This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
On the one hand, yeah. Worrying about stuff that you have barely any control over won't get you far. But on the other hand, that guy's vote counts as much as yours. And if he already believes such silly conspiracy theories as the flat earth theory, he will be easily swayed by whoever is the loudest contrarian.
the challenge isn't to let him enjoy life with his stupid ass conspiracy, it's to get him to realize for himself that he's been duped by both strangers on the internet and Conservative conspiracies. Deradicalizing and then radicalizing is hard as fuck
The problem is that flat-earthers aren't just that. They usually believe in all kinds of other kooky stuff as well, and some of those beliefs pose an active danger to society.
Exactly, the same mindset that takes you to “The entire geophysical establishment is wrong/lying about the shape of the Earth, so I’ll listen to this Youtube crank who says it’s a disc instead” will also lead you to things like “The entire medical establishment is wrong/lying about the effectiveness of masks & vaccines, so I’ll listen to this podcast crank hawking horse dewormer instead.”
There’s always an implied “them” hiding the conspiracy as well. It’s just a couple of short steps from flat earth to “jews will not replace us”.
Weird that the OOP thinks it's "intellectual superiority" to simply have your facts straight.
well, it is. I mean, it's a low bar, but comparatively, yeah.
Like saying hygienic superiority is not being covered in feces. It is, but that shouldn't be the contest.
I shall remember this comparison and use it at the most inappropriate situation. Thank you.
I miss when people were ashamed of being stupid, now they feel proud about it.
Pointing out stupidity online is a crazy experience. Most of the time you get answers like "who cares?", " you must be fun at parties.", "this isn't a (relevant topic) test, I'll make all the errors I want" etc. Not once in my life have I felt or thought like that, and I just can't imagine how those proples minds work.
See here's the thing, if you believe silly stuff and keep it to yourself, that's fine. People who believe in silly stuff never keep it to themselves though.
If you put information out there, don't be mad when people put counter information back at you. I know far too many people who believe in alt medicine and talk freely about it, that it's getting harder and harder to bite my tongue. I don't care if you think Acupuncture works for you. The fruit diet worked for Steve Jobs until it didn't.
Flat earthers generally vote for people who are hell-bent on erasing workers' rights. That's why I would be arguing.
Yeah, the whole "live and let live" movement has removed the social barriers to being a fucking moron. Ignorant people holding onto stupid beliefs should be made to feel bad by the people around them.
The whole “live and let live” movement normalized far-right talking points in my country, then the "live and let live" movement suddenly disappeared...
We used to make fun of people like this. Humiliate them. Alas, no more. Everyone's opinion is now valuable.
I think that’s what the internet has done for us, it’s removed that sort “social immune system” that prevented crazy ideas from spreading. Before, if somebody had some crazy ideas, the most they could usually do was rant to people on the bus/subway, maybe make some pamphlets, or some other small-scale thing to spread the idea. At best you might find someone on AM radio broadcasting at weird hours. Individuals would get exposed to it, but would likely never pass it on, this contained crazy ideas and they rarely got traction to spread.
Now the internet comes along, and suddenly crazies are getting hooked up with impressionable people easier than ever before. Crazy ideas have an almost endless supply of rubes that will eat them right up. Our social immune system can’t protect society from all the insane things flying around at high speeds all over the place now. It’s intellectual chaos.
I mean the social immune system also prevented ideas like worker solidarity, gender equality, socioeconomic mobility, sexual freedom, etc. from spreading but I get your point. Opening Pandora's box let the crazies out as well as the AOC/Bernie and free Palestine crowds.
I can totally understand not really wanting to engage with these stupid people but to suggest that it doesn't matter that he believes that is disingenuous.
If he's stupid enough to think the Earth is flat then he is stupid enough to do other things in his actual job wrong or in a dangerous manner.
Yeah, this is one of those stupidity litmus tests. Believing that the Earth is flat vs. round does appear at face value to be consequential, as the average person never actually has to care about the curvature of the earth. However, it's not really about the curvature of the earth, it's about critical thinking, listening to evidence, and having a sane and rational worldview.
There is physical evidence that the earth is round, and you can even test it yourself. Flat earthers will run these tests themselves (watch "Behind the Curve") and will still convince themselves that the tests are flawed and the Earth is flat.
