably subscribe to at a least a half dozen of the others, too.. :lol:

Iskandar

Now we're touching on that serious vein I mentioned above.

The common factor for all those conspiracy theories is the depreciation of authority, be it government, science, philosophy, your parents, or something else. The most common motivational reasoning is about freedom of thought, that the authoritative source has somehow captured your mind, and you need to set yourself free. The conspiracy theory proceeds to offer that freedom, which then consists of accepting every part of the theory without question. Now, there's freedom for you!

In some cases, once the theory is accepted you can derive from it a purpose, and also a simple definition of "the enemy". Tada! Simple recipe for a revolutionary movement, or "sound reason" for an authority to engage in actions which would normally be unacceptable.

I'm not saying that authority is always right. It needs to be challenged. This is why most forms of authority now have developed their own challenge mechanisms. In science we have peer review. In society we have democracy. In school we have PTA. Etc. When a false conspiracy theory is challenged, the challenge is discarded with some version of "you need to free yourself of the thoughts authorities have implanted in your mind".

Even though the misinformation from the flat earth movement does not do much damage in itself, it strives to contribute towards reducing the faith in authority at large. This may open the doors for other, more serious misconceptions. So, when I have joked about this and ridiculed the reasoning, there is purpose and intent. Some of the preachers of conspiracy may be true believers. There may also be manipulators with ulterior motives. Divining which is which may be interesting, but it is more important to determine the validity of the message than the honesty of the messenger, because some conspiracies are real, and knowledge of their existence may drown in the multitude of bogus conspiracy claims (which is another possible reason to spread fake conspiracy theories - kind of smokescreening).
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