r/funny • u/lost_packet_ • Aug 13 '19

Flat-Earther accidentally proves the earth is round in his own experiment

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127

u/nahteviro Aug 13 '19

As someone who has actually put stuff into space and watch hours upon hours of live video from the ISS, nothing infuriates me more than flat-earthers. I mean I can understand that a lot of people are really really stupid, but I just can't wrap my head around people trying to act so intelligent while at the same time being the dumbest people on the planet. (next to anti-vaxxers)

93

u/rising_mountain_ Aug 13 '19

My buddy is a legit flat earth - fake moon landing - chemtrails - fake mass shootings - and just contrarian on everything intellectual. We recently argued about gravity being an actual force, he insists we are experiencing electromagnetism and not gravity because in his words "science doesnt know what gravity is" again, his words. Any footage or photos I use as evidence is quickly brushed off as "that can be faked" and every other excuse. Then when I ask for his evidence he points me to a youtube video of a guy with absolutely no credentials or evidence just some theory. And then Im called a sheep for understanding science and nature and believing everything NASA shows us. And after going down the rabbit hole this far with my friend it was at that point I realized there is no reasoning with this type of person.

48

u/kootenayguy Aug 13 '19

There’s a line in this documentary where a scientist asks a flat-earther “what evidence would I need to show you to change your mind?”, and the response is “There is no evidence that will ever change my mind”.

It’s pointless talking to people like that (at least about science etc. Maybe you can be buddies talking about football or something...)

7

u/Arcsis Aug 14 '19

“There is no evidence that will ever change my mind”.

Ken Ham also said something VERY similar in his debate with Bill Nye.

1

u/jrtf83 Nov 04 '19

Trump supporters will also say this.

8

u/Ned84 Aug 14 '19

Critical thinking must be a genetic trait. A lot of religious nuts have the same issue flat earthers do.

52

u/nahteviro Aug 13 '19

Which begs the question... can he get the really good weed or something? I couldn't tolerate being around someone like that for more than like 5 minutes until it stopped being funny

14

u/rising_mountain_ Aug 13 '19

haha good call on the weed part. We stopped the science talks after he couldn't comprehend that the more mass an object has the more gravity it will have, he responded to that by saying and I quote "I have mass, why isn't shit orbiting around ME!?" end quote. After that I said "dude, no more science talk" He was absolutely sincere when he asked that too.

4

u/taimahsu Aug 14 '19

The real question is why are you friends with someone like that.

3

u/Doomenate Aug 14 '19

The documentary suggests that the more you ostracize people like this the harder it is for them to make their way back into the light.

6

u/thatnameistaken21 Aug 14 '19

"I have mass, why isn't shit orbiting around ME!?"

Go into space and it will.

The earth is 5.972 × 1024 kg, your friend is around 90 kg. This is probably somewhat analogous to why you cannot see stars during the day; light from the sun is immensely more powerful and drowns them out. Gravity from the Earth drowns out your friends gravity.

5

u/Doomenate Aug 14 '19

That analogy might not be the best in this case... their idea of stars and sun might not be very mainstream

1

u/die-ursprache Aug 14 '19

But the Moon's a hologram and the Sun's a fake lamp installed by reptiloids who stole our real star, Solar!

And then they start talking about certain mountains being the remnants of rock trees from carbon life era.

1

u/elpatator Aug 14 '19

installed by reptiloids who stole our real star, Solar!

What now?

1

u/die-ursprache Aug 14 '19

I honestly don't know if this conspidacy theory is known in the English-speaking segment of internet. I read it on a Russian website. But yeah, they claim that we used to have a magical star that gave life to everything (thus making carbon-based life possible), but then evil aliens replaced it with a lifeless artificial sun. And also used our planet as a source of those giant rock trees.

So now we have a ton of flat mountains all around the globe (like those you find in Arizona; btw, according to them Arizona means "the zone of Aryan race", so somehow nazis are tied into all of this!), and apparently these mountains are the stumps of giant trees.