And being a flat-earther isn't just a simple difference in belief about the natural world. It comes with the belief that most of society is brainwashed into believing in a round earth, that the governments of the world are all colluding to keep the truth a secret, and that there exists some great truth about the "Firmament" (the dome above the flat earth) that those in power benefit from denying society.
So it's not just some simple difference in belief. Flat earthers think you're a stupid brainwashed rube controlled by a global cartel of godless governments colluding to blind the world to the existence of God by denying the existence of the Firmament and and spreading the Satanic evil of scientific knowledge that suggests that all things in the solar system trend spherical and orbit one another.
Flat earthers hold roughly the same beliefs that the people who imprisoned Galileo, and they would do it again if given the chance because they are overwhelmingly MAGA-types, at least in the USA, where lunatic conspiratorial beliefs are quite common.
It doesn't matter in the context of effort/reward. He's not gonna listen, you lose cohesiveness, and there's just added stress overall.
And the job isn't exactly rocket science you can literally have downes and still stock shelves. Flat earthers are more about desperately wanting to believe in something that places you in an exclusive ingroup, not about legitimately proving something.
Anon wouldn't have gotten anywhere with that argument anyways. If your goal is to make them stop believing then you have to ask questions without seeming like you're leading him to a certain conclusion in any way.
sorry, I wouldn't trust anyone with those beliefs in any position of responsibility.
But he votes and talks to other voters. Our lives are in their vocal minority hands.
I love how it is considered to be intellectually superior even though you’re stating easily verifiable facts that we also should have learned while being kids.
Fuck that. You’re wrong, and here’s why.
Anyone stupid enough to believe the earth is flat will kill you by accident.
Normal day at the NASA factory
I believe in truth and that facts do matter. I also teach young people. Being a wage earner was not a bad thing, but I yearn for the freedom to live an easier life, eventually. I want that for everyone. False beliefs are traps that hold people back from being their best selves. Carry flat-earth beliefs as a core foundation and look at what differences it would make. Geostationary satellites, and all the tech jobs that go with servicing that sector, just disappeared. Ditto solar. Travel to distant places, and time zones, becomes an insolvable problem. Your co-worker is holding his life back by believing in medieval superstitions.
It is a kindness to challenge people to find what is true.
I agree with all this but want to gripe about the misconception that flat Earth is medieval.
People have known Earth is round since at least 350 BC when Aristotle wrote On the Heavens. And he didn't come up with it there, he was explaining how others knew it.
In medieval times they had not lost this knowledge and it was still widely understood that Earth is round. Flat Earth has been a fringe lunacy for thousands of years. In the 1800s it became popular for religious reasons and most flat Earthers today are actually creationists trying to dress up their beliefs as science.
This happened to me, except it was an antivaxxer coworker, and he gave me his preventable disease right before I was supposed to be going on an international ski trip with friends for my birthday. I wanted to murder him :)
so this is where we're at? fuck it? let them believe what they want? yeah, we're fucked.
Nah dude flat earthers actually show up to the polls, unlike anon. Gotta start showing up anon!
At the wage-slave bit, I was hoping that anon would try to raise the coworker's class-consciousness.
Given that stupid and uninformed (or misinformed) people get a vote on topics that affect me, no. I'm not gonna let slide that people believe outright provably wrong bullshit. It's still a problem.
Haha, it’s so funny that this guy believes in ridiculous “science” like flat-earthism. Anyway, I’m going to wander crowded indoor areas without a mask during a pandemic, see ya!
[lemmy disliked that]
Man, a lot of comments on here are giving me reddit debate lord vibes. People talking about "the truth matters", but the way a lot of them are saying, it sounds like they just want to ego boost and dunk on/bully someone that they perceive as inferior; which I suppose could also be called "asserting intellectual superiority".
Chances are that any argument you use on them is something they've already heard, and the more you push and demean them the more defensive they will probably get, and the harder it will be to convince them. And even if you did manage to pressure and shame them into believing the earth is round, that won't suddenly make them good critical thinkers.
The best way to convince these people of reality is to just say "You really believe that?" and "That sounds complicated" when they talk about it. Or you can laugh in a friendly way and say "Who told you that? They're trying to trick you."
These people respond to emotions, not facts. Just tell them someone is tricking them. They want to have friends and special knowledge.