In Search Of A Flat Earth

[@LindsayEllisVids]

hold on i'm taking a hit

[@Guimhj]

You kill me even outside of your videos

[@finlayreeds6725]

hang on hang on it's getting to me

[@TheMightyPatapon]

Remember, puff, puff, pass. I'm pretty sure the rest of us could use some too.

[@Skippan]

Your prof pic is evidence you even went to the same lake!

[@franr5371]

They sounded a little... proud of the hit. I'm proud of their hit, too.

[@Provigilman]

Everybody is talking about the Qanon stuff, but I'm still over here thinking "You're right Dan, that jib shot was truly moving and beautiful."

[@Xondar11223344]

It gave me chills and I called my wife over to see it.

[@Provigilman]

@@Xondar11223344 It's just so beautifully elegant and demonstrative. One of the finest "here's the thing in a 5 second single take" examples of curvature I've ever seen.

[@ConvincingPeople]

Ken Proctor It legitimately made my jaw drop.

[@lachieechoecho]

Same! 😂 Then. Shizz got real!

[@Busto]

It's such a simple, little shot. Yet, I kept rewatching it & thinking, "Dammit, Dan. As of the 12th of September, your simple, beautiful, emotional jib shot might be the one bit of wonder some of us are going to get out of 2020."

[@lazyman556]

Dan sets out to prove the Earth is round and makes incredible tourism promo for Alberta's national parks in the process

[@aristizle8797]

Literal LOL.

[@sucrow7659]

It’s always funny seeing people think the earth is flat when I’ve lived in a place where you can see the horizon at roughly the same elevation in any direction. Can’t even see the foothills of the Rockies despite them easily being visible on a flat earth from here.

[@Regulith]

minus the part about the bears

[@jamesrule1338]

Just remember your bear bells, unless you want to land up in a Werner Herzog documentary.

[@atropatene3596]

What hidden agenda do flat earth debunkers have, one might ask 😂

[@pgtrots]

"They aren't flat earthers because they believe the Earth is flat, they are flat earthers because if that were true, it would validate all their other beliefs" is a super insightful way to look at it.

[@badger6882]

I know, such a great point. I'm glad he took that route in the video

[@sammmyDaviS]

Sheep 🐑? Yes, most people are. It's flat u Globosexuals

[@LeBonkJordan]

"This can be an interesting model for understanding why bigots often seem so committed even when their beliefs don't hold up to scrutiny. [Jean-Paul] Sartre says it's because they aren't really *beliefs;* they're *obsessions* whose *job* is to justify what they already *want* to believe." -Abigail Thorn, "Antisemitism: An Analysis | Philosophy Tube"

[@edwardcopeland5069]

​@@badger6882 that all it take for you.

[@Joural0401]

I find it interesting because you can take this perspective with a lot of political ideologies. It's a very broadly applicable concept, but most obvious with the absurd ones. I'd argue there's a kind of broad social utility in examining conspiracy theories then taking the lessons you learn from it and applying it to less extreme ideologies. For example, there's an easy parallel between pizzagate and the violence that a handful of believers have engaged in and russiagate and the violence that belief led to(the attempted shooting of the republican baseball game, and the guy who shot a mailman because he was deeply mentally unwell, and mistook the mailman for donald trump, and the media had been so hyperbolic about Trump that he believed it was his duty to kill him). And yes, I will absolutely argue that the mental illness angle that implies also applies to the extreme conspiracy stuff. I'm not aware of any conspiracy theoriest without a serious mental disorder of some kind(admittedly already a disproportionately underrepresented group within conspiracy circles, admittedly) who engaged in serious violence. The difference is that one belief was much broader but relatively less extreme and explicit, while the other was much more focused but, obviously, much more extreme and explicit in its goal of violence.

[@muticere]

One thing that will always stick with me from the qanon segment is the dad in his car streaming on his phone asking for “Q-An-on” to come help him. That’s stuck in my brain because he’s never heard Qanon spoken out loud, he doesn’t know how people pronounce qanon. It’s such an online cult that people throw their whole lives away without ever having spoken out loud with someone about it at any point.

