I've seen the inside of the mindset that became Flat Earther. A decade ago I started on my own Theological Adventure coming from a background loosely considered evangelical Christianity. Following the challenge of 2 Timothy 2:15 (Study to show yourself approved) what we quickly found was how far from the truth modern Christianity actually was. I aligned with a group (more of a mindset) called Hebrew Roots.
The immediate issue was that this group took the hardline interpretation that the Bible was literally the word of God and therefore Truth. There was no room for allegory, analogy, etc. even though Jesus spoke in parables and Matthew used Midrashes. On the one hand, Hebrew Roots started stripping off all the odd vestiges of Christianity and its 'pagan' influences. On the other hand, they typically lost the ability to discern nuance. So if the Bible talks about the earth as flat and the powers that be have been shown to have lied and even conspired to promote divergent dogma, the simple answer was to reject the authority and put your faith in the Bible. Since the Earth being flat or spherical has zero impact on 99% of humans’ daily existence, it’s a low cost belief.
That's the same issue with the internet writ large. So often we get fractured out of one echo chamber that we find out was wrong, only to switch to a new echo chamber that's not any more right, but just not clearly proven wrong yet. It's a surprisingly hard place to be where you aren't in a specific tribe and are able to parse the nuance. That's not a common human trait.
So yes, the Internet gives us access to the most information ever and, more often than not, this information shows that what we thought we knew was wrong. That's a hard position for most humans to handle
Good point about hopping from one echo chamber (the pot) into the fire of another. The difference in between today and back then is that you can simply switch social circles instantly, whereas before, you were probably stuck in the same "chamber" for your whole lifetime.
I think science itself is at risk of becoming a Jurassic Park. The way we fund it influences the outcomes of the experiments, leading to pious declarations of “The science says...” when in fact there is serious doubt. The best example of this is the debacle over Dr. Beatty charts at Stanford and the Great Barrington protocol.”
You can turn anything into a religion, thestic or atheistic. When Moses handed down the law which included having no other Gods.... this wasn't just theism as science can be just as problematic.
You identified some real-life examples, but they exist in fiction as well. Fantasy fiction scholars identify them as "polders", a term they used for places completely cut off from the "real" world and which interact with it only on a nominal basis (e.g. the Land of Oz).
I find Flat Earthers so ridiculously misinformed. How can Earth be flat if it's a perfect cube? That's how aliens transported planets aboard their container spaceships.
Great post. But there's another story here - about the need to wary of imperialism in its various forms - cultural and military. It's bad enough to turn your back on cultural/scientific exchange that might benefit you. But to ignore the armies and navies of the imperialists gathering in the distance is arguably at least as big an error. And perhaps one we need to consider now, too.
Flat earthers are active on youtube with fairly sophisticated technical measure demonstrating the Earth is not round being made. It is not hard to see why this has happened. All of these flat earthers are also climate change skeptics, vaccine skeptics and Creationists. As political support for the latter has risen, they have proliferated.
I had great hope that the community I grew up in would move forward for two reasons:
* the introduction of the smart phone - a most affordable world class library,
* people moving home after having been in the world.
What happened instead is exactly what you describe—an intentional self-limiting of knowledge, and the resorption of those with experience back into the same mindset they had before they left.
Religion in Nigeria reeks of a Jurassic Park. Prayers solve some problems, but not all. The Jurassic Park arrives when people believe that prayers translate into a tool to solve all challenges..
One of my favorite lines of poetry of all time is from Carl Sandburg: "We are the greatest city, the greatest nation, nothing like us ever was."
Complacency and arrogance lead to all kinds of downfall.
I feel like another big issue is we surround ourselves with people who think like us, and then we think it's the only way. We lose touch. Just for funsies, I listened to a guy last week I used to follow in the paleo diet space to see what he was talking about these days. It was so patronizing and offensive. Basically, he is telling women the reason they can't lose weight is they don't love themselves enough to not eat cookies or cupcakes. If they just loved themselves more, they wouldn't eat sugar. I found it repulsive and offensive on so many levels, but also, it gave me a glimpse into the way many people in the world think, so it widened my worldview.
One of my favorite ways to really get the pulse on a community is to read the comments. But for fun and experimentation, read both the comments of an article on its native platform and on social. They often have a different flavor, one reflecting the publication's audience and the other the broader social audience.
Yes! Comments can tell you a lot. You have to be really careful, though: it's an endless pit of despair, and it's easy to lose hope for humanity if you read lowest common denominator stuff like YouTube or reddit comments all the way down.
Still, it's a necessary reminder of what people actually think and say out there, and I do force myself (or get tricked into it) from time to time.
I've seen the inside of the mindset that became Flat Earther. A decade ago I started on my own Theological Adventure coming from a background loosely considered evangelical Christianity. Following the challenge of 2 Timothy 2:15 (Study to show yourself approved) what we quickly found was how far from the truth modern Christianity actually was. I aligned with a group (more of a mindset) called Hebrew Roots.
