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: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:08AM
Interesting theory, but judging from the flat-earthers with whom I've had ...um, debates of faith... not really the case. The ones I've encountered come in two types:
1) Outright trolls who are good enough at it to be convincing, and perhaps enjoy the challenge.
2) Schizophrenics using yet another conspiracy theory ("they" are lying to you to hide the truth about the Earth) as their way of understanding an apparently-chaotic world. They invariably espouse a variety of other conspiracy theories, and are not at all bothered by apparent contradictions, because you're just gullible and wrong.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.