[@tobyw2u2348]

Yes!! That always disturbed me and I've never seen anyone else point it out.

[@kai_maceration]

wait are you saying it's supposed to be pronounced "kwan-on"? I only watch leftists debunking conspiracies, but I've always heard it "kyu-an-on" lol 😭

[@DaveUnknown]

@@kai_maceration You have the correct pronunciation, it's Q and then "anon" like "anonymous." The dad that kidnapped his kids said "Q-an-nin" for some reason

[@felsics9441]

@@kai_maceration Honestly I think it might be a regional thing? I would pronounce “anon” as Ann-un. I’m from the Midwest, and hear it pronounced that way.

[@walterkruse348]

You know, I've watched this video a handful of times, and I never thought of it that way. Devil's advocate, I know some people who will consistently mispronounce words even though they have heard the correct pronunciation, and have even been explicitly told so and had the correct pronunciation explained to them deliberately, several times. That said, this IS a plausible theory, and pretty wild to think about...

[@supersalad9801]

"Hold on, I'm taking a hit." There was something poetically perfect about the timing and delivery of that line.

[@DavidLindes]

Yeah, I feel like 17:59 might actually explain a lot about a number of conspiracy theorists... worth someone doing a deep dive?!? Like... how many of them are in which of various (potentially overlapping) categories: delusional, literally high, in it for the lolz, fraudsters, in it for the money, running a cult, sucked in by (victims of) a cult, new to the topic and just haven't thought much about it yet, overly credulous by nature, overly credulous by indoctrination, etc. 🤔🤔🤔

[@noblestrings]

he also says 30 miles a minute when it clearly says km

[@scslre]

@@noblestrings no, he read it correctly: 18.5 miles per second.

[@DeusEx_Machina]

I'm glad he left that in the clip lol

[@TerrenceNowicki]

He sounded like Dan Akroyd. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was Dan Akroyd.

[@amorphousblob]

"QAnon trains people to see facts as subservient to outcomes. The facts are just game pieces you rearrange to justify actions." Such a good way of putting it. With this approach, anything can be rearranged in any way to validate the possibility of an intended, wanted outcome no matter how impossible it actually is.

[@em_the_bee]

Yeah. It's even funnier seeing how "progressive" left-wing activists do almost literally the same thing in their intellectual exercises, yet don't see it and refuse to admit it.

[@DavidVT23]

And furthermore, it plays into that, if the outcomes are all that matter, then *by definition* "the ends justify the means." This is why basically any belief system that focuses solely on outcomes can serve as a radicalization system.

[@BlairdBlaird]

It's important to note that this is straight out of the Rumsfeld / Rove playbook, it's pretty much a rewording of this quote from the Bush II administration: > The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

[@isenokami7810]

@@BlairdBlairdThis quote coming from the Bush administration terrifies me more than flat earthers/QAnon followers/all the conspiracy or bag holder people Dan’s covered since this video trying to follow it. You NEVER want to hear this mindset coming from power.

[@SirAndacar]

@@BlairdBlaird a quote from Carl Rove.

[@Tyberes]

As far as the "they only trained in a cesna a couple times" Yea controlling a plane is shockingly easy while you're already in the air. The hard parts are taking off, landing, and following general safety regulation which, and this is a smidge crass, they hijackers weren't concerned with.

[@midn8588]

They didn't have to fly a plane expertly, they needed to fly it poorly lol

[@naikigutierrez4279]

@@midn8588They did need to fly it well enough to crash on the actual targets they wanted to destroy and not some random different building.

[@paulmahoney7619]

@@naikigutierrez4279 even then, it’s not horribly hard and crashing into another building would be pretty effective still.

[@astupidlylongnamethatstoolong]

@@paulmahoney7619 Especially considering blind deaf people can fly a plane just as well as long as instructions were given promptly and accurately.