The immediate issue was that this group took the hardline interpretation that the Bible was literally the word of God and therefore Truth. There was no room for allegory, analogy, etc. even though Jesus spoke in parables and Matthew used Midrashes. On the one hand, Hebrew Roots started stripping off all the odd vestiges of Christianity and its 'pagan' influences. On the other hand, they typically lost the ability to discern nuance. So if the Bible talks about the earth as flat and the powers that be have been shown to have lied and even conspired to promote divergent dogma, the simple answer was to reject the authority and put your faith in the Bible. Since the Earth being flat or spherical has zero impact on 99% of humans’ daily existence, it’s a low cost belief.
That's the same issue with the internet writ large. So often we get fractured out of one echo chamber that we find out was wrong, only to switch to a new echo chamber that's not any more right, but just not clearly proven wrong yet. It's a surprisingly hard place to be where you aren't in a specific tribe and are able to parse the nuance. That's not a common human trait.
So yes, the Internet gives us access to the most information ever and, more often than not, this information shows that what we thought we knew was wrong. That's a hard position for most humans to handle
Good point about hopping from one echo chamber (the pot) into the fire of another. The difference in between today and back then is that you can simply switch social circles instantly, whereas before, you were probably stuck in the same "chamber" for your whole lifetime.
I think science itself is at risk of becoming a Jurassic Park. The way we fund it influences the outcomes of the experiments, leading to pious declarations of “The science says...” when in fact there is serious doubt. The best example of this is the debacle over Dr. Beatty charts at Stanford and the Great Barrington protocol.”
You can turn anything into a religion, thestic or atheistic. When Moses handed down the law which included having no other Gods.... this wasn't just theism as science can be just as problematic.
"The science says" is such a great way to dupe a bunch of people without actually showing them any science.
You identified some real-life examples, but they exist in fiction as well. Fantasy fiction scholars identify them as "polders", a term they used for places completely cut off from the "real" world and which interact with it only on a nominal basis (e.g. the Land of Oz).
Where does the term "polder" come from?
Polders are land recovered from the sea in the Netherlands, or so I learned in 4th grade geography.
I find Flat Earthers so ridiculously misinformed. How can Earth be flat if it's a perfect cube? That's how aliens transported planets aboard their container spaceships.
Come on man. These are smart aliens! Surely they use buckyballs.
Uh, hello! Space is like, vacuum and stuff? Magnets don't work without electricity, and there's no electricity in a vacuum. That's a real fact.
Dang, you're right. Do you think they have Dysons up there, or some other types of vacuums? Once you've Dysoned, you never go back.
Great post. But there's another story here - about the need to wary of imperialism in its various forms - cultural and military. It's bad enough to turn your back on cultural/scientific exchange that might benefit you. But to ignore the armies and navies of the imperialists gathering in the distance is arguably at least as big an error. And perhaps one we need to consider now, too.
Flat earthers are active on youtube with fairly sophisticated technical measure demonstrating the Earth is not round being made. It is not hard to see why this has happened. All of these flat earthers are also climate change skeptics, vaccine skeptics and Creationists. As political support for the latter has risen, they have proliferated.
I had great hope that the community I grew up in would move forward for two reasons:
* the introduction of the smart phone - a most affordable world class library,
* people moving home after having been in the world.
What happened instead is exactly what you describe—an intentional self-limiting of knowledge, and the resorption of those with experience back into the same mindset they had before they left.
This was a shock to me that I was slow to realize!
But it does seem like a fundamental reality: it's easy to hide ourselves from the harsh reality of the world, and we are easily tempted.
Religion in Nigeria reeks of a Jurassic Park. Prayers solve some problems, but not all. The Jurassic Park arrives when people believe that prayers translate into a tool to solve all challenges..
True, and this can happen with all religions.
From Dutch. Holland is built on very low land that can easily separate during flooding, and the separate parts are called polders.
One of my favorite lines of poetry of all time is from Carl Sandburg: "We are the greatest city, the greatest nation, nothing like us ever was."
Complacency and arrogance lead to all kinds of downfall.
I feel like another big issue is we surround ourselves with people who think like us, and then we think it's the only way. We lose touch. Just for funsies, I listened to a guy last week I used to follow in the paleo diet space to see what he was talking about these days. It was so patronizing and offensive. Basically, he is telling women the reason they can't lose weight is they don't love themselves enough to not eat cookies or cupcakes. If they just loved themselves more, they wouldn't eat sugar. I found it repulsive and offensive on so many levels, but also, it gave me a glimpse into the way many people in the world think, so it widened my worldview.
One of my favorite ways to really get the pulse on a community is to read the comments. But for fun and experimentation, read both the comments of an article on its native platform and on social. They often have a different flavor, one reflecting the publication's audience and the other the broader social audience.
Yes! Comments can tell you a lot. You have to be really careful, though: it's an endless pit of despair, and it's easy to lose hope for humanity if you read lowest common denominator stuff like YouTube or reddit comments all the way down.
Still, it's a necessary reminder of what people actually think and say out there, and I do force myself (or get tricked into it) from time to time.
I really like that Sandberg quote.
Deborah, you will either really enjoy, or be terrified by this: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/tinfoil-tuesday-birds-arent-real
Mass hallucination.