The NBA All-Stars game went down in New Orleans this weekend and it turned into a big social media event for various reasons. One, Twitter wouldn’t stop clowning on poor Master P and his too-tight beige-mustard ensemble. Two, Cleveland Cavalier Kyrie Irving truly and absolutely KNOWS that the earth is flat. Because this is conversation we’re having in 2017, in Emperor Baby Fists’ America. We actually are devoting brain cells to the fact that a multimillionaire athlete broadcasts his ignorance at NBA All-Stars weekend. I mean… dude. Science is not a debate, man. The earth is not round. Stop asking him these questions!
After broadcasting to the universe that he thinks the Earth is flat, Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Kyrie Irving on Saturday explained why he did so.
“The fact that that could be news all over the world just shows you how it is,” Irving told reporters Saturday. “The fact that it’s a social phenomenon — ‘Kyrie thinks the world is flat’ — is hilarious to me. … That it could actually be news.”
Irving made headlines after discussing conspiracy theories on the Road Trippin’ with RJ & Channing podcast with teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye.
“This is not even a conspiracy theory,” Irving told Jefferson and Frye while recording the podcast on an airplane. “The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. … It’s right in front of our faces. I’m telling you, it’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us.”
He reiterated those beliefs to ESPN’s Arash Markazi on Friday.
“I think people should do their own research, man,” Irving told ESPN. “Hopefully they’ll either back my belief or they’ll throw it in the water. But I think it’s interesting for people to find out on their own. I’ve seen a lot of things that my educational system has said that was real that turned out to be completely fake. I don’t mind going against the grain in terms of my thoughts.”
On Saturday, after being peppered with questions, Irving explained his thinking further.
“I think that there’s just so much, I guess — I don’t know if you can even call it news — there are so many real things going on, actual, like, things that are going on that’s changing the shape, the way of our lives. And I think it sometimes gets skewed because of who we are in the basketball world, and, ‘Oh man, what does he actually think? Oh, no, I don’t like hearing … the world is flat, or he thinks the world can’t be round.’ You know, I know the science, I know everything possible — not everything possible — but the fact that that actually could be real news, that people are actually asking me that — ‘It’s a social phenomenon. What do you think about it? Are you going to try to protect your image?’ I mean, it really doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter. The fact that it’s a conversation? I’m glad that it got people talking like this: ‘Kyrie actually thinks the world is flat.'”
It got so bad that even LeBron James had to weigh in, saying “if he decides he wants to say the Earth is flat, so be it. He’s an interesting guy, and he believes it.” Because what else can you say? I suppose you could say, “Um, the earth IS NOT FLAT and it’s a horrible, irresponsible message to send to children around the world. The earth is round and science is not opinion.” I hate that we’re all *shrug* about this. I mean, it IS funny. But it’s also disturbing how many people are not even going to argue the finer points of this.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Getty.
Clearly he didn’t watch the SpaceX launch yesterday or else he’d have seen video evidence that the Earth is round.
Oddly, I read this recently:
http://www.iflscience.com/physics/2d-people-looking-out-3d-world/
Maybe that’s why the question is being asked? If what they’re theorizing is right, then it actually IS flat, but we don’t perceive it that way. Very weird stuff!
Y’all…he is trolling. Read his quote in its context. He’s making a point about how his opinion will be sensationalized and how overblown one person’s opinion is when incorrectly stated.
Clearly he’s not trolling successfully if we all think he’s dumb as a post as a result.
Thanks Felicia. My instinct was to roll my eyes and laugh at him. But it is possible that he is simplifying a very complicated topic.
I would have also rolled my eyes if I hadn’t just read that article. Some of the quantum physics theories are pretty hard to get your head around. I read a book about a year ago called Biocentrism by Robert Lanza. That’s another one that made me stop and go “hmmmm”.
He and Sherri Shepherd would make a great couple since they both believe the world is flat and ignore science.
Well, reporters have been asking players whether or not the Earth was flat all weekend, and so far Draymond Green, Nick Young and Wilson Chandler have agreed with Kyrie.
These people went to college. Now, I know that in the American school system athletes get a major pass, but this is first grade level knowledge. Also they fly in planes all the time. If nothing else, they could just LOOK outside of a window.
Sadly, I’m not sure some athletes even have a first grade knowledge level on some topics. I heard a story last year about college athletes at U of North Carolina and how much support they need academically. Supposedly many of them come in reading at barely a fourth grade level.
@ESMOM UNC alum here. Don’t rope us into this one, we have enough problems on our own. This man went to Duke! We hardly ever get to claim academic superiority to Duke, let us have our day in the sun! 😉
Alyce, sorry, I didn’t mean to single UNC out, it’s just that the school was the focus of the story. I know this issue is widespread throughout the NCAA, and the story acknowledged that. As well as the fact that UNC probably offers more support to its athletes than many other universities, revealing just how unprepared many athletes are after college.