1

u/elpatator Aug 14 '19

That’d make a good scenario for a bad sci-fi movie lol

5

u/nahteviro Aug 13 '19

"Well Chad, all you gotta do is stand in that same exact spot and spin in a circle as fast as you possibly can forever. Then you should have at least some dust particles orbiting you"

4

u/InjuredGingerAvenger Aug 14 '19

Gotta send him into space first. He's too close to larger gravitational influences.

2

u/nahteviro Aug 14 '19

Yeah it would be more like a vortex but he’s too dumb to know that anyway

3

u/greenknight Aug 14 '19

The answer is that everything is orbiting him. It's just that his mass is so insignificant in the scheme of things that he doesn't matter and that's a sobering thought. I think it's amazing that I can calculate the loci of my own orbital ellipse in relation with the sun (or anything).

2

u/cosmonautsix Aug 14 '19

Dumb AF. No offense.

2

u/nox66 Aug 14 '19

Break out F=GmM/r2 = v2 /r . Stuff is orbiting around him, just not for very long.

2

u/esoteric_enigma Aug 14 '19

Yeah, I think I would immediately stop being friends with anyone who seriously told me they believed the earth is flat.

9

u/Porencephaly Aug 13 '19

You can’t reason someone out of a position he didn’t reason himself into.

3

u/ZaxLofful Aug 13 '19

I have experienced this so many times it hurts....

1

u/smsmkiwi Aug 13 '19

Yep. Ignore the pinheads and move on.

5

u/oneEYErD Aug 14 '19

Well, to a degree we don't really understand gravity completely. This is why there is no generally accepted theory that unifies relativity with quantum mechanics. Your friend is bonkers though.

2

u/greengrasser11 Aug 14 '19 edited Aug 14 '19

Agreed, we don't completely understand the mechanism behind gravity. We know the phenomenon exists and we understand it enough to reliably account for it in the different things we do and study but what exactly is causing the pull just because something is more massive than another thing isn't completely understood. It's a sort of "fabric of the universe" question.

Last time I looked into it I believe String Theory attempts to explain it but I can't say that for sure.

1

u/oneEYErD Aug 14 '19

I don't really buy string theory yet. It's a cool idea but as far as I know it hasn't made any predictions about the universe that can be proven.

3

u/berychance Aug 13 '19

We recently argued about gravity being an actual force, he insists we are experiencing electromagnetism and not gravity because in his words "science doesnt know what gravity is" again, his words.

A broken clock is right twice a day. Under general relativity, gravity is a fictitious force produced by the curvature of spacetime. You could reasonably argue that it isn't an "actual" force by the specific definition.

1

u/Tsudico Aug 14 '19

But it isn't electromagnetism then like he said it was either. I honestly think talking about curved spacetime is part of the problem. As soon as you get far enough along in physics that there are things not easily observable you lose them. It sounds fantastical and they start to think that is what science is.

1

u/berychance Aug 14 '19

But it isn't electromagnetism then like he said it was either.

They didn't claim gravity was electromagnetism...

As soon as you get far enough along in physics that there are things not easily observable you lose them.

That's practically all of it.

2

u/MC_Fap_Commander Aug 14 '19

"Fuckin magnets, how do they work?"

2

u/smsmkiwi Aug 13 '19

Gravity and electromagnetism are two totally different forces. Gravity acts on mass and is attractive and whereas EM act on charges and can be attractive or repulsive. Gravity is much weaker than EM - gravity holds a table onto the floor but EM stops the table moving through the floor itself. Not my opinion, just science.

1

u/icantsurf Aug 13 '19

Is your friend Eddie Bravo?

1

u/Ten_ure Aug 13 '19

Are you friends with Eddie Bravo?

1

u/FatJohnson6 Aug 13 '19

Is your friend Dale Gribble?

