The attraction of any oddball notion - rather cleverly named as "conspiracy theorries" by the media, the better to muddy the water when it comes to real conspiracies, such as the assasination of John F. Kennedy and the 9/11 attacks (which were by definition conspiracies, as they involved two or more in their planning and execution) - is that you and you alone are privy to what is truly real. Religious cults, particularly the more extreme, offer the same allure, something not unlike the true believer staus to be found in being one of the first select few to discover a new trend in dress or music (summarily dumped as soon as the hoi-poloi jump on board). The added plus with such bordering-flameout-wigginess beliefs as flat earthism - even more than the sincere belief that Hillary Clinton ran a pedophile ring from the basement of a pizza parlor - is that it is so out-there that, in the eye of the stone-cold believer, that it's impossible to disprove. Any evidence offered is proof positive that the Man or the Deep State or the Illuminati or (fill in the blank) is cleverly fooling everyone but us, We In The Know.

I'm glad they believe it's flat. It amuses me.

Nothing special here, particularly 'en mass'. Many groups and even more individuals shelter themselves within the bounds of fantasy to avoid aspects of objective fact/reality for which they aren't emotionally equipped.

Such is the damage that afflicts us all, as members in good standing of 'right thinking and moral living'. Most damage is correctable and we're equipped with the cognitive tools for making repairs.

Good 'theraputic' practitioners with effective modalities put us in touch with those tools. In the probably distant future, with growing understanding of the functional unity of body and mind, modalities will also unite and greatly expand efficacy.

Until that time, we must be our own judges, or shoppers and carefully, oh so carefully and courageously, fill-in the gaps.

Got me started now (so much for never wasting my time on the subject again)...

Okay look — I live in Brighton, UK. We have a long, steep road called Elm Grove; on a clear day, if you look west from the top of the hill, you can see the Isle of Wight out to sea, about 60 miles away — why can you see it if it's 60 MILES away? Because it's a bloody big hill, rising out of a flat sea and you're standing on another bloody big hill, so you're able to see the top of it rising above the curvature of the Earth.

If you get on a 22 bus, sit upstairs at the front and ride westwards down Elm Grove, you can watch the island disappear gradually below the horizon as your viewpoint gets lower. Eventually the top of the hills disappear into the sea and they're gone. That wouldn't happen on a flat plane... The Earth is a ball and it is impossible to be a flat-earther in Brighton UNLESS YOU'RE A FRIGGIN' IDIOT.

It does seem to be a distinctly American fad, and I wonder if it's down to the entertainment/media-led culture that the States seems to have (and that the rest of us are fast adopting).

Having listened in on a couple of YouTube debates, I've completely given up on ever wasting my time on the subject again. It's a non-topic with laughably piss-poor arguements that require backflips and the most contorted apologetics to present. Debating these muppets is like shooting fish in a barrel... If the fish could then deny they'd ever been shot and carry on protesting the fact all the way to the frying pan.

so you are distracted from whats really going on.. the media is a sham

Flat Earth is one of the funniest things to ever happen. I can't think of a better example of trolling in history. For that reason, I totally support its existence.

I have no idea how this is even a subject these days. Everytime I hear it I smash it very easily with a simple thing called a rainbow. If the earth was flat a rainbow would be as well.

Anytime I hear someone boasting about being a flat earther, I laugh.
When I find out they have children, then I get scared — for their future.

The flat earth model is very limited but it does have some uses. For example, land surveyors often assume that the earth is flat when they do small surveys.

What is usually overlooked is that the planetary model with a spheroidal earth is also nothing but a mathematical model. Just think, the earth is supposed to be orbiting the sun, but no one seems to understand space or time, except to say that they are illusions. Particles of matter are said by physicists to consist of probability waves that are in no particular place, until observed by a conscious observer, upon which they “collapse” into things.

I will not ridicule the flat earth folks because we are all ignorant IMO.

I put flat earthers in the same category as creationist, moon landing hoaxers, climate science deniers, anti vaxxers etc.

I just read this article and was left speechless. So there really are people who honestly deeply believe that all of science is a lying conspiracy and the earth is NOT round after all? With my psychology background, I especially enjoyed reading about the possible connection between such beliefs and some of these folks' psychological crises and loss of a sense of control in their lives. Makes me wonder if this is another way for helpless hopeless people to act out, better certainly than shooting strangers. To be so estranged from reality...

It's the age of the Selfie where everyone is the center of their own personal universe, no reason the same mindset wouldn't believe that the planet is the center of the universe too.
Except Galileo!