https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/9/1...ony-flat-earth


This article seeks to explain the apparent, recent surge in flat Earth theorists. I found the following excerpts interesting:


"Also, the feeling of reading about a conspiracy theory is kind of like the sensation of watching Mr. Robot, says Mark Fenster, an expert in government transparency at the University of Florida law school and author of Conspiracy Theories: Secrets and Power in American Culture. That show, and the thrillers and mystery novels that preceded it, play with the idea that “you have a certain set of understandings and beliefs that you are taught and that you believe are true, but in fact, if you actually look closely at them and understand the truth of the matter, those beliefs are proven to be false. That is — in a fictional universe — extremely enticing and extremely exciting. It can be a source of fun.”
As for people who actually believe in flat Earth theory, Fenster says, you can’t really change their minds with photographic evidence or mathematical proof of a round Earth. To believe in a theory like this one, you have to go way, way past the normal threshold for questioning expertise and “hierarchies of intellectual knowledge.” It’s fun for us to have our perceptions pulled apart in fictional thrillers and mysteries, but we consider a narrative satisfying only when it also offers a way to put things back together. People who believe in flat Earth have already decided that the world around them can’t possibly be what it seems, and so a conspiracy theory becomes “a nice way of efficiently explaining what would otherwise be a confounding world,” Fenster says.

The flat Earth theory is spreading online, and it’s hard to tell where the joke begins or ends."


Admittedly, it IS difficult to tell where the joke begins or ends. When encountering a flat Earth theorist, it's normal to initially think it's a joke. If someone tells you 9/11 was faked, or that the Holocaust didn't happen, you tend to take him/her more seriously, because they're questioning historical events. You may not agree and get into arguments, but it's easier to take them seriously. But a flat Earther is tougher to initially take seriously. The normal reaction is "You're joking.... right?" Once you've established the person is serious, that's when the arguing begins. But the initial reaction might involve ridicule, which is what angers flat Earthers. Alpha tried to be equanimous in the beginning of this flat Earth argument, but has quickly regressed into hurling insults.

Here's another interesting excerpt from the article:


"Schimkowitz understands that flat Earth trutherism isn’t as immediately dangerous as climate change denialism or the anti-vaccine backlash, but that doesn’t mean it’s totally harmless. “I think it is important to maintain a level of concern about [conspiracy theorists],” he says. “They do things that harm society as a whole, like negate or dilute scientific reason. That’s something that’s having profound impact on everyone. Looking at climate change denialism, that comes from just doubting the idea of expertise as a whole. Conspiracy theorists attack expertise.”

Though Schimkowitz is speaking only to his experience with conspiracy theories on 4chan and Reddit, sociologist Ted Goertzel, who specializes in researching scientific conspiracy theories at Rutgers, told me almost the exact same thing. The basic goal of a conspiracy theorist, he says, isn’t usually to prove that one specific theory is true or false, but “to prove that nothing is provable, that all assertions are arbitrary.” He, too, sees an obvious case study in the recent election cycle, arguing that this is the type of thinking that leads people to believe that absolutely everything is “arbitrary and manipulative,” and that anything they don’t agree with is “fake news.”"



So to the argument that flat Earthers are generally harmless, there is the counter argument that they aren't totally harmless. They're compared to climate change deniers, and are correctly called out as "attacking expertise." Expertise which is, as opposed to many theorists themselves, achieved through long years of scientific studies and experimentation.

I still think it's a psychological malfunction.