Bob is a young man from Canada who once thought the Earth was flat. He was in his mid-teens when he first became interested in the idea. Like many young people emerging into young adulthood, he was simultaneously searching for meaning in the universe and feeling the potential strength of his own intelligence in determining what that meaning might actually be.
Like most of us at that age, he somewhat overestimated his abilities.
I was in a certain state of mind where I wanted to separate from society. I wanted to feel special, so I put a lot of effort and interest into science and philosophy. Unfortunately my judgment was weak and so I started to believe in and “join” a lot of causes. I discovered Flat Earth mainly through YouTube. It felt good. I felt like this was some kind of purpose for me, and that I was unique. After I joined the Flat Earth movement I felt like I was more important than everyone else.
I actually thought that the Earth was flat. I thought there was nothing true about the “Globe Earth” idea. I believed that the government was always lying about everything—although I still believe that to some degree, with better judgment. Back then though I was like a rebel. It was a silly time in my life.
Like most people in recent years, Bob was sucked down the rabbit hole via YouTube. Like Richard, this happened when he was still young, still searching for new ways to view the world.
The YouTube videos that had the most effect on me were when they said: “you can’t see the curvature by yourself” and “because they teach us from a young age to believe the Earth is round even though an individual can’t know for sure.” I accepted the idea that the Earth was flat because I rejected all the conventional logic from the Globe Earth perspective. I thought it was all lies because I thought people who believed the Earth was round were silly and closed-minded. Now I realize it’s more like the opposite.
Bob was not so much swayed by the accuracy of the Flat Earth evidence, or by the logic in the arguments. Instead he simply assumed that conventional thinkers were the closed-minded ones. He was afire with a sense of enlightenment, of “waking up,” and the actual sober facts were not going to get in his way. Very much like Willie with the Apollonian (logical) and Dionysian (instinctive) thinking, Bob had put down roots on one side of the fence—the side that felt better.
This decision didn’t come from nothing. Bob actually knew some people who seemed to genuinely believe in the Flat Earth theory—and not his teenage peers, they were, in fact, quite the opposite.
Yes, I know people who believe in Flat Earth. These are generally older people or religious people. There’s three of my elderly relatives who are believers. They believed in Jesus, God, the Bible, and also Flat Earth. They never tried to convert me, but we did have some discussions after I became a believer.
Flat Earth is one of the few conspiracy theories where religion can have an incredibly strong effect. The rejection of science required to believe in the Flat Earth is so great that it requires something similar to a deep religious faith or dogma. Many of the older Flat Earth believers you might come across have a strong religious nature. In Bob’s case the effect was indirect as he was not particularly religious. Although his elderly relatives did not seek to convert him directly, the fact that there were people he grew up with who were already down there probably eased the transition into the rabbit hole. Without this foundation, the YouTube videos might never have gained the purchase that they did.
Bob did not discuss his ideas with other members of his family, but he did discuss them with friends.
I hid it from my family because I knew they were going to judge me a lot. I did talk about it with my friends. At first they thought I was joking, but then I kept arguing. They tried to show me I was wrong, but for every piece of evidence they brought up I just thought that it was fake, and part of the conspiracy. I thought my friends were not smart enough to understand that they were wrong. I was stubborn, and I refused to listen to them.
Here there are two groups who were in a position to help him. Unfortunately, he feared judgment from his family and so he never got to explore his ideas with them. His friends were able to talk to him, and even tried to bring some evidence and logic to the discussion, but he flat-out rejected them, regardless of what they said. Eventually he realized what he was doing.
I began to see that the Flat Earth movement had no real argument. They brought nothing new to the debate, they just dismissed all the Globe Earth arguments just by saying that it might false, or it might be part of the conspiracy, and “we can’t know for sure.”
Someone told me that some people are like irrational jealous wives, they think you are cheating on them, and if you say you were at a bar with a friend then they say that’s exactly the excuse a cheating husband would use. The thinking just gets crazier with bigger reasons not to believe someone.