[@starlight4649]

Can confirm, I flew a midsized Cessna at the age of 12 thanks to a public young pilot event. The guy who took me up asked if I wanted to make a turn, I about shit myself but I managed to turn the plane around on literally my first try.

[@gonkley]

Even as a non-flat earther there's something wild about witnessing the curvature of the earth so directly. You go the majority of your life understanding at a logical level that the earth is a sphere, but really having it demonstrated to you is something else.

[@Desmaad]

Well, oblate spheroid if you want to be precise.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

@@Desmaad With a severe case of acne, even! 😂

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

The way it reveals the scale of things is both awesome to me and also not a little bit terrifying. For all his garbage fire opinions on minority groups, Lovecraft really did hit on something that's at least resonant to me when talking about how horrifying the vastness of the cosmos can be. Feel like an exposed little ant sometimes, hoping that a great big boot isn't going to just descend from the sky one day, brought forth by something I couldn't even begin to comprehend. Anxious and furious that other stupid little ants continue to twist the knobs dictating the behavior of planet-scale systems - systems we can model in general terms but do not understand in high fidelity, and which have more than enough energy in them & influence over Earth's biosphere that we'd all be real dead real fast if said systems get into the wrong configuration.

[@b_megamaths]

It was awe-inspiring, definitely.

[@whochangedmyscreenname]

Absolutely. Well stated. Humbling, even. :)

[@unvergebeneid]

The footage of the shore disappearing behind the curvature of the earth is almost scary to me. It's the closest I've gotten to grasping how damn big this thing we live on really is.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

Truly we are but small specs of dust on a massive planet.

[@lukewest7216]

@ElvinGearMaster Irma and that planet is blue mote of dust in an unimaginably vast universe

[@FLY1NF1SH]

I get that same feeling when there's no light pollution and you can see the milky way

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

@@lukewest7216 In short Space is terrifying but awe inspiring And so So Lonely Jacob Gellar actually did a pretty cool video on space.

[@Moose6960]

Visiting Alaska meant I had that feeling basically all the time. The glaciers aren't as big as they used to be but just being in their presence and standing at the base of these enormous mountains made me feel so very small, in a good way. I think it's good to remember that we're just a part of nature.

[@goobertsnoobert9015]

“There’s no south pointing compass, because there’s no South Pole” was a new one for me and I had to take a moment to fully digest how dumb that statement is

[@mindlander]

It's SOO DUMB I actually felt my brain crack a little. I temporarily lost my grip on reality. It was almost transcendent lol

[@LynnHermione]

I'd tell them compasses don't point anywhere, they align themselves with the north-south magnetic field. All compasses point north and south at the same time :D

[@Kolibri71]

I don't even know why I clicked in this video, I mean I like him, but the subject makes me nervous To know that they are soooo many brainless people outside walking free makes me sad and I think I'm gonna have nightmares :(

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

Someone should sell south-pointing compasses.

[@Kolibri71]

@@imveryangryitsnotbutter there's a gap in the market that no one's taking and I see big money there 🤣🤣

[@chiptankgirl]

When I moved to China I bought a compass because I literally didn't know which way was north anymore. Turned out the needle was on backwards. So there is at least one south pointing compass in a landfill somewhere in Jiangsu.

[@sadakotetsuwan9229]

Historically, ALL Chinese compasses pointed south because if I recall my 'why is Kyoto laid out the way it is, surprise, it's Chinese geomancy' info, south was the direction you wanted to face to welcome good fortune--evil forces lived in North, so things like temples and the Imperial Palace would be built on the north side of a city to provide spiritual protection, the largest gates would open to the south, etc. I think there was even a device called the 'South Pointing Chariot' which was a compass that had a little figurine of a dude pointing south on it, and through very clever craftsmanship (rather than magnetism), once it was calibrated it would always point south no matter where you drove it via various cogs and gears inside connected to the wheels, detecting relative motion and compensating so the little guy is always pointing the same way.

[@ashikjaman1940]

​@@sadakotetsuwan9229 damn that chariot sounds rad as hell

[@neshirst-ashuach1881]

Why not just use a compass? This sounds like the most absurdly overenginerd thing imaginable.

