Round or Flat? Does it matter?

Yes, it matters. And here is why.

My journey into this subject started in the summer of 2023. I had just had a health problem resulting in a month-long sick leave. I was in very good shape though, and suddenly had to spend my time and energy on something else than my work.  I decided to "merge" two earlier hobbies: Photography and Astronomy. And this got me into Astrophotography. I have done both earlier, quite a lot, but never together. Taking photographs of the skies seemed to be a cool new challenge! I bought some stuff, studied a lot and got ready. I also joined several forums online. Everything was peaceful and great fun until I suddenly discovered several very rude people in online forums, even in moderated social media groups ("nerd forums"). I encountered visits from a bunch of people who didn't seem to have anything useful at all to say, except for ranting a lot of pseudo-scientific propaganda, with a focus on Flat Earth. My initial reaction was a mixture of amusement, irritation, and sometimes anger. I had to leave one quite serious group since moderators lost grip of the situation, rendering the group a mayhem of hostile activity. 

During the summer of 2024, I took a rather deep "dive" into the shitstorms on social media and started debating, initially without any real focus. I was still not sure about what I saw. Still very confused. But quite soon I realized the need to reduce my effort and produce something more constructive. I started this webpage and other work (my work with Celestial Navigation). I went outdoors and did some simple and fun experiments (annihilating Flat Earth of course). In the meantime, I have kept a close eye on flat earth propaganda, mainly on Facebook and Reddit. Also a little on YouTube and TikTok, but on these platforms I have avoided engagement since it would just increase traffic (and ad revenues) to flat earth propagandists.

So what is this Flat Earth thing really about? A summary here:

• The current Flat Earth movement is a rather new phenomenon. Well, it didn't appear yesterday or last year. It started about 180 years ago when British trickster/writer/salesman Samuel Rowbotham wrote "Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe" in 1849. His writings have survived until this day, and have had a strong influence on a surge of online Flat Earth disinformation from about 2015 and onwards. 

• The connection between Modern Flat Earth (from the 1840s) and ancient Flat Earth beliefs (from ancient cultures and the Western World before about 2000 years ago) is very weak. Modern Flat Earthers often claim some kind of connection with "Biblical" or other very old traditions. This is not true. Samuel Rowbotham lived in an era in which we had learned that different parts of the Earth have day and night simultaneously. People in the Bronze Age didn't know this, since they had not invented telegraphs and fast travel. It was perfectly plausible to believe the Sun was setting for all of the world at the same time 3000 years ago. Rowbotham was aware of this and he had to invent a strange "fix" in his theory: The introduction of a "spotlight sun" going constantly over a flat disk, and never setting. 

• Every claim made by Samuel Rowbotham and any of his disciples and followers (from the 19th century to this day) can be 100% debunked. The most flagrant of all false statements is claiming "The Horizon always rises to Eye Level". This is not true, and it has been known already since 1017 AD when Persian astronomer Al-Biruni found the horizon drop, which soon allowed us to prove the spherical shape of the Earth, as well as an accurate measurement of the circumference. See this section. I strongly recommend this video too. It contains a systematic debunk of a particularly infamous Flat Earth video. 

And how can we relate to the Flat Earth propaganda? 

• Most importantly: Flat Earthers have all the way back to Rowbotham used a technique that later on has been labeled "Gish Gallop", i.e. flooding and overwhelming the opponent with dozens or even hundreds of arguments, constantly shifting subjects, moving goalposts, etc. Rowbotham's disciple William Carpenter wrote the "100 proofs the Earth is not a globe" in 1885, producing a flood of inconsistent "proofs" against a spheric Earth, but not any legitimate proof for a Flat Earth. Some things we still miss from Flat Earthers: 1) Consistent and navigable 2D maps of the flat Earth. 2) Explaining the appearance of sunrise and sunset, and 3) successfully performing elementary experiments such as those outlined in the challenge section of this webpage. 

• When discussing with a Flat Earther it is very important to avoid the Gish Gallop, and remember the validity of Brandolini's Law. This law tells us about the asymmetry between producing and countering disinformation. Debunking requires typically 10 times more energy than producing the bullshit in the first place. This is a serious dilemma and a trap. How do we solve this? Always stay on topic and address the real issues, preferably by tearing down the weakest arguments of the opponent. This web is an attempt to help you with this! When you have attacked the weakest arguments you have hopefully destroyed the credibility of your opponent. 

• Study the history of Modern Flat Earth. I will give you three sources: 1) the Wikipedia Page, 2) This book, and 3) This book. The more you learn you will see something which is not just a "joke". Flat Earth is a sinister and serious conspiracy theory. 

• You need to know that Flat Earth is sometimes used as a propaganda weapon, and for this you will benefit of knowing about all the tactics used. I mentioned the Gish Gallop pattern above. But there are more: 

  • Straw Man attacks - Arguing with a distorted version of your opinions. 

  • Whataboutism - Arguing by discrediting your trustworthiness. Deflection tactics

  • Attack - Using confrontation, insults, threats, etc. 

  • Mockery - Trying to belittle you and your arguments

  • Provocation - Trying to make you upset. (often combined with attack patterns). 

  • Exhaustion - The Gish Gallop technique I described above. (Throwing hundreds of memes, or 30 hours of video content at once). 

  • Denial - Stone-walled denial of anything you say. 

If you know and recognize these tactics, you will be much better prepared, not just for handling Flat Earth conspiracies, but a lot more.