The Resurgence of the Flat Earth Theory
The recent surge in the number of people believing or advocating the notion that the Earth is flat mostly comes from celebrities supporting the ridiculous claim. Some include Kyrie Irving and BOB, though Kyrie states that his intention was to play the fool in order to make others do research about the Earth’s real shape. The internet has played a part on the return of the Flat Earth theory as well. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube allows people from everywhere around the world to easily share their thoughts and ideas, be it stupid or not. This ease of sharing one’s thoughts and ideas to the world allows very influential people to warp the minds of their followers or hold their hand and tell them “yes this ridiculous thing you’ve set your mind to is real”. The issue also becomes an “us against them” scenario. Due to their small numbers and the constant stream of people debunking the Flat Earth theory and proving the Earth is indeed round, or an oblate spheroid to be accurate, these Flat Earth theorists fight back and will fight back because they are so deep in their own imaginations that they misinterpret people educating them for attacking their belief.
Unsurprisingly, these Flat Earth theorists are being ridiculed by famous and non-famous people alike. Going back to Kyrie Irving, in a past Reddit thread in the /r/NBA subreddit, various people were amazed that Irving would think of the Flat Earth theory as truth when he went to a prestigious university in the United States. Most of the people that are following Kyrie Irving’s every mention of the Flat Earth theory inside or outside the court take note that a part of Irving’s job is flying on a plane to get from one city to another to play the game of basketball. A person inside a plane can see the curvature of the Earth when he peers on the window of the plane they are in. But then again, a rebut being made by Flat Earth theorists is that the windows installed on a plane are fish eyed, meaning things will look curved whenever you look at something through it.
Influential people from the field of science are also giving their own efforts to fight back the resurgence of the Flat Earth theory. Elon Musk, Neil de Grasse Tyson, and Bill Nye are some of these. Elon Musk, in a tweet meant to poke at the Flat Earth theorists asked “Why is there no Flat Mars Society?” to which the official account of the aforementioned theorists replied, “Unlike Earth, Mars has been observed to be round.” Bill Nye and Neil de Grasse Tyson are mostly tackling the celebrity side of this resurgence. They’ve spoken out against BOB and Kyrie Irving respectively. The two are very influential people on their own and have lots of fans. Add the two together and you’ll have the theory spreading like wildfire.
“It is really concerning when you have people in public eye, or you have people in general, who think the earth might not be round,” Nye said. “ It’s really an extraordinary thing….It’s heart breaking when we have people that even joke about it.” A statement from Nye that Complex news has quoted.
The Flat Earth theory is here to stay unfortunately. Whether the followers are serious or not, science will have to combat these people with facts. Facts gathered from countless observations, with these observations yielding the same thing again, and again, and again. We too have a role in this, us common people. A debunking here, or a lecture there, these are some of the things we could do to help scientists get rid of the notion that the Earth is flat. We shouldn’t think of it as a chore too. We have to understand why these people believe the Flat Earth theory, see it from their view, and even accept the fact that people have their own beliefs, ridiculous or not. As the great film maker and acclaimed movie director Tommy Wiseau said, “If a lot of people loved each other, the world would be a better place to live.”
