What grinds my gears!

[Tycho Magnetic Anomaly]

hehe interesting,   but there is no convincing people otherwise who actually believe this stuff ,  it almost becomes pointless to try persuade them away from such theories. In fact i might go as far to say you have more chance in convincing an orthodox religious believer of the possibility of no god, then a flat earther of the possibility the earth is spherical in nature . The fundamental issue is, above all evidence and facts they desperately want to believe in what they want to believe in. There is no changing that stance no matter what evidence is presented.

[Mandle]

hehe interesting,   but there is no convincing people otherwise who actually believe this stuff ,  it almost becomes pointless to try persuade them away from such theories. In fact i might go as far to say you have more chance in convincing an orthodox religious believer of the possibility of no god, then a flat earther of the possibility the earth is spherical in nature . The fundamental issue is, above all evidence and facts they desperately want to believe in what they want to believe in. There is no changing that stance no matter what evidence is presented.

Yeah, they are a very frustrating lot. But the fight against this kind of backlash against science is growing and I have seen interviews with ex-flat-earth cult-members who mention videos by people like SciManDan and Conspiracy Catz as their reasons for realizing that they were wrong, so there is a slight hope for some.

I'm more interested in trying to reach the fence-sitters: vulnerable people who have looked into the flat-earth and are on the verge of getting sucked into it but have decided to look around and see it their ridiculous claims have been debunked somewhere first, which is why I try to attack their main arguments in my videos like:

* You can't see the horizon curve (and any video that shows it curving must have been taken with a fish-eye lens)
* The atmosphere could not exist next to a vacuum (they think vacuums are like vacuum cleaners and should suck the atmosphere off the earth)
* Crepuscular rays, the fanning rays of sunlight through holes or gaps in clouds, indicate a small and local sun.
* Gravity doesn't exist. Things only fall because they are denser than the air under them.

I even had a close friend tell me that he thought they kind of had a point with the atmosphere/vacuum thing and I spent the next twenty minutes explaining pressure gradients and such and perhaps pulled him back from the rabbit-hole entrance.

One of the ex-cult-members, in an interview, went as far to say that they considered suicide after realizing they had invested the last few years into something so meaningless and had lost their marriage and the respect of friends and family over it.

That was when I decided to have a go at fighting it myself because, unlike disproving God to religious people, there is actual science and easy ways to explain the concepts when it comes to debunking something as silly as the flat earth.

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Oh, and yes... One more thing that grinds my gears is how childish and frightened of debunkers these cult members are:

I had some videos up on my channel of the Halloween rooms we made for the kids at my school which were themed on Harry Potter and Star Wars. Since I started making this flat-earth debunking series these videos were hit with copyright claims so I made them private rather than face potential YouTube BS strikes against my channel.

I doubt the timing is a coincidence as several other debunkers on YouTube were hit with false copyright claims around the same time.

Scared little children.

[Khris]

Seems like a good time to link hbomberguy: Flat Earth: A Measured Response

HAIL SOBEK.

[Slasher]

Oh, Khris and Co.. You're non believers then?   

That's why I never take long haul flights, in case the plane fell off the earth 

[cat]

It's hard to believe that there are people seriously thinking the earth is flat. Where do they expect to be the edge of the world?

[TheFrighter]

That's why I never take long haul flights, in case the plane fell off the earth 

Don't worry, there's the "Pac-Man effect"! (that's their absurd explanation of why if you fly straight then return at the same place)

_

[Mandle]

It's hard to believe that there are people seriously thinking the earth is flat. Where do they expect to be the edge of the world?

Most of them think the AE map (basically the U.N. logo) is the map of the flat earth and that Antarctica is actually a giant ice wall that circles the circumference and stops all the water from falling off.

Their theories then differ on whether or not the flat plane continues on from there, possibly infinitely, or whether the whole shebang is covered by a dome with the stars on it, and other such anally-extracted fantasies.

[Mouth for war]

People who won't change their views/opinions no matter how hard they are proven wrong really grinds my gears. It really p####s me the hell off when you know you are 100% correct about something but the moron in front of you still says "No you are wrong" or "I must check this up"

[Mandle]

People who won't change their views/opinions no matter how hard they are proven wrong really grinds my gears. It really p####s me the hell off when you know you are 100% correct about something but the moron in front of you still says "No you are wrong" or "I must check this up"

Dude, just read the comments under that first video in my playlist. I was trying as hard as I could to talk sense into this bloody idiot "Flat Earth Aussie Jesus" after realizing with growing horror that not only was he a fellow Australian but also that we share the same first name.

