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Study Blames YouTube for Rise in Number of Flat Earthers

posted by mrpg on Monday February 18 2019, @11:40PM   
from the I-blame-YOU dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

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.

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Original Submission

• Re:The internet doesn't make people stupider Re:The internet doesn't make people stupider (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:37AM (1 child)

  by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:37AM (#803273)

  Kicker was she told me 2 of her Scientific heroes, google says they're both cranks.

  Point her to Pubmed [nih.gov] and see if she finds anything there that she likes. At least that way you can both read anything she finds interesting.

  She's a wonderful person, a much better human being than I am. But damn, I don't understand how someone as smart as her can believe the crap she does.

  Repeatedly training the selective denial of reality 'muscle' can probably help a lot when you need/want to close your eyes to evil in the world, at least just long enough to suppress more objective observational skills from getting in the way of reaching goals and living by principles that you think are worthy. Shadow her for a little and see if you can steal that part of her soul that makes her awesome; can't hurt, right? Maybe you could figure out how to convince her that some scientists (or heck, just general practitioners, or even Peace Corps workers) who believe in vaccines aren't so bad after all.

  Parent

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• Re:The internet doesn't make people stupider (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:48AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:48AM (#803281)

  Cochrane reviews identified one RCT with "low risk of bias", in a medium-income country, with NNV 55 for mothers. Its data show an excess of local adverse effects, and a tendency to harm for serious adverse events, with uncertain or very limited protection against influenza. A subsequent larger trial in a very-low-income African country found an excess of infant serious infections plus deaths in the influenza vaccine group. Also an available previous small trial and a subsequent large one in Asian low-income countries showed in tendency more deaths in the offspring vaccine groups.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30632885 [nih.gov]

  Parent