Upon its widespread cultural
adoption, the internet was welcomed wholeheartedly by science nerds, conspiracy theorists and outright nut jobs. Although successful collaboration between these three
groups is rare, there is one site on the internet where they have banded
together in order to stand upon their global soapbox and declare that the
Earth, despite the seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is flat.
This group take form under the name 'The Flat Earth Society.' The crux of the Society’s online presence is a forum with 8611 registered members and over one
million posts, most of which argue the idea that the earth is not spherical but rather a disk hurtling through space. Before your head (and my comments section) explodes
from the several thousand questions that the previous sentence no doubt engenders,
please remember that much like Jane Goodall and her chimpanzees, I do not
represent the society in question but have merely spent time as an embedded and rather fascinated
observer of their behaviour. Unlike Jane Goodall, however, I will probably not
be endowed with an Order of the British Empire for my efforts, but feel free to
campaign on my behalf (official hashtag #d33myOBEnow).
In any case, I am not writing to
disprove the Flat Earth’s Society’s ‘proofs’, which are surprisingly numerous
and detailed. What I am interested in, however, is the psychology behind such a
site, and to explore the interaction, motivations and inner-workings of this unique
internet community.
The Flat Earth
discussion board is mostly filled with threads which are
started by frustrated newbies who fruitlessly try and convince the Flat Earth believers that the Earth is indeed round. It seems as though people come across the site, become outraged, set up
an account and let fly at the Flat Earther believers ("FE's", in the forum slang), little realising or perhaps caring
that the long time FE's have read it all before. This can be evidenced by the rather
lengthy FAQ that adorns the top of the message board and implores new members
to read before posting. It appears that few do, however, if the number of
threads that appear on the main board systematically attacking Flat Earth
theory are anything to go by.
How, you may well ask, do I know so
much about the behaviour of precocious new members taking it upon themselves to
disprove Flat Earth Theory? Enough time has now passed for me to admit that, in
the folly of my youth, I was one such precocious new member. I remember coming
across the Flat Earth Society at some point during my teenage years, although I
have no idea how I found it. In any case, like most of those who come across
the site, I was amused and horrified at the same time, and decided to sign up
for an account. I signed up under the username of ‘paradiselost’ (one-part
ironically religious, five-parts unironically pretentious) and set about claiming
my spot on the throne as Flat Earth disprover and champion of Round Earth
believers everywhere.
As I have since learnt, in the game
of thrones you either win or die, and I most definitely suffered a humiliating
online death. After making arguments regarding the curvature of the
Earth and the concept of long-distance international flight along great-circle
routes, I was definitively shouted down (if you’re curious, in Flat Earth
theory ‘atmospheric conditions’ account for the phenomenon of
ship masts etc. disappearing ‘over the horizon’ and international airline
pilots are all members of a global conspiracy). If you’re really interested/creepy
you can conduct a search and find some of my old posts on the forums. Suffice to say that you’re not
missing much except for my frequent use of the word ‘ergo’ (did I mention I was
pretentious?).
There are a couple of views one can
take of the Flat Earth Society. The first is that the site is indeed populated
by people who truly believe the Earth is flat and are sticking their heads in
the sand in order to ignore the rather numerous scientific facts that appear to
state otherwise. With the remainder of their spare time these people concoct
fantastic scientific theories and actively try to bring down an international
conspiracy. This view, while fun to contemplate briefly, is in my opinion, ultimately
not very interesting. After all, that just means the Flat Earth Society is
simply a large collaboration of people who have found solace in each other and
their collective belief. Humans have been doing that for millennia.
The second view, to my mind far
more interesting, and probably closer to the truth, is that the site is
populated by rather intelligent people (let’s call them ‘nerds’) who know
perfectly well that the Earth is round but instead enjoy baiting and then shooting
down the numerous Round Earth believers ("RE's")
who come across the site and take it upon themselves to prove the Flat Earth
believers wrong. This argument is evidenced quite eloquently by one supposedly Flat Earth believing member who declared: ‘I’m mostly here for the lolz’.
The remarkable longevity of the Flat Earth Society lies not in its scientific ‘proofs’ but rather in the very nature of
human behaviour itself: The FE’s quickly discovered that there will always be
some Round Earth believing sucker who becomes enchanted by their own sense of
grandeur when they imagine themselves single-handedly destroying the Flat Earth
movement once and for all. The Flat Earth Society becomes a perpetual motion
machine of entertainment for those people who enjoy argument for the sake of
it. It’s not surprising that this personality type fits in quite well with the
sort of people who join any sort of internet forum in the first place.
When this behaviour is confined to relatively
sparsely populated sites on the internet, there is little cause for harm, except
a few bruised egos. But extrapolate this kind of bickering to the real world, and
you begin to appreciate the true folly of the majority of human interaction,
particularly on a political or ideological scale. Intractable conflicts, such
as the search for peace and justice in the Middle East, closely mirror the
cyclical nature of argument found on the Flat Earth forums, in which neither
side is willing to admit defeat or give an inch to the opposing side.
It’s not all doom and gloom,
however. If you venture past the boards dedicated to Flat Earth theory you will
discover a myriad of other boards, including the general chat board, where
people who were heatedly arguing and calling each other childish names in
another thread are discussing the merits of marriage, consoling a member whose
pet got run over, or contemplating the pros and cons of alcohol. The Flat
Earth forum is as insular as many others on the internet – replete with
‘in’ jokes, popular and not popular posters, and friendship. In short, the Flat
Earth is typical of many communities, both online and offline, around the world.
The power of the internet is that it can bring people with a common interest (no matter how ridiculous) together from around the globe (or disk). While the Flat Earth Society often
exposes the more ridiculous side of humanity it is comforting to discover that, beyond
all the conspiracy theories and shady scientific claims, these people still can
connect to one another on a deeper, more individual level. Furthemore, they can do so in a relatively safe environment and not risk having their headquarters burned down by a Round Earth fundamentalist.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I
no longer post on the Flat Earth Society forums. Ergo, I am no longer
pretentious.
Nice piece. The other night I spent way too much time on a white supremacist forum - I was sickened by what they were talking about, but slightly cheered by the way that it seemed like just talk. I couldn't imagine these guys actually meeting up and organising anything, I suppose that happens in a darker corner of the net. I can definitely see the fun in impersonating one of these guys just to see what they would say - and lets face it, the internet is at least 60% about 'the lolz'.
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