I started out quite optimistic but eventually had to either give up or end up eating my own head out of frustration.

Then I eventually found peace in thinking that he is so far down the rabbit-hole that he can't possibly gain followers who are not already beyond any help and also that he probably needs this belief to prevent himself having to examine his life which could lead to him doing something drastic to himself or others.

So, yeah, a bit of a harmless old duffer hopefully.

[Danvzare]

THE FLAT-EARTH MOVEMENT!!!

Fun fact, that whole thing started as a joke. I remember convincing one of my sister's friends into believing that I believed the world was flat, a good ten years or so before this whole flat-earther thing took off.
The joke was originally meant to be there as a way to poke fun of religion, and how absurd that it is to believe in that, and how easy it is to make an argument for anything. It was the original version of the flying spaghetti monster in a way. But unfortunately very few people understood the joke, and you ended up with everyone believing that these people claiming the world was flat, actually believed the world was flat. Then you got people who decided to join in on the craze, since they thought that if other people thought the world was flat, then they should also believe the world is flat.

It's a shame really. 

Still, if you ever encounter a flat-earther, don't try to convince them that the world is round. They know (unless they're mentally handicapped). Instead try to convince them that the world is double sided, and that there's a massive conspiracy to cover it up. 

[Khris]

It's a bit older than that.

[Jack]

People who won't change their views/opinions no matter how hard they are proven wrong really grinds my gears. It really p####s me the hell off when you know you are 100% correct about something but the moron in front of you still says "No you are wrong" or "I must check this up"

Some people think religions are the only belief systems, but really they are everywhere. Beliefs are a funny thing, often they are seen as an investment, and sometimes people will attack anyone who challenges it whether they are right or wrong. Sometimes you can have a falsehood repeated to you so many times that the truth seems insane, especially if it concerns something big. Sometimes it's just a violent mental reaction to the suggestion that they are going to have to believe something different to everyone else.

Spoiler

For the stupid people here I have to say that I think the earth is round-ish

[close]

What grinds my gears is how little effort most people put into their lives and their beliefs. Technology has come a long way, but after all most people are still more than content to ridicule something they don't understand, just for that dopamine rush of fitting in. There doesn't even have to be a crowd around them shouting down the weird inventor guy who says the earth is round, all it takes is the idea that others will not agree. There are very real facts that could mean the difference between life and death, and most people don't know them. What's more, they don't care to find out. Don't want to risk being wrong, and ending up like those flat earthers. Corporations and governments have spent billions over the span of decades refining ways to exploit these simple and predictable mechanisms, and yet people walk around oblivious to all this being piped into their heads unfiltered.

[Blondbraid]

I find the Flat Earth to be nonsense, and I believe a big part of the reason why we're seeing so many of them now is due to this trend that I've noticed,
where many media profiles and much of pop culture have popularized the idea that if there is a huge division between two sides, taking the position in the middle
will automatically mean that you're smarter, and that if there are two sides both sides will have a legitimate point and deserve equal time and attention for a fair debate.

However, this ignores that there actually are "debates", if you can call them that, that are matters that are black and white and there are things that are proven true by scientists.
Anti-vaxxers aren't equal to real doctors, crystal healing isn't equal to real medicine and flat-earthers aren't equal to thousands of year's worth of science, but people who think themselves
"enlightened centrists" who are above conventional dogma and just like, asking the hard questions man, like to pretend those things are equal and that questioning science is deep,
yet ignore the flat earth movement started as a joke and was never even trying to be science to begin with, and these types only serve to legitimize the fanatics who 100% believes their conspiracy theories.

Saying both flat-earthers and everyone else both makes good arguments is just stupid, it's not being neutral.
Trust me, I'm a Swede so I know a lot about being neutral.   

[Jack]

Vaccines are a bad example of that because the problem with that issue is the extreme views. Yes, companies sometimes do put toxic chemicals in it and don't care about the results, and politicians and the media do sometimes push useless and/or dangerous vaccines on people because they stand to profit from it. That does not mean all vaccines are bad, or that polio isn't real. The one extreme being wrong doesn't mean the other is right, although corporations and governments know some people "think" this way and exploit it.

But you brought up another thing that has really been grinding my gears lately, and that's people that won't see the difference between bad and good, or black and white as you put it. I get this is not totally what you meant.

