Thoughts On Flat Earthers
Thursday, November 24th, 2022 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioWhile spending the past two days writing, Flat Earther's Guide Part One and Part Two I couldn't help thinking how divorced Americans are from reality.
A lot of the things I covered in that essay, are things I had to struggle for years to get straight... because my school science classes did such a poor job of explaining any of it.
For example, I was taught from childhood that Polaris was the North Star, and that sailors used it... somehow... to navigate. But nobody ever told me it was because Polaris never moves... and so, it's height in the sky depends on your latitude!
I was also told in school that the seasons were caused by the Earth's tilt... in grade school and high school... but NEVER, did anybody explain that the Earth's tilted axis always points at Polaris, no matter where it is in the orbit!
And it took me until I was in my 30s to figure out that the reason it does so is becasue of the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum.
That's a BIG detail to leave out, if you want a kid to truly understand why the tilt would matter, and how the whole thing works and makes sense.
And I don't know if my teachers... and ALL TV and YouTube Science communicators to this day... overlook that critical detail because they assume it should be common knowledge even for children?... or if they leave it out because they themselves don't get it!
And almost ALL of the Moon Phase stuff, I had to figure out for myself... the fact that the lit side of a moon seen in the sky during the day always faces the Sun... and that the New Moon is out all day long!
--<>--
It's tempting to blame the weird rash we have now of Flat Earthers on willful ignorance... or religious extremism... or some other fascist rejection of science... but these things don't gain such a popular foothold out of nowhere.
As I mentioned back on Columbus Day, about my Kindergarten Teacher, Mrs. Wallow;
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0--------------------0
That was pro-colonialist propoganda, she was teaching us in Kindergarten!
It was supposed to glorify Columbus for having the RIGHT answer... that the earth was a sphere... but it also implied that, once upon a time, a Flat Earth Model enjoyed great legitimacy all through Europe!.. which it did not!
And in that narrative... Columbus never DOES make it around the back side of the globe! He thinks he can get to India (actually China) by sailing around the spherical Earth, but he just runs into a relatively closeby continent nobody knew was there!
So if you're a conspiracy theorist in the modern day, you might decide those Flat Earther's of old were correct... because... ancient wisdom is always way more true than fake modern government lies... or something?
On one level, they're right to think they've been told lies. Columbus propoganda is one such lie! And there's a LOT of that out there!
------------{=0=}------------
But even non-political, secular, adult life in America is VERY geared toward keeping a narrow focus on the here and now. What is your car? How nice is your house? How cool is your town? What are you wearing? How do you look?
The sky is just a background!
the Moon is just an ornament!
Seasons are just outdoor themes!
History doesn't matter, the future doesn't exist, and it makes no difference if the planet is a sphere or a flat disk!.. Just get me where I want to go on my vacation and then get me back home!
Every single branch of science and engineering is compartmentalized, and only ever worried about by specialists you never meet or hear from!
--<>--
A SHIT-TON of theoretical physics and engineering goes into making the modern world work; from GPS satellites and the intricacies of smart phones, to the structural integrity of buildings and bridges, to toilets & light bulbs, cars & planes, farming, manufacturing & shipping...
EVERYTHING that makes modern civilization work!
And it works so well (most of the time) that most people have the luxury of not having to understand ANY of it!
------------{=0=}------------
It would seem like a laudable triumph for a civilization... that most of it's people can not only survive, but thrive... in total ignorance about anything other than what your choice of footwear signifies to others.
And it's cute to feed such a population all kinds of fairy tales... like that everybody's got a soul mate, and some people are destined to be rich and famous, and there's only two genders, and Columbus was a good guy!
Huge sectors of the economy run on fairy tales, and politicians RELY on them to win elections!
And it's all fun and games until you end up with a rash of Flat Earthers!
------------{=0=}------------
For most of my life... and all of American history before I was born... there just weren't any Flat Earthers, anywhere!
It's only been in the past, maybe eight years, that they've suddenly become a thing, but now, they're everywhere, and nobody seems to be able to shut them up, or shut them down.
