My Parents Are Flat Earthers • Hacker News Board

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#11

Post by joe_the_user » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:32 AM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #3

Increasingly with life these days, I feel like I am an actor in a play where the producer sees less and less of a role for me in the production as the curtain keeps raising on increasingly chaotic scenes - so I end up feeling disconnected and distant from something that I was immersed in and enjoying, and am now just an increasing befuddled and alienated observer. The uptick in flat earth theories among other things…

I think the success of these off-kilter theories is strongly connected to many people's lives becoming off-kilter.

This society has increased both social isolation and material poverty over the last twenty years. Moreover, most people depend on the relative sanity of others to balance their own impulses and so a decline in rationality can have cumulative effect.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#12

Post by ARandomerDude » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:33 AM UTC

I'm sure I believe some things that are wrong (everyone does)...but I hope my kids have the decency not to trash me in a blog post when they're older.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#13

Post by purplezooey » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:33 AM UTC

We're heading to the apocalypse quickly.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#14

Post by lisper » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:34 AM UTC

It's important to understand that FE has nothing to do with finding the "truth" and everything to do with belonging to a club that gives you access to privileged secret knowledge. It's no different from any other religion or cult.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#15

Post by TomMarius » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:34 AM UTC

joe_the_user wrote: post #11

cyberferret wrote: post #3

Increasingly with life these days, I feel like I am an actor in a play where the producer sees less and less of a role for me in the production as the curtain keeps raising on increasingly chaotic scenes - so I end up feeling disconnected and distant from something that I was immersed in and enjoying, and am now just an increasing befuddled and alienated observer. The uptick in flat earth theories among other things…

I think the success of these off-kilter theories is strongly connected to many people's lives becoming off-kilter. This society has increased both social isolation and material poverty over the last twenty years. Moreover, most people depend on the relative sanity of others to balance their own impulses and so a decline in rationality can have cumulative effect.

> This society has increased both social isolation and material poverty over the last twenty years.

Can you please support this claim with credible data? Sincere question - I'm just reading a book recommended by Bill Gates that claims that the world is way better today than it was 20 years ago.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#16

Post by richev » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:34 AM UTC

weirdos wrote: post #10

cyberferret wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite simply - there is much more land mass in the Northern Hemisphere, and flights, say from Moscow to Anchorage or Reykjavik to Toronto have great circle routes that traverse the Arctic circle. The Southern Hemisphere on the other hand, has no large land masses near it, and even the southern most points of Australia/New Zealand and South America are too far away for any great circle routes to cut through there with…

It also has to do with a lack of options, if technical difficulties are encountered. The threshold for error and malfunction is much, much more extreme. While planes fly over mountain ranges, Antarctica is similarly dangerous, but without good reasons to attempt overflight.

Don't feed the troll :-/

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#17

Post by wp381640 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:36 AM UTC

jerkstate wrote: post #2

You gotta admit, if you don't think too hard about it, it is pretty weird how many flights there are over the arctic when there aren't any (at all!) over the antarctic. Have you tried explaining/performing Eristothanes experiment with them? https://astronavigationdemystified.com/eratosthenes-proved-t... edit: didn't mean to sound like a flat-earther! please stop downvoting!

ETOPS and jet streams

Flying Joburg to Sydney once we went pretty far south and skimmed Antartica, could see ice outside the windows

you can see it in this video:

https://youtu.be/i_a4WGxu62c?t=669

It depends on jet streams and if you're in a twin-engine or four-engine jet

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#18

Post by bad_user » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:38 AM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #9

How do flat earthers explain that the other planets are round and we see different sides of them all the time? Is earth flat and the rest of the planets are spheres??? Even in their bizarre world of logic this seems unassailable.

I don't think reason works with flat earthers, with creationists or conspiracy theorists in general.

They'll cling on to any piece of information that confirms their world view and ignore the rest.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#19

Post by packetslave » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:38 AM UTC

Earth can't possibly be flat. If it was, the cats would have knocked everything off it by now.

Re: My Parents Are Flat Earthers

#20

Post by mirimir » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:39 AM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #3

Increasingly with life these days, I feel like I am an actor in a play where the producer sees less and less of a role for me in the production as the curtain keeps raising on increasingly chaotic scenes - so I end up feeling disconnected and distant from something that I was immersed in and enjoying, and am now just an increasing befuddled and alienated observer. The uptick in flat earth theories among other things…

You just have to accept that most people are not rational. They don't experience reality through a scientific (for lack of a better word) perspective. Most believe in some sort of magical deities or spirits or life force or whatever. Most operate with a physical model of reality that's clearly pre-Galilean.

So flat Earth? Why not?