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Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat: Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube.
Their suspicion was raised when they attended the world’s largest gatherings of Flat Earthers at the movement’s annual conference in Rayleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, and then in Denver, Colorado, last year.
Interviews with 30 attendees revealed a pattern in the stories people told about how they came to be convinced that the Earth was not a large round rock spinning through space but a large flat disc doing much the same thing.
Of the 30, all but one said they had not considered the Earth to be flat two years ago but changed their minds after watching videos promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube. “The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTube and told him about it,” said Asheley Landrum, who led the research at Texas Tech University.
[...] Some said they watched the videos only in order to debunk them but soon found themselves won over by the material.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:17AM
The bigger question is who cares enough to devote a noticeable portion of their lives to the evangelization of either side. Flat Earth or spherical, it has never directly affected my life, in the sense that I don't care how planes or satellites work as long as they get done want I want them to do, which they do. Yes, it's a matter of concern to designers of such things inasmuch as it correctly predicts how their designs will work, but I don't deal with such things.
And no, I am not a flat Earth.