The scary part is that some of them have gone to great lengths, to set up careful scientific experiments, with expensive instruments... in order to disprove the Shperical Earth Model... only to actually PROVE the Spherical Earth Model... and still REJECT the results!
Clearly they are able to think logically and use sophisticated equipment properly... when driven by the goal of getting more likes online, and being respected as an intellectual...
But they go into it expecting a result that aligns with preconceived ideals, and when that doesn't happen... well, the results just have to be WRONG!
--<>--
This kind of pathological devotion to an ideal, against all evidence to the contrary... may seem to be harmless, when there are no stakes!
But... there are always stakes!
A lot of Americans died of Covid thanks to this type of thinking... but then again... many a Democracy has fallen to this type of thinking too!
Theocracies and dictatorships thrive on this type of thinking!
------------{=0=}------------
I'm not saying that Flat Earthers will take over the government, or cause it to collapse.
But I am saying that, a rash of Flat Earthers is a very bad symptom to see in a society.
They're flaring up because most people can't debunk them even if they want to!.. because most people don't really get why the Earth is supposed to be spherical, either!
I restricted the essay to eyeball based observations at home, because, Flat Earther's love to say the only possible proofs for a spherical Earth require expensive travels to the southern Hemisphere, or rocket trips to outer space... which the elite overlords know you'll never be able to do yourself!
But you CAN debunk them with just the stars, Sun and Moon... or at least force them out onto a very brittle limb.
And this is true for ALL conspiracy theories... if you're educated in a way that you truly GRASP the underlying facts.
------------{=0=}------------
I'm gonna end this on that note... that the purpose of education should not be to simply dump information into a person's brain.
Especially not when you're dumping in a lot of fairytale bullshit and scraps of propoganda along with that information.
The purpose of education should be to help students GRASP the concepts.
It's not enough to just say, "Oh, well we have seasons because the Earth is tilted."
Like it should make perfect sense... and if it doesn't, don't worry about it!
That shit keeps people up at night!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
A lot of the things I covered in that essay, are things I had to struggle for years to get straight... because my school science classes did such a poor job of explaining any of it.
For example, I was taught from childhood that Polaris was the North Star, and that sailors used it... somehow... to navigate. But nobody ever told me it was because Polaris never moves... and so, it's height in the sky depends on your latitude!
I was also told in school that the seasons were caused by the Earth's tilt... in grade school and high school... but NEVER, did anybody explain that the Earth's tilted axis always points at Polaris, no matter where it is in the orbit!
And it took me until I was in my 30s to figure out that the reason it does so is becasue of the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum.
That's a BIG detail to leave out, if you want a kid to truly understand why the tilt would matter, and how the whole thing works and makes sense.
And I don't know if my teachers... and ALL TV and YouTube Science communicators to this day... overlook that critical detail because they assume it should be common knowledge even for children?... or if they leave it out because they themselves don't get it!
And almost ALL of the Moon Phase stuff, I had to figure out for myself... the fact that the lit side of a moon seen in the sky during the day always faces the Sun... and that the New Moon is out all day long!
It's tempting to blame the weird rash we have now of Flat Earthers on willful ignorance... or religious extremism... or some other fascist rejection of science... but these things don't gain such a popular foothold out of nowhere.
As I mentioned back on Columbus Day, about my Kindergarten Teacher, Mrs. Wallow;
"She'd be like, "Everybody thought the world was flat, like a pancake," and she'd hold up the fake plastic pancake, "But Columbus knew the world was round, like an apple!" She held up the fake plastic apple.
I honestly believe this is why we have flat earthers in the 21st Century..."
That was pro-colonialist propoganda, she was teaching us in Kindergarten!
It was supposed to glorify Columbus for having the RIGHT answer... that the earth was a sphere... but it also implied that, once upon a time, a Flat Earth Model enjoyed great legitimacy all through Europe!.. which it did not!
