What flat Earthers do is set up their argument within the longstanding struggle of the Christian right, by arguing that atheists use pseudoscience – evolution, the Big Bang and round Earth – to sway people away from God.Ī common flat Earther refrain that taps into religious beliefs is that God can inhabit the heavens above us physically only in a flat plane, not a sphere. People already debate atheism v faith, evolution v creationism, and Big Bang v intelligent design. These debates are longstanding and can be very personal for participants on either side.įirst is the debate about the existence of God, which goes back to antiquity, and is built on reason, rather than observation. In analysing these videos, we observed that flat Earthers take advantage of ongoing culture wars by inserting their own arguments into the logic of, primarily, three main debates. The three themes of the flat-Earth theory When conspiracy theories are part of someone’s value system or worldview, it is difficult to challenge them. While news articles can be fact-checked, personal beliefs cannot. The problem arises when people internalise disinformation as part of their identity. People invest their identity into the group and are more willing to believe fellow allies rather than perceived opponents – a phenomenon that sociologists call neo-tribalism.
People who are deeply attached to one side of a culture war are likely to wield any and all arguments (including truths, half-truths and opinions), if it helps them win. One strategy they use is to take sides in existing debates. We paid attention to their debating techniques to understand the structure of their arguments and how they make them appear rational. In a recent study, my colleague Tomas Nilsson at Linnaeus University and I analysed hundreds of YouTube videos in which people argue that the Earth is flat. QAnon and the great replacement theory, for example, have proved deadly more than once.īy studying how flat Earthers talk about their beliefs, we can learn how they make their arguments engaging to their audience, and in turn, learn what makes disinformation spread online.
Polling shows that there is an overlap between conspiracy theories, some of which can act as gateways for radicalisation. While it is tempting to dismiss “flat Earthers” as mildly amusing, we ignore their arguments at our peril.
Polls by YouGov America in 2018 and FDU in 2022 found that as many as 11% of Americans believe the Earth might be flat. Around the world, and against all scientific evidence, a segment of the population believes that Earth’s round shape is either an unproven theory or an elaborate hoax.
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