The problem with flat earthers is that they don't listen to reason.
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The movie is called Behind the Curve, and imo is a great move.
It doesn’t try to ridicule the people in it. Instead it tries to make a point that if a group like the flat earth society is being made fun of rather than engaged in discussions, then the gap just gets larger and the problem worse. (If everyone else makes fun of you, you avoid them and stay in the community that supports you.)
As far as I can tell, Mark Sargent is still believing in those theories and continues doing his part in it. This doesn’t surprise me, he’s quite prominent in that community and I guess if he stopped, he’d lose quite a lot of his personal achievements, friends, hobbies, etc.
I don’t know about the others who were in the movie, it would be interesting to know. Especially about those who were directly doing the experiments, yeah.
Phanatik@kbin.social 6 months ago
jettrscga@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The takeaway I got from the movie is it’s not really about the theory, it could be literally anything that brings people together. It’s just about being part of a community and being respected somewhere. Of course you can’t logic someone out of that.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. -Upton Sinclair
Phanatik@kbin.social 6 months ago
I don't remember if it was said in the doc itself or it was a video discussing the doc (I think Hbomberguy), that said "they (flat earthers) are attempting a form of science".
To me, what that says is, if they were intellectually honest with genuine curiosity, then they would've changed their views in the face of contradictory evidence. Time and time again, they showed that they weren't willing to do that even after seeing the results of their own experiments.
As you said, they've staked too much on this notion that the Earth is flat and can't afford to give up the grift now.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 6 months ago
You’re right. It isn’t about proving something with science. It’s about the community. In this community you always hear the same things over and over again, so if you start questioning your beliefs you also have to question all this “evidence” you saw. You have to question all your beliefs. The beliefs that you defended in the Internet and real life against other people. Doing so can cause an “existential crisis”. It isn’t comfortable to question yourself. Humans don’t like change, so they won’t question anything and hold onto their beliefs, since it’s easy. Also all the people always positively engage with each other so breaking with your beliefs also means breaking with your social circle.
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah. It’s totally the sunken cost fallacy. They mistakenly think that there is too much to lose to change their minds and cut their losses.
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Have you considered that there is actually more virtue in containing stupid than trying to rescue it. The audience for such communication is rarely the person afflicted because its almost impossible to convince such folks its the folks at the margins who might be convinced either way.
Consider an imaginary belief say 0.5% of the population believes that flu can be treated by shoving pancakes up your ass. If ridicule keeps the percentage at 0.5% instead of growing to 1% its incredibly virtuous whereas more respectful treatment of the belief might help you convince 0.01% to stop shoving starch in their rectum while allowing the mental virus to spread to far more people.
This theory is applicable everywhere. Every time you engage with a crazy person or a nazi imagine your audience is the other folks reading the discussion not the person you are engaging.
HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 6 months ago
If ridicule keeps the percentage at 0.5% instead of growing to 1% its incredibly virtuous
That if is doing a lot of lifting. One of the points of the movie is that people and media was laughing off the flat earthers and they grew in strength to have a national movement.
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 6 months ago
One of the indications the signals we perceive automatically regarding whether an idea is “truthy” is that something is either prevalent, common, worthy of considerations (2 sides), laughable, stupid, immoral.
Balkanized feed driven experience can help expose people to erroneous signals eg seeing pro flat earth things constantly because it was selected to be like previously engaging content and confusing that with it being commonly believed.
Treating an idea seriously in other venues only makes this signal problem worse not better. If they were capable of reasoned argument they wouldn’t be flat earthers to start with the only thing between them metaphorically or perhaps literally shoving pancakes up their ass is the type of social signals they are getting. I believe that ridicule is a net positive in deterring stupid beliefs because it deters SOME folks from believing whereas respectful argument is virtually worthless again when dealing with such folks.
Consider the same flat earther is all over the net speaking the same nonsense hundreds of times per year. Nonsense and ridicule is seen by hundred or thousands of folks whereas everyone is still talking to the one asshole. It’s pretty easy to see why it ought to be a net positive.
TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Hey now don’t be kink shaming. I’d be fine with people shoving pancakes up their ass. It’s better than the bleach some of them drank to try and kill coronavirus.
Rhoeri@lemmy.world 6 months ago
These people deserve to be ridiculed. It’s time we stop catering to these Idiots and slow them to face the consequences of their ignorance. Same with the MAGA minions.
Aabbcc@lemm.ee 6 months ago
What consequences are there for being a flat earth idiot?
I don’t understand how you can see a comment that says “being mean is unproductive” and conclude “we should be mean anyways”
Do you carry the same principle for fat shaming?
pathief@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Fat shaming is such a bad analogy, I wouldn’t dream to mock someone for their body.
Mocking someone for the factually wrong “theory” they scientifically disproved themselves… That’s fair game.
Aabbcc@lemm.ee 5 months ago
What if an individual believes in flat earth theories because of a mental disregulation they suffer from?
seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
You don’t have a choice over whether or not you’re fat. If you ask a fat person if they want to be fat, I can guarantee that the vast majority of them will say no.
Believing in flat earth, on the other hand, is a choice. The people in the Flat Earth movement don’t want to leave; in fact, when faced with contradictory evidence, they just dig their heels in.
twisted28@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This is how I feel about every religious person
sirboozebum@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The village should not change for the village idiot.
seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
I agree, except WTF is catering to flat earth?
Tedesche@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Didn’t they also establish that Sargent is a hyper-religious Christian and that the majority of American flat-earthers are? If this is a religious belief for them then there’s absolutely no hope that they’ll change their views.
cogman@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It’s mostly a religious belief. There are a couple of Bible verses that say things like “the earth will be rolled up like a scroll” and “spread to the four corners of the earth”.
Biblical literalists cannot handle the Bible being incorrect about anything, so it’s everyone else that’s wrong.
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Much easier to rearrange reality to fit your perception rather than alter your perception and admit that you’re possibly wrong.
trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
The movie is called Behind the Curve, and imo is a great move.
I agree.
snooggums@kbin.social 6 months ago
It tries to show that good faith engagement is better than ridicule, but in the end it shows that flat Earthers are so contrarian that they will actively ignore the results of their own experiments and engaging in good faith is pointless.
dustyData@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Basically, treat all humans with dignity. In psychiatry you’re told to treat all patients with good faith, but don’t let the guy who thinks he is Napoleon run the hospital.
snooggums@kbin.social 6 months ago
By default all humans should be treated with dignity unless they are causing direct harm to others. Flat Earthers are kind of an edge case because their anti science and evidence approach is tied in with the antivax movement so they are harming others indirectly.
MAGA idiots, racists, and other hate filled people do not deserve dignity. In amedical setting, sure, but not in the real world where they are causing harm.
dustyData@lemmy.world 6 months ago
No, al humans should be treated with dignity always. We should do all in our power to stop and restraint those causing or intending to cause harm to others. But no crime justifies cruelty or indignity.
dustyData@lemmy.world 6 months ago
TIL hospitals aren’t real guys!
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
“Don’t let the horse run the hospital”
-John Mulaney
lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I didn’t even know a horse could do that!
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Generally in most cases schizophrenia isn’t catching whereas poisonous stupidity spreads. It’s important to keep the disease from infecting too many new adherents. Think of humor as containment.
ivanafterall@kbin.social 6 months ago
Unfortunately, the guy who thinks he's Napoleon usually does run the hospital and most other organizations.
HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 6 months ago
My takeaway is there is something driving that contrarian attitude. We need to figure out how to address those underlying causes rather than exacerbating them through ostracization.
Really good documentary. I watched it while trying to engage over at reddit’s AskTrumSupporters. It was interesting to see that community become more and more radicalized as the years went on, as the insane bullshit piled up. Helped me come to terms with the fact that engaging on that level is counter productive if anything.