To win a debate against somebody who holds opposing views you must first set out a clear introduction, respond to objections in a concise and unambiguous manner, and use the flaws in your opponent’s thesis to build on your own.
To win a debate against somebody who believes the Earth to be a flat, stationary disk surrounded by a wall of ice, encapsulated by some physical membrane, with the Sun the Moon and the stars rotating above it.. Well, you can’t.
I am currently pursuing a degree in Physics, so naturally I am going to have reason to believe the Earth is indeed approximately a sphere (just like chickens). So why would I waste my time listening to and arguing with folks who are so dead-set on the idea that NASA has been taking their money and turning it into the most complex, unnecessary and not to mention completely absurd lie ever told?
The short answer: it’s fun.
The long answer: it’s really fun.
What makes a Flat Earther?
Your average flat Earther is an extreme skeptic, somebody who believes the government is founded on extensive lies. I’m not just talking about lies such as “vote for me and I’ll do this” because let’s face it: your government does lie to you. But the idea that the government is lying to you about the shape of the planet? Absurd. Let’s imagine one such person and call him Mick.
As a child, Mick attended school. At school, he learned the following things:
- the Earth is rotating sphere, tilted about its axis, orbiting around the Sun as too does the Moon orbit the Earth;
- gravity is the mutual attraction between two or more bodies with mass;
- the Sun is almost 150 million kilometers away from the Earth;
- the stars are much like our own Sun with their own planets in orbit.
One day Mick opens Facebook and is greeted with a notification from his friend to joina Flat Earth group. Curious, he goes to the group and is greeted with a meme.
Mick is an intelligent guy, he knows scientific evidence when he sees it and concludes that this meme holds merit. These people must know what they’re talking about. After an extensive research period of ten minutes, Mick has come to the following mind-opening deductions:
- the Earth is a flat, stationary disk surrounded by a wall of ice guarded by NASA;
- what we call gravity is actually the effects of density – lightweight objects are able to float because they are less dense than air (this does explain why flat Earthers can’t float: they are pretty dense);
- the Sun is 32 miles across and 3,000 miles away;
- the Stars exist on a plane above our heads magically rotating and magically floating?
Mick is now a Flat Earther and 6 months from now he will look back on this moment as his personal “awakening” from the “indoctrination” that is education. Over these 6 months he has conducted extensive research into Flat Earth and is ready to partake in online debates against Globeheads with the goal of waking them up too.
Do you see the problem(s) with Mick?
When you’re given a model from a young age and told to accept it, you will most likely accept it as fact, without question. I’m not saying this is a good thing, of course; you should always question what you’re told. But when you don’t, and somebody comes along later in life with a contradictory model and informs you that your entire life has been based on a lie, I don’t blame you for wanting to look for facts in the pursuit of the “correct model.”
The conversion process that governs how Mick will convert from accepting the Globe model to accepting the Flat Earth model is simple. He may choose to open up the Flat Earth Wiki and read up on how the model offers an alternative explanation to the contrary. For instance, the Globe model explains why the Sun sets, so he’s going to look up how the Sun would set on a flat Earth. They have an answer for that: perspective – as objects move further away from you they get smaller until eventually you cannot see them anymore. Satisfied with this alternative explanation, he moves on to the next, and the next, and so on.
For most people, they would have realised by now that what they’re reading is a load of tosh. The Globe model explains why your latitude influences the position of Polaris (a star very close to the North Celestial Pole) in the sky. It explains the seasons, the tides, the constellations, and so much more, in one fell swoop. The Flat Earth model, however, cannot do this in one go and must come up with an arbitrary mechanism for each and every phenomena. In fact, the Flat Earth is not a model at all because it cannot make predictions unlike the Globe model which can and does to an extreme level of accuracy and precision.
After doing his research, Mick will make contributions to the discussion online. He will be called out by a “Glober” for talking nonsense and select a response from the Flat Earther Response Kit. He decides to go with an all time favourite, “NASA images are CGI.” This will provoke an argument with the Glober. Mick will win this argument. Mick will win every argument. Why? Because he has become an example of the cognitive bias that is the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Mick has done his research, and recalls the days where he too believed in the Globe Earth model. Prior to becoming a flat Earther, Mick had not once questioned the shape of the planet, and certainly did not educate himself on the science behind why the planet is a sphere. Therefore this leads him to one conclusion: the Glober he is now arguing with has also not done any research or questioned his reality. This gives Mick the illusion of being superior in knowledge and intellect. These are the traits of somebody who is able to win every debate, and so Mick has a shield.
Mick is your model flat Earther, unable to accept the possibility that they may be wrong and completely scientifically inept. When provided with evidence or thought experiments, Mick will refute the information as part of the indoctrination that he is no longer subjected to. When asked simple questions that would break down Mick’s reality on a fundamental level, he will dodge it, avoid the point currently in discussion and attempt to raise a new point that he deems easier to win.