I’m a Memphis alum who was there when Derrick Rose was. I’m an Auburn football girl but I was so mad at that whole situation because that TEAM worked so hard to get to the championship game and every Memphian was just so proud of them and then it was all gone. There’s a reason they call Memphis “Tiger High”
I did come elbow to forehead with Sean Taggart in the cafeteria once, he was very nice.
The favourite TV show for the Sixlets last year was a BBC documentary series called American High School. It was a great series and we all loved it. The Sixlets were completely open-mouthed at the sports scholarship thing – “You can get into university by being good at basketball? OMG.”
In Croatia, if you’re a top level athlete, you get a maximum of 5% of added points to enter university. But most athletes don’t go to university or get their degrees after they retire because it’s virtually impossible to be a top level athlete and go to school.
But these guys, do they just get a diploma handed to them?
These guys do basically get a diploma handed to them. Along with a lot of other stuff. I went to a university with a top basketball team at the time I was there and these guys would swagger around campus, driving brand new cars, seemingly never in school but always out socially. Of that top team from my graduating year, one made the NBA and did ok for a while and one was a commentator for a while but I have no idea what happened to the other ones. Something tells me they weren’t very prepared for life beyond their own coddled college experience.
There was also a story about a famous Chicago Bull, who had attended two years of college before being drafted into the NBA. He had someone take his entrance exams for him in order to get in.
Was it Derrick Rose?
But that’s also an interesting question, what happens to those who don’t make it into the NBA, or overseas? They don’t know how to do anything else.
Yes, it was D Rose. Yeah, who knows what happens to those who don’t make it, I’m sure the stories of success and failure are wide ranging. If you ever saw “Hoop Dreams,” you’ll see how sad it is when an entire family’s hopes is pinned on their star athlete child to make it big. And how tragic it can be when they don’t.
This doesn’t happen AT ALL in the UK. You do have to show yourself as a well-rounded person on your university applications via a personal statement – whether your interests are in sport or otherwise – but there is no leeway given on academic criteria at all.
That said, we don’t have the kind of university sports scene that the US does. Sports in our universities don’t function at all as major spectator events nor do universities function as feeders into professional sport. If we did have that, I’m sure we would also find ways of letting sports talented but academically-challenged students in.
Don’t you have rowing or something like that in the UK? Obviously it’s not professional, but you do have competitions between universities?
We have something like that, but on a very amateur level. Certain universities ocassionaly compete against eachother in tournaments, but the teams basically get together 2 days beforethe tournament.
In general in our school system, everyting that’s not academic is outside of the school. Want to learn an instrument? Go to a special music school after school. Want to play a sport? Join ayout team of a club. Drama? Drama group of a theater.
There are sports competitions between schools but they function on the same level as competitions in maths, or chemistry or english. And winning the state championship in maths is a way way bigger deal than winning the state competition in basketball. Sports and art is basically the bottom of the barrell as far as the educatioanl system goes, unless you go to a special art school.
And getting into universtiy is also purely academic. Part grades, part gymnasium leaving exams part special entrance exams. You get bonus points if you’re a top level athlete that represented the country in major international events. No essays, rarely interviews, you don’t really need to show you’re a well rounded person. What does that even mean?
Hope this link is ok..
https://www.fatherly.com/kids-health-and-development/statistical-proof-that-your-kid-is-probably-not-going-pro/
I’ve seen this graphic in other formats, but it holds true. the likelihood of your child playing a sport professionally is very small.
the percentage of kids who get drafted is tiny, and those who actually get a contract (even for ONE year) beyond the draft is even smaller. the parents who count on their kid getting a pro contract are in for huge disappointments and the kid who was counting on it ends up working a dead-end job because they didn’t prepare academically.
Locke: Oh yes. All sorts of university sport goes on – and yes, rowing included. But the Boat Race is really the only mass spectator event tied to universities and rowing as an elite sport is not professional like our main big professional sports: football, cricket, rugby. Kids get into professional sports teams here via grassroots organising and scouting. Some sports talented kids might go to university because a) facilities and b) more time to train than a full-time job, but the university itself isn’t part of a pathway to professional sport.
It’s the same here with extra-curricular stuff. Not done via school much at all.
There are a lot of issues with the NCAA (the governing body of college athletics in the US) and the vast profit it makes off of these young athletes. So many of them finish college completely unprepared for life – as someone abovethread noted, what do the people who don’t make it into the NBA or overseas do? They kick around and try to play overseas still (seasons here and there) or they come back home and hang out and have no idea what to do once their glory days are over. The NCAA does a total and complete disservice to these athletes, but schools and the athletes are still willing to do it because of the money and exposure involved (or in the athlete’s case, potentially involved).
