Memes

and not delete the previous videos

It takes a big man to admit his mistakes and I am that big man.

And it’s excellent that his sphere of influence expanded

I member... i learned of it from a vsauce video i watched when it first dropped. Was mindblown years later when ppl were touting the flat earth society seriously. Their tagline was literally, "We Have Members Around the Globe!"

Poe's Law

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article.

The smart people may have started it, but the dumb people listened and took it as gospel.

Watch out, there will be a true church of Pastafarianism before we die.

It was a weird blend of that and true believers. Then the people there for the joke of it all got weirded out by the crazies and left.

The problem doesn't stem from their critical thinking skills, but rather, a combination of indoctrination and religious beliefs which cause a series of presuppositions to supersede the conclusions the rest of us have taken as presuppositions.

In some sense I admire their dedication to challenge established facts about reality, that should be done in general.

To clarify the statement about indoctrination and religion: many people are not aware that flat earthers are religious wackjobs. Their thought process is as follows:

"If the universe contains trillions of celestial bodies and they're all spherical, then we are inconsequential. It must be the case that we are special, and earth is not a sphere, but is flat."

Some flat earthers will claim space doesn't exist, even though their bible tells them God created other planets.

Try being in their shoes: you set up an experiment to prove the earth is not flat and is indeed round, you run the experiment and at the end you realise your experiment fail and would prove the earth is flat. Would you changwe your point of view ? I know I wouldn't, I would immediately assume I am an idiot and messed up the experiment, because I am so much convinced it is round, it would be much more realistic to assume I messed up.

Far more respect gained when someone realizes they’re wrong and changes their view then stubbornly sticking with incorrect beliefs

No idea. Maybe donations, fees from conventions, ad revenue...?

Trolls and people who sell merch and tickets to conventions. Same as alien believers

Flat earthers are easily radicalised into right wing belief like "The world is controlled by Jewish lizards" and "the election was stolen from Trump" and "the vaccine contains a bill gates microchip that makes you gay". And right wing conspiracy theorists will willingly spend their life savings on Alex Jones dick engorgement supplements while generating culture war controversy to draw political attention away from actual issues like climate change and worker's rights that may harm big business interests.

Think of it this way: in the mediaeval age, you armed your peasants with shields and spears and had them protect your keep. In the information age, you arm your peasants with conspiracy theories and twitter accounts and have them protect your untaxed billions.

The people who benefit from division, confusion, and inability to determine information from misinformation. Aka, the rich and powerful.

My guess is neither of those. People don't really base their world view on facts. Maybe his life situation improved, he found a healthier community or a hobby

Probably personal connection paired with facts and persistence.

It's not easy changing someone's mind. You need a lot of dedication, especially if they're in a community that reinforces their belief.

likely the former because calling someone an idiot isn't going to change their mind

IIRC another YouTuber did a response video to his, disproving everything he said. And it opened his eyes.

Seems like most of the older videos from the meme aren't on the channel anymore, at least not under the same upload. Guess he didn't want someone to stumble upon them and be misinformed