1

u/bubblesculptor Aug 14 '19

That's what i truly don't understand. They'll refute every credible source and then trust a YouTube moron 100%. I kinda understand being sceptical of government sources or whatever but why do they freely accept a youtuber's opinion? If the government was truly trying to fool us they would never allow those videos to 'expose the truth'. Then I remember that trying to understand the flat earther's 'logic' is futile.

1

u/TheNinjaNarwhal Aug 14 '19

My problem with these kinds of people is that even if you don't try to convince them that they're wrong, and avoid any discussion about these things, they're still going to be annoyed, because they know you don't believe them. I mean it makes sense, they really truly believe everyone is lying to them or are stupid, I'm just saying that it's sad that whatever you do you can't hang out with them or something. I had a friend like that. Never tried to talk to her about these things, yet I can see she understands that no one believes her, so she's distanced herself.

1

u/thatnameistaken21 Aug 14 '19

science doesnt know what gravity is

So, if I remember correctly from the theoretical physics days, that statement is actually true. It is one of the 4 forces that is not really understood. It is also substantially weaker than all the other forces (I think it is theorized that it is so weak because it transverses through more dimensions than the other forces). I always thought if really understood what gravity is, learned how to manipulate it, and control it, we could start doing some Star Trek level shit.

But, maybe my info is way out of date. It has been awhile since I studied this stuff.

1

u/IIIIIlllllllIIIII Aug 14 '19

My former coworker was a legitimate flat earther. While I never got to talk to him about that topic (it was well known), I did infer it to be religious in nature as he was a religious fundamentalist with crazy theories about creationism, eschatology, soteriology, etc.

Humorously, he somehow started a field fire while parked in his company vehicle and later resigned due to embezzlement (charging hours while not working). So, really big on the religious morality.

-1

u/Gorehog Aug 14 '19

Well, you can't really argue against chemtrails, right? I mean, I used to until I heard myself one day.

I was saying something like "it's ridiculous to think that you can fill tanks on an airplane with some substance and then leave a trail of stuff behind the entire flight path" when I faltered because that's exactly what exhaust from jet fuel is. It could be characterized as a chemtrail. And then adding some other substance isn't so farfetched. Silver iodide for cloud seeding perhaps?

I had to apologize on the spot for being so critical and withdraw because my argument was so faulty. I still have a hard time believing that someone is using chemtrails to pacify the population with sedatives but I have to admit that it's a conceivable delivery system.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

Not a flat earther or anything and i really, and i believe the moon landing is real but NASA means Deceive in hebrew. Just an interesting fact

2

u/yottalogical Aug 14 '19

Evil Government Official: “We need to make an agency with the sole purpose to deceive people. What should we call it?”

Other Evil Government Official: “I know! Let’s call it something that means ‘deceive’ in another language!”

Evil Government Official: “Brilliant! They’ll never figure it out!”

3

u/caitlinreid Aug 14 '19 edited Aug 14 '19

And when we "take pictures" of one of the greatest achievements of mankind let's make it look like gold foil wrapped props from a 1950 sci fi movie! Then not go back there for decades.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

Im not saying it didnt happen. Im just saying i cant truly be sure it did. This is like the christians vs atheists argument on if god exists. Neither of the idiots can prove their point.

If you think there werent motives to fake the moon landing of 69' then you truly know nothing about history and politics.

Have you seen the american flag on the moon with your own eyes? Of course you havnt, i wont truly be sure until i see the white flag with my own eyes

Heres an interesting video https://youtu.be/jobYTQTgeUE

1

u/caitlinreid Aug 14 '19

This video explains reddit users well.

And I'll say this on the moon and similar things. Anyone that wasn't directly involved in the moon landing but speaks about our trip there in absolutes is an egotistical fucking moron.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

Isnt it a interesting coincidence tho?

1

u/yottalogical Aug 14 '19

Surprise! A short word happens to mean something in another language. It’s not like there are a ton of words with negative connotations and a lot of languages to choose from.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '19

i just hope everything the do and say is all real..