And Sixer, there are so many vast differences in the American and British education systems at this point, as well as our professional sport systems. It’s like apples and oranges.
I went to a big Division 1 University with a very well known and very profitable football team. In one of my first semester classes, my seat was near a football player. Over the semester, he maybe came to class 5 times.
The smart student athletes take advantage of their scholarships and work hard for their degrees so they have something once sports are done, but there are a lot who don’t and just coast through.
College sports, especially football, make a lot of money here in the US. It definitely has skewed the notion of the student athlete.
@Lucy2: the interesting part is that they don’t always make money. Something like only half of football teams actually make their schools money, and with the number of scholarships and the crazy resources thrown at the team (facilities, fancy meals, transportation, expensive coaching staff) football teams are especially costly. People like to complain about Title IX being the death of smaller sports, but more often than not it’s football.
Bridget – yes. It was an eye-opener for the Sixlets watching the show about the high school, and not just for the sports.
I went to school with someone who got into Oxford on the basis of their involvement with the U18s England rugby team. It happens here. The guy was NOT that smart.
@sixer Hate to be that guy – but it totally happens in the UK…certainly at Oxford and Cambridge for ‘varsity’ sports (sports are only considered varsity if its Oxford playing Cambridge – no one else) There is a whole culture built around boaties and rugby players being let onto ‘easy’ courses (Land Ec, Development studies etc) and ‘new’ Colleges so they can row/play rugby for their colleges and for the University. It’s not to the extent in the US – you don’t get a ‘free ride’ based on your ability to stick a ball in a net – but there IS special treatment at time of acceptance and throughout the course. For example, look at Oxford’s blue boat over the years – how many MBA’s are there? Loads. The MBA also happens to be their easiest (and most expensive) course to get on to…somehow most of the the Olympians also end up on the MBA, and somehow in the blue boat…it’s all very convenient.
This guy went to Duke. Consistently ranked in the Top 5 of US colleges & universities. Clearly he should have stayed longer than his one & done.
He might have learned something
I have a friend who has some sort of math degree from a fancy school. She hard core believes this. There is NO changing her mind
She thinks we nonbelievers are sad and unenlightened.
“These people went to college” they are athletes, how do you think they got there? on academic merits? they get away with rape as long as they perform in the sports. i highly doubt a dumb guy is a problem then.
I mean I know. But it’s not the way it works in Europe so it still somewhat surprising.
My husband says it’s all a joke. Irving went to Duke. He wanted to prove a stupid statement from an athlete can take over the news, when there’s more important things that news should be focused on.
But he didn’t say it during the all star game, he said it in a podcast a while back and someone on reddit found it. Apparently he doesn’t believe in planets either.
It’s from a literal interpretation of the bible. There are several passages that refer to the “four corners of the earth.” So if earth has 4 corners it must be flat, right?
ETA: Google “Christian flat earth”
Athletes get a pass all through the school system, including college, so I’m not surprised at their ignorance. One would think, however, that he would have seen the videos of the earth from space.
College athletes are not allowed to major in anything big. We had a top-notch student graduate and went on to play football at a very high ranking university. He was going to major in engineering or biochemistry (something along those lines) and he was told no. All his focus had to be on football. So, it is not surprising that athletes (regardless of their sport) are not that tuned in to academics.
Interesting. At Northwestern, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I have heard they are one of the few schools who won’t bend their academic requirements for athletes. Their very high profile quarterback a few years ago, who was one of the founders of a players union to recognize college athletes as employees, was a pre-med major. Not sure if he made it to medical school, though.
Only in usa.
The same athlets as well as kids with connections or celebs take away spots for people who want to learn. So the forst group gets this idea they can do anything. The second becomes messed up and since we are talking about 18 y.o. kids, they grew up with this ideas.
In a nutshell, this is a problem for educational system but also for the whole country.
For me sports is like modeling. You got that sth someone wants and you become a product. You see yourself through the public eyes and get millions but what are you at the end? It is insane that tapping the ball gets you more money than any artist can dream of… and in 20 or 50 yrs people will remeber books or music pieces but no one will care if theor team won
Today, I shall believe that the Brexit vote did not happen and Trump was not elected president.
And if any of you try to deny this, MY VALID BELIEF, I shall know without question that you are only protecting your image. Do your bloody research. Then get back to me.
Awesome
this
I want to live in your world. What’s your immigration policy?
Open borders, but of course!
The earth is flat, climate change is a hoax, and coal will soon be cheaper than natural gas. It’s amazing what some people will believe.