I realized the crazy wife in that story was like the Flat Earth people. This made me think I should listen to the Globe Earth point of view, and eventually I began so see that it made more sense.
Bob’s turning point seems not to have been one particular piece of evidence. Rather, prompted by his friend’s story, it was a realization that the way he had been thinking and arguing was really not as smart as he thought it was. Conventional arguments about the evidence did not seem to work with him.
People on the internet who tried to convince me were wasting their time. I just ignore arguments and evidence that came from normal people like me. It just did not go anywhere.
But I watched this one video about conspiracies related to space exploration. It was not a debunking video, but it was explaining why those ideas are attractive to so many people. I was lucky that I was not so single-minded that I only watched videos I believed in. Without influences like this video I would probably still be a very closed-minded Flat Earth believer. I watched some other content like this and it slowly triggered doubt, enough to help me come back to reality.
Now Bob is out of that rabbit hole and casts a more critical eye upon other conspiracy theories.
I still look at some conspiracy theories that seem credible. I don’t believe in Chemtrails. With 9/11 I think maybe Bush did it, maybe not. I can’t be sure because there’s not enough evidence. But with theories where there is evidence I can have an idea. Like the Moon landing, we did land on the Moon. There’s obviously no lizard people ruling the world.
I sometimes try to help other people. But I honestly think some people can’t get out of their comfort zone and they will never change. They don’t look for truth, they look for something easy for them to accept or that makes them feel special. I don’t have a lot of hope for the Flat Earthers. Once I turned back to being a globe believer, I just avoid the subject with my elderly relatives. I know they have lived all their lives with this idea, so I won’t be able to make them realize their mistakes. If I joined a Flat Earth Facebook group, it’s more for a good laugh. If I see a comment from a Flat Earth believer I will leave another comment to maybe make them use their brain and logical thinking.
Don’t mock them. That will worsen the situation, it will make the person feel even more isolated and have trust issues. When my friends thought I was joking about believing in Flat Earth it didn’t help me see their point of view. It just made me want to get rid of them and find other friends who would understand me.
But if you want to help someone who is down the rabbit hole you really should make them feel like you are not putting them down for what they believe. Make them feel that you are open to what they say, even if you know they are absolutely wrong. You might open a door to reason for them.
The Flat Earth theory is at the far end of the conspiracy spectrum and this extremeness has an effect on how people get in and how they get out. Bob’s story shows how important it is to give it time. He initially rejected all arguments against his position without even considering them. What got him to take another look was gaining some perspective on his own thinking and how it relates to how other people think. This took time because he had to establish a pattern in his own actions before he could recognize it as a pattern. To some degree he had to get deep enough inside the rabbit hole to realize he was in one.
That he did not get stuck is in part due to the resilience and adaptability of his young mind. But it is also due to him having friends who were willing to talk to him without fully alienating him. This aspect was far from perfect. Being laughed at by some of his friends nearly made him want to fully separate from normal society. But in the end it was a friend who tipped the balance, someone who told him the story of the overly suspicious wife. The story clicked at the right time, as he was starting to see the flaws in the Flat Earth camp. It became the start of his escape from the rabbit hole.
Bob’s story demonstrates some of the complications of debunking. The various proofs and arguments around the Flat Earth theory quickly get quite technical, with geometry, sines and cosines, square roots, etc. The average person can quickly find this aspect impossible to grasp, and so they, like Bob, start to judge arguments on a simpler basis, like how they feel, or who made them.
Another complication is that of family. Bob’s elderly relatives helped get him into Flat Earth, but once he got out he recognized there was little to be gained, and something to lose, by trying to convert them to the globe. His more immediate family played another role, in that he was afraid to discuss his beliefs with them for fear of mockery. Family relationships require special consideration.
I’ll discuss these complications, and others, in the next chapter.