Yes, there are in fact things which are bad for society and need to be removed. Like pedophiles. Right now there are people working for pedophile acceptance, and a lot of the time it's just to show off to others how open minded they can be, accepting the worst possible thing. (Other times of course it's just those that want the public to be ok with them taking advantage of children.) These people want to allow the mentally ill to run free just so they can subtly brag about how super progressive they are.

[Danvzare]

Reading these past few posts, has just made me realise that those ridiculous "slippery slope" arguments that close-minded bigots kept spouting out, were actually true.

[Mouth for war]

I know tthis shouldn't grind my gears but it still does...kind of...HQ is "forcing" all the local bosses go to our capital (Stockholm) to take a course in leadership. I don't know what's so wrong with the way I do it "Sell and shut up and never make long stupid explanations/excuses for your mistakes" ok maybe not but...sometimes that IS close to the truth. Anyway...I had to get up at 5 am and my fellow game makers...we all know that 5 am ONLY exists if you're working on a game...or if you pig out after a game making session. I had zero sleep...sitting on the train as I type this...and that's what grinds my gears.

[Cassiebsg]

Flying blue's contact form grinds my gears! 
I've been a member for a long time, never used the damn miles for anything yet, since I just don't fly that much. But even if I wanted to use my miles I couldn't! They added password to log on to the site... I always logged on with pin, so I didn't had a password. Last time I tried to logged on with pin cause I didn't had a password, I did... only to be meet with a second login "now please enter your password"...      So... I want to email them and get them to send me my password to my email, cause apparently I can't do that either on my own even though they have no problem in sending me "spam" mails, that they can do... So there I click "email flying blue" and what do I get? A login asking me for username and password! :O  Only way to contact them? Seems to be by phone and I hate phone! 

[Danvzare]

Flying blue's contact form grinds my gears! 
I've been a member for a long time, never used the damn miles for anything yet, since I just don't fly that much. But even if I wanted to use my miles I couldn't! They added password to log on to the site... I always logged on with pin, so I didn't had a password. Last time I tried to logged on with pin cause I didn't had a password, I did... only to be meet with a second login "now please enter your password"...      So... I want to email them and get them to send me my password to my email, cause apparently I can't do that either on my own even though they have no problem in sending me "spam" mails, that they can do... So there I click "email flying blue" and what do I get? A login asking me for username and password! :O  Only way to contact them? Seems to be by phone and I hate phone! 

What... the.. 
I think "grinds my gears" is a bit of an understatement!

[Galen]

Yes, companies sometimes do put toxic chemicals in it and don't care about the results,

I'd like to see an example for this. Companies arn't wasting their time throwing random expensive chemicals into their vaccines. The most toxic elements that *were* commonly found were trace levels of formaldehyde or mercury (used to kill/preserve the virus) below the level at which they're naturally generated in the body anyway. Consumer drugs might sometimes be ineffective, but vaccines are normally rolled out to the general population and tend to be incredibly safe in comparison. Even then most consumer drugs that are in any way dangerous don't make it past the testing stage, with drugs like thalidomide (which is an effective drug in one chiral form, but extremely dangerous in it's mirror form) being rare exceptions in the past.

[Jack]

One concern people have is the bio-persistent aluminium which is added to some vaccines as adjuvants, to boost immune response. This can cause immune activation in neonates, which above certain levels causes autism and psychiatric disorders, owing to the critical and delicate stage of brain development. In what is apparently the first study on neonatal brain development and vaccination, done in 2015, it was found that the Hepatitis B vaccine inhibited synaptic plasticity, exhibiting a "neurotoxic expression profile", increasing IL-6 expression (amongst others), which has been linked to genetic autism.

Hep B is a sexually transmitted disease. For the vaccine, wikipedia says "The first dose is recommended within 24 hours of birth".

Some studies I found:
Neonatal Vaccination with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin and Hepatitis B Vaccines Modulates Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity in Rats
Perinatal Immune Activation Produces Persistent Sleep Alterations and Epileptiform Activity in Male Mice
Maternal Immune Activation During the Third Trimester Is Associated with Neonatal Functional Connectivity of the Salience Network and Fetal to Toddler Behavior (pre-natal)

EDIT: I should add that to my knowledge, it has not been proven that it's the aluminium that causes the immune activation. However, given lack of further testing and its function in the vaccine, this has been the best guess.