This reminds me of a Facebook video I saw of a father talking to his baby girl, as she insisted that numbers go “One, Two, Three, Five.” And he kept telling her, no, baby, its “One, Two, Three, FOUR, five.” But she would not back down. She KNEW four didn’t exist. It was right in front of her face. Except mommy eventually asked her to count to four, she conceded that the number four does indeed exist, and she’s like 3 years old.
Put down the LSD, dude.
that was one of the CUTEST video I’ve seen. that little-girl voice was just so sweet and the parents were cracking me up.
Well, there are worse things people believe in.
Nah, I’m sorry, this is not something you “believe in.” It’s not an opinion. It’s not a spiritual conviction. It’s a lie. It’s a lie that can be disproved with scientific evidence and facts and a 30 second google search. By saying this is something he “believes in,” you insinuate that it’s up for debate. Nope. Scientific facts are not up for debate, unless someone comes out with solid evidence to the contrary. This guy is just a d!ck.
I don’t think its as harmless as you say it is, at all. This is a dangerous, slippery slope to go down.
I agree. It’s part of the current phenomenon of dismissing anything you don’t like as “fake news.” I seriously cannot believe what passes for public discourse anymore. It’s like ignorance has become a badge of honor or something.
This makes me feel like i need to get out the shame bell.
Wasn’t there a discussion on the glorification of idiocy recently?
Prime example right here. This isn’t a neutral thing, like having a favorite colour. This is refuting centuries of science and we even have photos of it, if big words hurt the poor sport ball athletes brain.
Deities also exist outside of the laws of the physical known universe. I don’t think this is any more alarming than any religion.
Oh no, this is gonna be a s**t show! 😕. Religion is something people believe in. Has it been scientifically proven? No. I’m an atheist so don’t care about that. However, if he wants to believe the earth is flat, so be it. Arghh
That attitude is part of the problem. Just because there are worse things to believe in doesn’t make this specific instance any less frustrating.
Oh please, as a someone who isn’t from United States of Trump, I have no idea who this man is, but what he is saying is laughable. Definitely not serious enough to be offended.
Now there are some beliefs which hurt people and nations in a bloody way, the kind for which every decent human should be offended. Like some famous people being anti-vaccine is something which is worrisome because it affects people.
I am not an idiot, I understand science just like any human with a functioning brain is suppose to. And what I meant was this athlete’s belief not the actual geology.
#tolerance.
Problem is, Everbloom (WoW reference? <3!), this kind of ignorance is not just a one-off belief, and it does have real world consequences. Examples:
1) Distrust of science fostered by political and religious groups makes people easy to manipulate, because they will not understand evidence when it is presented to them or they will think that evidence is a matter of opinion and/or affiliation
2) Lack of understanding of basic biology leads people to be fearful and ignorant of their own bodies, causing unwanted pregnancies, STDs, untreated medical conditions, etc.
3) Without understanding the scientific method it's impossible to distinguish between, say, trials of valid cancer drugs and some snake oil salesman leading people to make poor choices about their health and losing their life savings
So yeah, it might just be one silly comment from an athlete, but it is symptomatic of a much larger problem.
I was sick last week and spend one day watching an older call-in show on youtube (here in Germany). One caller had the same theory. Media and science is lying to us and the earth is flat… The host of the show was shocked. No matter what he said, the caller always had another argument. Lenses in your eyes, fake science (of course) and an over all conspiracy. He even said that ships are going in circles and not falling of at the end of the world because there is a big wall of ice!
I have the feeling the whole world is going crazy.
There is a whole movement of “truthers” that believe the Earth is flat. I am not one of them. But tbh I don’t care what Kyrie thinks…….., as long as he continues to be a magician on the court and help bring the Cavs another ring. He is 24 years old and impossibly fantastic on the court. I have a little Kyrie doll given to me by my six year old nephew. I love you Uncle Drew, keep making those plays that amaze, but maybe keep some of those theories on the low.
OMG wt actual f … could you give me the name of the show? German, too
@mimi: It was good old Domian 🙂 Just search for Domian und die Erde ist eine Scheibe. Der Anrufer hatte eine totale Scheibe 🙂
hahaha of course! danke fuer die schnelle antwort 🙂
His poor communication skills lets me know that he is not one for deep thoughts. If a person makes a statement like this, at least have a vocabulary to explain your stance. He kept going back to the fact that this has become a thing on social media… what does that have to do with him saying the earth is flat? Maybe he’s trying to say he’s surprised people are taking him seriously and making this a news topic. Yeah, that’s what I choose to believe he means.
Some people ( mainly Cavs fans) say he’s either trolling for fun or going full meta and showing how the media is ridiculous in blowing up such stupid stuff.
I hope that’s true. It was my teen kids who told me about this yesterday and my first reaction was “he has got to be joking or trolling.” They said no and sort of shrugged it off as funny and sort of sad that someone could be so “dumb.”