And in that narrative... Columbus never DOES make it around the back side of the globe! He thinks he can get to India (actually China) by sailing around the spherical Earth, but he just runs into a relatively closeby continent nobody knew was there!
So if you're a conspiracy theorist in the modern day, you might decide those Flat Earther's of old were correct... because... ancient wisdom is always way more true than fake modern government lies... or something?
On one level, they're right to think they've been told lies. Columbus propoganda is one such lie! And there's a LOT of that out there!
But even non-political, secular, adult life in America is VERY geared toward keeping a narrow focus on the here and now. What is your car? How nice is your house? How cool is your town? What are you wearing? How do you look?
The sky is just a background!
the Moon is just an ornament!
Seasons are just outdoor themes!
History doesn't matter, the future doesn't exist, and it makes no difference if the planet is a sphere or a flat disk!.. Just get me where I want to go on my vacation and then get me back home!
Every single branch of science and engineering is compartmentalized, and only ever worried about by specialists you never meet or hear from!
A SHIT-TON of theoretical physics and engineering goes into making the modern world work; from GPS satellites and the intricacies of smart phones, to the structural integrity of buildings and bridges, to toilets & light bulbs, cars & planes, farming, manufacturing & shipping...
EVERYTHING that makes modern civilization work!
And it works so well (most of the time) that most people have the luxury of not having to understand ANY of it!
It would seem like a laudable triumph for a civilization... that most of it's people can not only survive, but thrive... in total ignorance about anything other than what your choice of footwear signifies to others.
And it's cute to feed such a population all kinds of fairy tales... like that everybody's got a soul mate, and some people are destined to be rich and famous, and there's only two genders, and Columbus was a good guy!
Huge sectors of the economy run on fairy tales, and politicians RELY on them to win elections!
And it's all fun and games until you end up with a rash of Flat Earthers!
For most of my life... and all of American history before I was born... there just weren't any Flat Earthers, anywhere!
It's only been in the past, maybe eight years, that they've suddenly become a thing, but now, they're everywhere, and nobody seems to be able to shut them up, or shut them down.
The scary part is that some of them have gone to great lengths, to set up careful scientific experiments, with expensive instruments... in order to disprove the Shperical Earth Model... only to actually PROVE the Spherical Earth Model... and still REJECT the results!
Clearly they are able to think logically and use sophisticated equipment properly... when driven by the goal of getting more likes online, and being respected as an intellectual...
But they go into it expecting a result that aligns with preconceived ideals, and when that doesn't happen... well, the results just have to be WRONG!
This kind of pathological devotion to an ideal, against all evidence to the contrary... may seem to be harmless, when there are no stakes!
But... there are always stakes!
A lot of Americans died of Covid thanks to this type of thinking... but then again... many a Democracy has fallen to this type of thinking too!
Theocracies and dictatorships thrive on this type of thinking!
I'm not saying that Flat Earthers will take over the government, or cause it to collapse.
But I am saying that, a rash of Flat Earthers is a very bad symptom to see in a society.
They're flaring up because most people can't debunk them even if they want to!.. because most people don't really get why the Earth is supposed to be spherical, either!
I restricted the essay to eyeball based observations at home, because, Flat Earther's love to say the only possible proofs for a spherical Earth require expensive travels to the southern Hemisphere, or rocket trips to outer space... which the elite overlords know you'll never be able to do yourself!
But you CAN debunk them with just the stars, Sun and Moon... or at least force them out onto a very brittle limb.
And this is true for ALL conspiracy theories... if you're educated in a way that you truly GRASP the underlying facts.
I'm gonna end this on that note... that the purpose of education should not be to simply dump information into a person's brain.
Especially not when you're dumping in a lot of fairytale bullshit and scraps of propoganda along with that information.
The purpose of education should be to help students GRASP the concepts.
It's not enough to just say, "Oh, well we have seasons because the Earth is tilted."
Like it should make perfect sense... and if it doesn't, don't worry about it!
That shit keeps people up at night!
°¦}
