• chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Have you ever had the change your fundamental understanding of the world? What if you found out today that our entire understanding of science and the universe was flawed due to the interference of some outside force that caused us to make all kinds of faulty observations.

        Would you instantly accept it as fact when presented with evidence? Or would your lifetime of observations still carry weight?

      • Barometer3689@feddit.nl
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        8 months ago

        I have been on both sides on this. I was trapped in a Buddhist group. Considering that the teachings where flawed or wrong would basically mean that I would lose out on that community. Believe me, the sense of belonging can be euphoric in a religion.

        Of course, changing your view in isolation is quite easy. It becomes harder when a big part of your life requires you to believe.

        Also, when I was younger my need to “be right “ was quite strong. I had severe self confidence issues, so “being right” was the one thing I latched on to. Admitting being wrong gets really hard once your self confidence is that shaky.

        I am doing much better now.

        • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          Huh? What kind of Buddhist group requires you to be so in? Kind of antithetical to Buddhism.

          • Barometer3689@feddit.nl
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            8 months ago

            I mean, I would technically still be welcome there. But no longer believing does mean I can’t really feel connected with that group. And thus losing community. Maybe “trapped” was a strong word to use here, but trying to discuss the flaws was just met with equally flawed arguments. Just look up the “five mindfulness trainings” from plum village and it should be easy to see how they can become problematic when followed to the letter.

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Has anyone seen Behind the Curve? Most of these flat earth people seem to possess some level of critical thinking, just… not enough. That, or their pride or obstinacy get in the way. At the end of the documentary, a team of flat-earthers perform an actual, well thought out experiment. It’s… well, just watch.

    Best part? Immediately after this, they discard the results of the experiment saying the premise was faulty. Somehow.

    • Zozano@lemy.lol
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      8 months ago

      The problem doesn’t stem from their critical thinking skills, but rather, a combination of indoctrination and religious beliefs which cause a series of presuppositions to supersede the conclusions the rest of us have taken as presuppositions.

      In some sense I admire their dedication to challenge established facts about reality, that should be done in general.

      To clarify the statement about indoctrination and religion: many people are not aware that flat earthers are religious wackjobs. Their thought process is as follows:

      “If the universe contains trillions of celestial bodies and they’re all spherical, then we are inconsequential. It must be the case that we are special, and earth is not a sphere, but is flat.”

      Some flat earthers will claim space doesn’t exist, even though their bible tells them God created other planets.

      • Well, Columbus, Galilei, Kepler & co. challenged what was considered “established fact” about the shape and place of the earth in their times.

        It is not wrong to challenge what is considered “established facts”. Problem is when you discard results that are going against your preoposition. I wouldn’t consider flat earthers to be particular religious as a crowd though. At least in my country they mostl come from the esoteric scene, where you get a mixed bowl of esoteric nonsene, conspiracy theories, and fascist ideology.

        • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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          8 months ago

          One thing to point out is that Columbus wasn’t challenging established thinking about the earth’s shape, but rather its size. The educated populace at the time was on the ball with the earth being a sphere.

          • limelight79@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            And the critics of Columbus WERE RIGHT! He was vastly underestimating the size of the earth. If North America hadn’t existed and it had just been one big ocean, he and the expedition would have perished in the middle of nowhere. Of course, the size had been calculated before his expedition (the actual values turned out be extremely close to what had been calculated), so he should have known better. There’s a reason he had trouble getting funding for his expedition…

            I’m still somewhat frustrated that our history classes taught (maybe still do, I’ve been out of high school a long time) that all the naysayers thought the earth was flat.

          • bigpEE@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            My recollection is that Columbus was also wrong about its size. He thought the distance from Europe to Asia via the Atlantic was much smaller than it really is, but got lucky and found the Americas on the way

        • Enkrod@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          Meh, our esoterics are basically religious anarchists or spiritual hippies. They still fall into all the trapping of religion without the “organized” part of “organized religion”.

    • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Try being in their shoes: you set up an experiment to prove the earth is not flat and is indeed round, you run the experiment and at the end you realise your experiment fail and would prove the earth is flat. Would you changwe your point of view ? I know I wouldn’t, I would immediately assume I am an idiot and messed up the experiment, because I am so much convinced it is round, it would be much more realistic to assume I messed up.

      • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If I do it 10 times and each time the result is ‘flat’, and 99.99% of scientists in the field say it’s flat, at that point I would do some self evaluation to see why I was so hell bent on being wrong

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          8 months ago

          If I’m grifting people into giving me money to prove it’s flat I’ll keep doubling down until that teat runs dry.

      • Baphomet_The_Blasphemer@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        This. This is exactly it. Commonly referred to as cognitive dissonance where when presented with evidence differing from that of one’s beliefs, they will discard said evidence as faulty and will double down going deeper into their wrongfully held beliefs. Cognitive dissonance can be overcome but it is very difficult to do so, especially if you aren’t willing to entertain the idea that your beliefs might be wrong.

  • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I feel like it’s been memory holed, but I remember 00’s flat earth being genuinely smart people using it to illustrate the ridiculousness of teaching creation beside evolution, which was a push around that time. It was a Church of Satan style mockery, but I guess the arguments were too convincing.

    • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Poe’s Law

      Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.

    • Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social
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      8 months ago

      I member… i learned of it from a vsauce video i watched when it first dropped. Was mindblown years later when ppl were touting the flat earth society seriously. Their tagline was literally, “We Have Members Around the Globe!”

      • unphazed@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I’m kinda hoping for a Cthulu Church myself. Can you imagine how cool the aesthetics of the building would be?

          • unphazed@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I need to become an author, create a Cthulu religion, buy lots of boats, and an island with a giant Cthulu statue with no explanation to keep it a mystery. I’ll build a church and instruct everyone to stay away from the island. Inside the statue I’ll pay a person to sell merchandise…

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It was a weird blend of that and true believers. Then the people there for the joke of it all got weirded out by the crazies and left.

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      I recall it being an argument in a high school debate club or someother which made it’s way onto 4chan and found supporters, who then proceeded to do what 4chan does best, and troll people/targets of their derision. Basically they assumed no one was stupid enough to believe it and were shockingly surprised.

  • Zozano@lemy.lol
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    8 months ago

    3 months is a very short time to come… (Puts on glasses)… Full circle.

    YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAAAAAA

    • dessimbelackis@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Far more respect gained when someone realizes they’re wrong and changes their view then stubbornly sticking with incorrect beliefs

      • SeabassDan@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Aliens might be real, though, I just doubt all the supposed sightings that can be chalked up to mistaking one thing for another, or just gov’t tech that we simply don’t know about.

      • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Same as alien believers

        I view flat Earthers and people that believe in aliens as polar opposites. Flat Earthers think that the Earth is special and the center of the universe, with the heavens revolving around us. Alien believers see the universe as being incredibly vast and recognize that there’s nothing inherently special about our world and that life almost certainly exists elsewhere.

        • evranch@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          There’s a divide though in “alien believers”.

          I absolutely believe that other life exists in our vast universe. This is a pretty common opinion among scientific thinkers, space enthusiasts etc. that the universe is simply too huge for us to be all alone.

          I also believe that due to that vastness, we’ll never meet any aliens, unless we punch into Europa someday and there happen to be some fish down there.

          UFO enthusiasts, on the other hand, have a position that is much less supported by science.

          • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            Oh I didn’t realize you were talking about people that believed they’ve been abducted. I thought you just meant people that believed that aliens existed in general.

        • rektdeckard@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I think they were referring to alien consipracists, who much like flat earthers believe in a global hoax committed by the elite (read: Jews and Liberals) to keep us misinformed on the true nature of our reality (for some reason). In that way they are very much cut from the same cloth.

    • DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The people who benefit from division, confusion, and inability to determine information from misinformation. Aka, the rich and powerful.

    • It's A Faaaahhkeah!@lemmus.org
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      8 months ago

      Sometimes I wish I didn’t have morals or I’d be making shitloads off of these people.

      Just pump out a bunch of AI voiced nonsense that has just enough ‘evidence’ to keep them going, tell them they’re special because they know this and other people who aren’t them are dumb because they don’t know this and that the mainstream (insert industry here) is trying to silence you so you need them to donate to the fight.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Some of them are really raking it in through Patreon and sales of shoddy merchandise. That’s how Alex Jones finances HIS deranged ramblings too.

      Spouting bullshit while pretending that THEY are trying to stop you to get people to donate and buy your shit is unfortunately an extremely lucrative business for many.

    • wafflez@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Flat earthers claim theres a resource rich area past antartica and they keep it a secret so only the wealthy or governments can hoard the resources

    • drmeanfeel@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Draws an audience of gullible morons. With that starting point you can do a number of things grift wise

  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Damn, actual personal growth being displayed on the internet? Such a rare thing I find myself wondering it wasn’t all staged. How messed up is that?

    Also, how messed up is it that it worked, cause I’mm’a go watch all of these.

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I am crazy impressed that anyone could follow that path and not just drop off the internet in shame when they realized. I hope if anything I view in the same manner ever comes up as fabricated I’m as brave.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I used to be a 9/11 truther, convinced of ex military, windowless jets with missile pods, thermite and a global conspiracy to kill thousands just to fake the death of a few important scientists who were on the plane so they could be kidnapped and enslaved to prevent them leaking government secrets while also making bank on the insurance claims and destroying evidence of massive corruption and compromat, just like the scuttling of the titanic.

      Im still not really sure when and why I changed my mind.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        it’s the human experience - plenty of real conspiracy shit - from cia acid/mk ultra to the tuskegee experiment makes anything seem possible.

        I’ve always felt there was some stuff on the saudi side that was left unexplored but know that a passenger plane could take out a building, and working in vfx, knowing there was no way to fake it on site. life will offer more examples of ambiguous outcomes, and they’ll be replete with government fuckery in some cases, in others, it’ll just be random tragedy. good luck!

      • petrol_sniff_king
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        8 months ago

        My favorite thing about conspiracy theories is the all-at-once victory these events are supposed to be.

        Like, dissenting opinions are so heavily discouraged that everything gets turned into some 5D mental chess gambit. So you get things like:

        They were trying to kidnap scientists without anyone knowing

        Okay. Kind of elaborate for that, but why not.

        And they made a lot of money.

        O… kay. I guess. Does that mean the money was important to the scientist kidnappi—

        And there was a lot of evidence on that plane they needed gone, too.

        Wow, popping this plane really was a golden egg, wasn’t it?