That’s actually the feeling I got when I read this. I hope it’s true.
I’m a Cavs’ fan, and I just think he’s stupid.
I don’t know – I mean, a few months ago I would have said, no, the American people are smart enough not to elect Mr. Babyfist as president, and then look what happened. And then I thought, well, at least they will impeach him for gross violation of laws (I’m talking about his business ties, not his general craziness), but nope, no impeachment yet. I could go on.
So who knows, maybe the earth IS flat after all. Who’s been telling you that the earth isn’t flat? Fake news media? Don’t believe them! They want you to leave the house and walk to the end of the earth and you will FALL OFF!!! It’s definitely a conspiracy, a conspiracy be female, muslim, immigrants. GAY female Muslim immigrants. From Sweden. Yep, sounds about right to me. So let’s ask emperor BabyFists about this. He knows best.
I’m sure Baby Firsts would love to weigh in on this. Intellectually it’s right in his wheelhouse.
I posted this in a thread above, but it’s from a literal interpretation of the bible. There are several passages that refer to the “4 corners of the earth.” There’s a very fringe-y evangelical Christian flat earth theory that sprang up because people are committed to “the Bible says it so I believe it” interpretation.
The Bible says it so, I love that, so their English language Bible says what now? How exactly did we get to an English language Bible? Oh yeah, translation from another language, so, what exactly is the literal word here, in that other language, the one they don’t speak or read? Literal word of God, nope, not in this century.
Someone ship this idiot to space so he can see for himself. Its not even an argument thing Ugh!
Yes he’s a completely uneducated fool and I’m not sure how he got through school never having that idea corrected in a class. I have my masters degree in STEM so obviously this is ridiculous to me. But you can’t blame that on Trump. he would
have been primarily educated under Obama, so,…strange comment.
Primary education under Bush.
Most likely he was correctly taught but didn’t learn well, making it easier to be influenced by crackpot theories now.
The anti vaccination movement began among mothers who were or thought they were well educated.
I honestly read this in shock…. I didn’t even know that it was even up for consideration???? But one thing I would like to know , if the earth is flat then how does the solar system work etc?? Okay I’m gonna have to google now , there goes my kunch break.
And if vaccines don’t work then why do we have all these polio-free people…
Superstition and rational thought are mutually exclusive.
Also, fun fact, if earth WAS flat it means that all gravity would still have to pull to the center so as you got to the outside of the ‘disc’ you’d experience gravity pulling you at an angle and would be walking around at an angle. Also the closer you were to the center of the flat earth the slower you’d be moving compared to the outside edges.
Anyway, there’s basically a whole ton of ways you can prove to yourself the earth is round. In fact, scientists figured out the earth was round long before any flight was capable through different experiments. You can erect poles certain distances away and measure their shadows and calculate the curvature of the earth. So basically if you have ANY intellectual curiosity you can read about why the earth must be round and can even do experiments yourself!!
Take another hit off that bong, Kyrie….
I’m a daily cannabis consumer and I know the earth is round, science is real, global warming is a thing, and alternative facts are lies. Lol
Here here, Shambles… if anything, I find science *more* interesting when I’m high.
I wonder what astronauts think of this whole “debate”. What would he say to someone who watched Earth spin from the ISS?!
@Shambles FAKE NEWS!
Ahhhh @shambles, a fellow toker. Perhaps a good subject for a conversation with fellow smokers. That would be interesting and I will def bring it up when next with my friends! It will be fun 😃
i’m getting a doctorate in vertebrate paleontology and i get high all day, everyday. remaining uneducated is a choice.
I don’t find the celebration of stupidity and anti-intellectualism to be funny at all. That’s how we ended up with Trump as president. Viewpoints like this should just be dismissed, not given air time.
I also don’t understand how it’s possible for someone in this day and age to believe the earth is flat. You can actually see the curvature of the earth from an airplane and we have satellite images of the earth proving that it’s, you know, round. Also, people have sailed around the world (Magellan!!) and didn’t fall off the edge, so ….
Stand on the beach and look at the horizon… it’s curved.
Not too mention astronomy and seasons and time zones….
Tell me Kyrie Irving, if the world is flat; then why is the Western Hemisphere ( like the U.S.A) is Monday 8 a.m and across the Pacific (let’s say Australia for example) is 12 a.m Tuesday Morning. Can you explain to me now why the earth is flat? I would love to hear it.
Now I am now saying you’re an idiot… that would be wrong of me but I just don’t think you are not thinking clearly. So next time, please, please, please… THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK.
So, I’ve read a bit about the flat earth movement ( yep, there is a movement) and they have explanations for everything. The explanations are insane, but these people can spin any argument to suit them. It’s somewhat facinating.
Well at least this movement can’t move TOO far, or else they’ll fall off the edge of the earth.