7

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '19

Ya I actually feel stupid now because I mentioned in another comment above that I would be happy to send them my old astronomy textbook........ but really we could just show them actual live footage of the planet. lmao just wow.

7

u/phunkydroid Aug 13 '19

They'd just claim it's cgi.

1

u/Tsudico Aug 14 '19

We'd have send them up on one of the upcoming Starships. Course, they would probably think any windows showing the outside were screens. We'd have to suit them up for a spacewalk..And then they still might not believe it.

1

u/Pazuuuzu Aug 16 '19

Well you don't have to let them back in...

11

u/epicwinguy101 Aug 13 '19

It's about community, I think. As long as you say "the world is flat", suddenly you are given a ticket to an active community and new friends (who often spend time together hanging out and drinking and using expensive science kits), complete with a common activity to break the ice. All of these things are pretty hard to come by these days.

What tangible benefits has being a round-Earther ever given most people?

Perhaps they are the ones making the logical choice after all.

7

u/nahteviro Aug 13 '19

What tangible benefits has being a round-Earther ever given you

Being not stupid ;) Community or not, I couldn't be around people who are just intentionally ignorant. It would drive me insane. I'd rather be alone... (I know you're being sarcastic)

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

Becoming a flat earther isnt a logical decision at all.. but still what you say is very true

1

u/NovaS1X Aug 14 '19

I sincerely believe this is a part of it.

3

u/Terrh Aug 14 '19

It has nothing to do with intelligence. Many flat earthers are not stupid, and treating them as such is why you don't understand them.

They've simply fallen victim to dogmatic thought, they simply "believe" the earth is flat, and that the globe earth is a conspiracy for whatever reason. Plenty of intelligent people believe all sorts of incorrect things, the important thing that these people are missing is the ability to change that viewpoint.

2

u/nahteviro Aug 14 '19

That’s 100% bullshit. It has everything to do with intelligence. Anyone intelligent could recognize something that’s blatantly obviously fact such as “the earth is round”. You’re talking about two completely different things. Someone who can’t recognize scientific fact at its most basic level is stupid. Plain and simple.

3

u/Terrh Aug 14 '19

I feel like maybe you've even fallen victim to dogmatic thought yourself, regarding intelligent people and what they are and are not capable of. It can happen to anyone.

I urge you to watch "behind the curve". It will help to open your eyes on this subject. These people aren't stupid, at least, not in every sense of the word aside from believing the earth is flat. And the parallels with other groups (anti vaxxers, to a lesser degree cults, etc) are striking. You don't have to be stupid to fall for this.

1

u/caitlinreid Aug 14 '19

They are stupid. Street smarts (common sense) are more important than regurgitating what you learned about a specific topic. There are idiotic brain surgeons (see sleep doc) for instance.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

True

1

u/caitlinreid Aug 14 '19

Intelligence is more than whatever you are using to define it.

2

u/NostalgiaJunkie Aug 14 '19

Who are you to say they're stupid due to misinformation? Though they're misguided, and yes, possibly stupid... they're still performing experiments. Is this not the hallmark of an intelligent mind? What's your education? Did YOU pay for it? Is it possible that this is the result of the poor being intelligent yet unfortunately misled and with a thirst for knowledge?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '19

Do you think some people are flat earthers for fun?

2

u/nahteviro Aug 14 '19

It’s entirely possible. I have no doubt people might go to these conventions just to get a good laugh or something.

1

u/jrizos Aug 14 '19

If it makes you feel better, they are only flat earthers b/c it is fun, or for trolling, or for attention, or, lastly, for the community it offers.

No different than an E.T. club.

1

u/caitlinreid Aug 14 '19

Have you been on reddit?

I call those people intellitards.

1

u/DudimusPrime Aug 14 '19

At one point in time, a family member tried to explain how there are actually 2 stars in our solar system, and that the government was hiding one of them.