The Earth is Flat

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.