@Miranda: Nope, they can’t fall off the edge because there is a thick wall of ice (or something similar) around it. As Locke Lamora said: they have explanations for everything!
My husband recently discovered the whole flat earth movement, and he was borderline obsessed with it for a couple weeks. He could not stop talking about, reading these crazy articles about it, it was nuts. He just could not believe anyone could be that ignorant(he’s a giant space/math/science nerd). He kept wanting to argue with these people online, I kept reminding him of what my mom always told me, to never argue with a fool. He soon discovered I was right, and no amount of facts and scientific truths would sway the ridiculous opinions of these nimrods.
On a related note, my husband used to teach at the University of Michigan, and he has often related how frustrating it was that the athletes were basically handed passing grades. He didn’t get it at first, and was questioning the other faculty about what was going on, why were the football players not coming to class. He was told not to worry about it, that they “take care of that” for their athletes. He didn’t agree at all but was told not to make problems. So if you’re wondering how this guy could go to Duke and be that dumb, that’s how. A system that values and worships sports above all, and doesn’t care that they are robbing these young men of an education that could enrich their life. Because for every guy that goes pro, there are a hundred that don’t, and what do they do when they leave college but have no real education or skill set? Idk, but that angers me.
If you are an evangelical with a commitment to a literalist biblical interpretation, the earth being round possess a problem. The bible refers to the “4 corners of the earth”- so it must be flat. If the bible is the word of God, it puts your faith in a precarious position to question the bible in any way. I truly wonder if these folks believe the flat earth stuff anyway. I bet they’re either sticking to it to deal with the cognitive dissonance in their head created by images of earth from space- which is easier than thinking or doubting. Or they’re trying to “out-Christian” each other.
Sounds like religious arguments
I’m on board with the Kylie is an idiot stance.
Beckysuz, I had a week like you describe your husband’s. I just couldn’t stop reading about it, it was so fascinating. I’m still convinced half of people there were trolls.
Kiki, I think the answer to timezones goes something like this: the sun is much smaller than the science claims and is lower in the sky. So it circles around like a ceiling light and only illuminates certain areas, so we can have a day at one part of the disc and night at the other. I presume the answer to why we can’t see the sun somewhere in the distance at all times has something to do with the fog that also covers the horizon so we cannot see across the sea.
They literally have an answer for everything. And since they don’t trust science, you can’t use science to debunk them, which in their eyes means you cannot debunk them at all.
I fell down “The Earth is Flat!” rabbit hole on the Internet. It was…interesting.
But my favorite was someone who seriously posted a picture of a ice wall as proof that there was an end to the flat world and that the government was keeping it from us.
That ice wall, of course, was a picture from Game of Thrones.
Oh. My. God. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The best was that even the hardcore defenders were all “Um…that’s from Game of Thrones…”
To which the original OP kept replying “That’s what the government wants you to think!!!!!”
gotta give kudos to the administration for that great show!
If someone is a conspiracy theorist, there is no convincing them sadly. I swear it is a psychological issue.
For example, there was a nymag story about Newtown conspiracy theorists who didn’t believe real children had died. The trolls posted pictures of these deceased children all over the internet, looking for birth certificates while saying newtown was a gun control hoax.
These trolls then harassed the parents and town of Newtown for death certificates and other proof these were real children.
Even when the parents tried to engage in a true dialogue and beg them to stop (or maybe offered proof of life) the conspiracy trolls said the parents were imaginary or something?
One parent saw his family ruined over the grief of losing his child; he and his wife divorced because it was too painful. And has now devoted his life to going after people who publish his deceased son’s photo w/out permission.
This article made me question humanity as we know it.
So global warming is even MORE devastating to Flat Earthers, right?? When those ice walls start inevitably melting, the oceans will pour off the edges of this pancake planet AND WE ARE ALL DOOMED!
@RUDFYZOOKEEPER That’s awesome! I hope you’ve posted that somewhere for them to see. Of course they’ll deny global warming too, but it may keep a few of them up at night wondering… which may cause them to do some actual research. Maybe. Hopefully.
That is equal parts hilarious and sad.
Didn’t the modern Flat Eart Society start as a joke – not people believing it, just people having fun with the debate itself? I myself don’t know any believers (that I’d known of), but I do know people who, by their own admission, respect the Flat Earthers because, even though they are wrong, they are at least questioning the information the institutions are serving them. I guess there’s no need to add that these people are conspiracy theorists themselves.
Scientology supposedly started as a joke as well.
The Cavs come to Boston in another week. The signs and chants will be epic.
I mean…. what are you supposed to say to a person like that, though? Nothing you or I or anyone says to him is gonna make a dent in that hard candy coating of utter stupidity. Dude *feels* that the Earth is flat. Of course it’s not. It’s just…. it’s not. So yeah, now that we’ve all had a chuckle, we’ve no choice but to move on. “An interesting guy”, indeed.
