Despite hard evidence the earth is NOT flat, many naysayers, known as “flat earthers” insist our planet is not at all spherical, whatsoever.
And if they could, they would go to the ends of the earth to prove it. But none ever have, because, well, they’ll wind up right where they started in their quest to prove their ridiculous point.
But among those who proclaim our planet is as flat as a stale slice of flatbread, some have come to their senses.
So how did these people manage to undo what they were so convinced of was not possible?
Strangers online revealed how they saw the light or made flat earthers accept reality when Redditor jbarms asked:
“Former Flat Earthers. What made you come round?”
Explaining Basic Concepts
“I talked to a flat-earther about my job working for a company that tracks ship locations, routes, and speeds by satellite. We also had ways of monitoring carbon emissions based on fuel consumption and known weather conditions.”
“None of this would work at all if the earth was flat. Not a jot of it.”
“I could only explain the most basic concepts, but it was enough for him to understand and realise that I was right and that he’d been convinced by someone who had no practical experience of the spherical nature of the Earth.”
“I think that’s what really did it – my experience was really tangible. This happens then this happens then we measure this etc etc… no theory, just practice.”
“A bit like showing a child a rock dropping to the ground in order to explain gravity, rather than giving them the whole theoretical shebang. Y’know?” – Administrative-Task9
A Competing Theory
“The mobius strip earthers had more compelling arguments.” – jnhummel
A Timely Realization
“Quote I got from somewhere…”
“for 5 years I believed the Earth was flat, then I turned 6” – -QED-
It Was Worth A Try
“I convinced a flat earther, temporarily, by asking him if it was possible for a sphere to be so large that you could not tell it was a sphere my simply being on the surface of it.”
“It took him a while, I used an analogy of a extremely long line that was so slightly curved you could not tell so by looking at a small section of it.”
“Eventually he said yes to the sphere and I told him that was how big the earth is. A few days later he reverted, most of these people aren’t mentally stable, they believe in a lot of conspiracies.”
“Corny edit, but as connoisseur of flat earth content my personal favorite is Professor Dave on YouTube. He is a underappreciated dude who just had a Science channel on YouTube and got brigaded by flat earthers for an unrelated video.”
“He made like 6 video responses in total just owning these guys but they eventually gave up. Check it out.” – McClain3000
A Foolproof Method
“What I like to do is use telescopes. This telescope is strong enough to see distant stars and galaxies, yes? Okay, look out this direction across the ocean. Can you see Europe?” – HavanosArcova
Possible Profitability If True
“Look, it’s really easy:”
“If the Earth is flat, there would be an edge(s). And there would be a f’king Disney park at the edge, and we could bungie jump off the side and paraglide into the void etc etc.”
“Someone would be making an absolute sh*t ton of money off of it – if it existed.”
“Guess what? Nobody is doing that – adn in this world where absolutely everything is exploited for profit – if no one is making money off of it – it does.not.exist. No edge. Not flat. Get a clue.” – Gedwyn19
Approach With Kindness
“I watched a documentary about flat earthers called ‘Truth behind the curve’ and my analysis from watching that these flat earthers are a group of people who found a community to be a part of.”
“It’s a shame their community is based on a lie, but I saw a bunch of people who were to be part of A community.”
“Most of the people were social awkward and whatnot, and so an opportunity to be an influential figure within the community so they double down on their flawed logic.”
“The more against you are of them, the harder they rep their flatness.” – imthatguydavid
“I was debating a flat earther in Mexico, and I asked him about how GPS worked if there were no satellites. He said that they had devices in the ground to route you.”
“I told him the Mexican government is barely able to put decent water pipes in the ground; would he really think they had the tech to put routing devices in the ground?”
“He chuckled with a thousand mile gaze.” – mzaouar
The Authority On All Things Space
“A serious answer here.”
“The thing that made me stop was just the question ‘why would nasa lie to you.’”
“I will try replying to all of yall but will go to a study hall so ill reply later.” – The_Holy_Fork
Impossible Secret
“This a solid point, there’s no way 70,000 scientist could keep it a secret.” – needsmoreusername
“That’s the biggest reason for me to not believe so many conspiracy theories, especially major ones like a Flat Earth… We know how often things leak about everything, and suddenly a collection of 10s of thousands of people are all gonna keep this one big secret?” – JerHat
“Flat earth is absolutely sh*t tier. It not only fails on the level you described, but also: why? Why pretend the shape of the earth is different than it is? When does someone convene a high level meeting to circulate that idea?” – heseme
Some Deep Digging
“I spent about a year infiltrating the flat Earth community on Instagram. I garnered a decent following with an account dedicated to flat earth travel photos (an intentionally absurd premise). In that time I learned a quite a bit about the community including how to discern the trolls from the real deal.”
“The majority of legit flat earthers are extremely distrustful of anything the government says or does. These same people are 9/11 truthers, Holocaust deniers, and anti-vaxxers and they connect these conspiracies together.”
“Many of them have also attached flat Earth theory to religion, magic, or mysticism. Before my infiltration I’d always considered conspiracies fun. Like they were the fan fiction of real life. Now they mostly make me sad.”
“For all the phony accounts like mine, there are still plenty of people out there willing to drop a couple of hundred dollars on a flat Earth convention.” – Zelph_Onandagus
The Trip Confirmed It
“Had to travel to Japan, gave up on my beliefs in order to make a shorter trip.” – uvzla792
Based on some of the comments above, it is entirely possible to change the minds of people who have pretty much been rejected from society and found acceptance from a community with whom they shared the same flawed logic.
It may have taken some hard convincing, but eventually, they flat-out came ’round.