In defense of flat earthers (2020)
This article is not a defense of flat earthers, it's an explanation for why they exist (that the educational system failed to teach them critical thinking).Even then, I still do not think that's really it. Flat earthers are proof that some people will just obstinately believe in complete and utter horseshit. I've seen dozens of flat earth videos. These people do not listen to reason; they didn't reason themselves into the position and you cannot reason them out of it. The flat earthers doing the "experiments" keep coming up with reasons to keep on believing, even when their experiments are so blinkered and janky they show either nothing at all or that they are, in fact, wrong. (I recommend "Behind the Curve" to see some of these people in action.) Some might just get bored and move on to something else, but mark my words, some people are just seriously stupid[1] and will keep right on believing absurd crap to their graves, on faith alone. The universe will keep smacking them in the face with being wrong, but they'll only get angrier. Hopefully they get tired before they get dangerous.[1] I mean something specific about stupid. Not just wrong, not just ignorant, but actively and self-assuredly wrong, often to their own detriment. Beware stupid people in large numbers.