“I mean…. what are you supposed to say to a person like that, though? Nothing you or I or anyone says to him is gonna make a dent in that hard candy coating of utter stupidity”
Thats THE question of our time. That guy here is harmless but the underlynig problem of alternative facts and “do your own research” is democracy threatening.
i have no idea how to do it but its super important to figure it out because we are losing a lot of people in terms of their trust in the media and science and most of them breed way more than any of us.
Yup yup. It’s just plain superstition and we went there in the Dark Ages… ironically a time when intellectual achievement flourished in the Muslim world.
I’ve been noticing that when someone says, “do your own research” or a variation of that, they always turn out to be a person who believes all kinds of crackpot theories. It seems to be one of their standard, scripted responses when they are called out on whatever nonsense they are spewing.
I don’t disagree. Maybe some really hard shunning would work?
It’s shit like this that makes me refute the idea that we need to respect each other’s opinions. No the hell I don’t, because some opinions are dumb af.
If someone is a conspiracy theorist, there is no convincing them sadly. i swear it is a psychological issue.
There was a nymag story about Newtown conspiracy theorists who didn’t believe real children had died. They posted pictures of these deceased children all over the internet, next to statements saying Newtown was a gun control hoax.
These trolls then harassed the children’s parents and town of Newtown for death certificates and other proof these could have been real children. Even when the parents tried to engage and begged them to stop, they said the parents were imaginary or something? The records were faked, IDK.
No proof was good enough for them.
One parent saw his family ruined over the grief of losing his child; he and his wife divorced because it was too painful.
This article about conspiracy theorists made me question humanity as we know it.
Omg, that is horrifying. I’d heard about Newtown conspiracy theories but never really delved into specifics. Conspiracy theories have always been around but I swear the internet age has turned them up to 11, so to speak.
Our school systems have a long history of letting athletes fail upward. It isn’t that these ideas weren’t challenged in college, it is that the educational foundation wasn’t properly formed in elementary and high school. When parents and coaches value the student’s skills over the whole person, this is the end result. Plus, when testing is the only thing that matters, kids squeak by without learning the important critical thinking skills needed to look at ideas and evidence in order to form conclusions. But what do I know, I’m just a music teacher and clearly that’s not a real class, or so I’ve been told…
Aw, I feel your pain. My kids (high school) are lucky enough to have benefitted from an amazing music program in our elementary and high school districts. Band has taught them SO much. Yet the highly vocal factions in our town are critical because there are no hard metrics to show the benefits of music education and therefore they consider it a superfluous use of tax dollars. It’s horrible for us parents who get it, I can’t imagine how the teachers feel.
Maybe dont let athletes skate through school because they can throw or kick a ball. just sayin. im kind of sorry for him because he was certainly enabled.
Yup, if he was like he OHL hockey players in my high school, his hand was held the entire way. And concessions were made constantly. They didn’t go on to be star athletes, so I imagined me kyrie got it even more so. Like many of the idiots we see, he is a symptom of a deeply flawed system.
People who say stuff like this need to give back their phones, electricity, airplanes, antibiotics, and the gazillion things that are a product of the scientific method. Can’t wait for the time machine to be developed to send them back to the era that matches their worldview.
The inquisition maybe?
Galileo has some words he’d like to say to them as well.
This guy represents many people who have fallen through the ‘rabbit hole’ on youtube/internet and believe everything they see or hear. Their skills of critical reasoning haven’t been fully developed so they fall prey to these conspiracy theories.
One of the reasons for their gullibility is that educationally(formal schooling & otherwise) they are lacking. They think information on a website or video makes it legitimate, but what actually legitimizes information is the credentials of the person that’s writing it, the sources cited (because you have to back it up with something other than ‘opinion’ if you weren’t there) and their experience on the topic. And yes at some point some system failed him, but at this point, it doesn’t matter whose fault that is-as an adult, if you know you need knowledge go and seek the info/mentors you need. Most people don’t do that because they don’t want to look “stupid” so what do they do-they go on the internet and get sucked into all of this foolishness. They don’t read anything much and the things that the do read have essential facts missing. Look, you don’t know what you don’t know, but sometimes those facts that you don’t know are important and if you don’t know them it will lead you into a ditch. In this case, off the edge of the world apparently.
@hk9 it is so sad. 🙁 critical thinking is hard to teach, so I suppose even rarer in reality.
I actually try to counsel a bit differently from you, because even from someone well credentialed, experienced, and who uses lots of strong source material can be wrong – I think of specifically Dr Andrew Wakefield, the autism – vaccine connector, who was actually quite well credentialed and respected at one time, and that is (imo) what brought this whole vaccine autism debacle upon us. That expert at one time made a claim, his peers approved publication of the article because article review is not a perfect process, and voila – disaster.
It is actually quite interesting which articles get accepted for publication and which do not.
but from a medical sense, I try instead to encourage people to look at systematic reviews like the Cochrane Review. systematic reviews tend to look across many papers and experiments on a topic and rigorously analyze how well the study’s recommendation holds up to scrutiny in reality – ie they look at sample size, if there was test methodology like double blind randomized testing, effectiveness of the treatment, etc.
(Sorry if i sound know it all, mostly I am fascinated by this area and tend to get overexcited when I can talk with someone!)
Statistical analysis is something a lot of people do not understand and of course you can get great results sometimes with a sample size of 10 which does not hold up in reality.
and then I recommend looking at funding sources to understand conflicts of interest…which can be very tricky.
Seriously though – Whatever happened to “never let schooling interfere with your education” – Mark twain quote?
School is one place of learning, but not the ONLY place. I do not believe it is fair to entirely blame school for this fiasco
The thing is is that people, when they are researching something, tend to look for information in a way that reinforces what they already believe. They look for reinforcement not facts because that reinforcement feels good and finding they’re wrong feels bad. Humans are emotional creatures. It’s just like they say, in the age of information ignorance is a choice.
Perhaps he is using “the earth is flat” as an over-simplistic analogy to illustrate how gullible and stupid most of us are, who will believe practically anything that’s reported in media today. Is it feigned ignorance that’s supposed to serve as ironic commentary on the general ignorance of the populace? In other words, a new level of trolling? I do think he’s interesting. I’d like to talk to him.
We have discovered Trump’s new science advisor.
+1
Sad.
🙂
I would like to know how he did that research he’s talking about. I assume he set sail and actually went to the end of the earth to take a selfie? I want to see proof.
I mean bless him, really. Scientists have known for millennia that the earth is not flat. But I guess this dude has Google. So he wins. Lord have mercy.
Wow! Just wow!
either *earth is not flat or *earth is round (second-to-last sentence in first paragraph)
I’m already annoyed at myself for sending this comment, so you are welcome to also be annoyed at me.
Oh by the way Kyrie Irving. Please go on Fox news and tell Donald Trump that the world is actually flat. Donald Trump believes every nonsense, I am sure he will believe you Kyrie.
That’s what home-schooling with Betsy DeVos will get you.
He was joking – he even came out and said it was all a joke and thought it was hilarious that everyone believed him and that it became a story.
Damn, I wish there was a way to get off this planet and away from these crazy fuckers. Y’all can have this….please stop the world I want to get off.
Wow. Is it a personal choice to be this dumb or is it a publicity stunt? HArd to believe someone can be this…delusional.
Ugh. Don’t know who this guy is, but if he’s an athlete I’m sure he has a lot of young kids looking up to him. And who will believe this crap:(
Jeezus, so much prejudice against athletes! The assumption that athletes are dumb and don’t learn anything in college or deserve to go to college is as uninformed as this flat Earth theory. One man does not represent an entire class of people.
Agreed, Elle. My best friend has three kids who all excel at several different sports. They’re also all straight A students, and good boys. Not all parents are willing to allow their kids to go without an education just because they’re good at sports.
I could have got a full ride at a US school, I was an athlete of decent enough calibre. The system doesn’t benefit the decent, we are talking about those that get preferential treatment, usually those going on to professional sports.
People are complaining about the type of athlete that benefits unfairly from a system. If you didn’t, then people aren’t taking about you.
You literally #notallathletes ed this post.
Some random sportsman thinking the earth is flat is still nowhere near as grimly ludicrous as the actual fact that donald trump is president of the US.
Now THAT implies far more serious ignorance on the part of far more people.
He’s an idiot. End of.
And…here is another example of why science and space in particular needs to be more important. I tried watching one of these videos but I really couldn’t get through it – especially with my love and studies of astronomy – have they not been on planes? How do you explain time zones? The moon?
It does fall into the whole “fake news” shtick, which…is quite sad when you think about it.
He’s just one of the many scientifically and historically illiterate morons in the US.
I do laugh because that is some bat sh!t crazy thinking. And I think it is important to teach our children that there are some sad wrong people in this world. Not everyone thinks like us and no matter what you say you will never convince them. My babies, stay away from those people.
He’s not a smart dude. It’s nice that LeBron didn’t call him out on that. He’d be kind of a scumbag if he tried to make a science lesson out of a colleague’s ignorance.
With Trump as our leader, it’s almost textbook that alternate facts and create-your-own universe in the way that pleases you best are coming to full fruition. Mass hysteria?
Earth flat. Like intellect of mine. DERP!!!
I wish somebody put a globe in front of his face.