[@sadakotetsuwan9229]

@@neshirst-ashuach1881 Wiki says that compasses in China were originally used primarily for feng shui and not for navigation, that magnetism was accomplished through either heating and quenching iron or rubbing a needle to magnetize it, and that wet compasses were more widespread than dry. So if you weren't on a level surface with a furnace you might want a clever mechanical solution to finding direction? idk, the Chinese have been doing compasses since the Han dynasty and apparently invented all sorts of ways to make them.

[@cher1z4rd]

Fun fact! In Chinese, we call a compass "指南针" literally means "pointing south needle" . But I'm Malaysian Chinese, so when I was young, I was confused why my south pointing needle is pointing at North, and it f'ed my sense of west and east hahahahaha

[@Dormiyusaur]

I kinda always cry at the end of this video. “They are trying to build a flat Earth” is just kind of a powerful statement that reminds me of my dad, in a bad way.

[@EvansMine]

I’m surprised I had to scroll so far down to see a comment like this. The end of this video is such a powerful moment and I think it needs to be appreciated more

[@Jeremagpie]

I somehow missed this last line on my previous watch of this back when it released, but it hit me like a truck. It's such an effective and disturbing way of illustrating his overarching point that conspiratorial thought is at least as prescriptive as it is descriptive, if not more the former than it is the latter.

[@ellabar252]

I went into the comments after rewatching, trying to find people talking about the ending. Holy shit, that ending. It's SO incredibly powerful, probably the strongest I've ever experienced.

[@w1ckedn0nsense34]

"in essence, modern flat Earth is an offshoot of Christianity where Jesus is a secondary figure and the primary theological concern is the true nature of the physical world, it's origin, and it's destiny." As a Christian who's so consistently frustrated with conspiratorial christians, this left me reeling, it so mercilessly cuts to the heart of what they're really about. They don't worship jesus at all, he's a prop that covers their adoration of superiority and secrecy. God that was good. Dan, you're such a good writer.

[@kootiepatra]

As a Christian who has watched more than one acquaintance inexorably slide into conspiracy, this grabbed me as well. It's been so flummoxing to me to watch people post impassionately about [gestures vaguely at entire video], with all the fervor of a religion, and owning it as an innately Christian thing--but any talk of Jesus Himself is notably absent. It's horrifying, and it's idolatrous. And it's been painful to be unable to get people to see that they spend WAY more time, energy, and social media space on Q's words than they ever did on Jesus'.

[@Lucan47]

@@kootiepatra Not Christians, but Q-stians

[@teecee1827]

It's a reoccurring theme in cults, very notable in Christian derived cults. The secrets and knowledge bestowed by the guru are more important in the worldview of the followers than the gods they pretend to worship.

[@hamsterlord8848]

Actually, flat earthers support Christ in a way that regular believers don't. Christ is the actual Word of God. The bible is also, symbolically, the word of God. The bible mentions a flat earth. A circle of the earth. An immovable earth. A sun and moon that move above and over the flat earth and can be commanded to stop in their path. See the long day of Joshua. The bible in revelation, mentions the sky will be ripped open as a scroll being rolled together. This cannot happen without a firmament sky, a glass ceiling. It says a third of the stars will fall to the earth. How can stars fall to the earth if they are bigger suns than the sun in the heliocentric model? How does the whole world see God when the sky is ripped away if He has to appear on both side of the ball world? Flat earthers affirm Christ by affirming the truth of the bible. We do not see Christ or the flat earth as an allegory or metaphor. We read it literally as we are intended to. I am a flat earther, I cannot unsee the flat earth. And I am saved and baptized and heavenbound. I have seen Christ, I have seen He is God. And the truth will set you free.

[@w1ckedn0nsense34]

@@hamsterlord8848 so are you like a feudal lord of hamsters with God acting as the king? Or is there a king of hamsters on earth and God is just the excuse he uses for subjugating the hamsters? Is the church involved as an opiate for the hamsters? Please tell me I'm genuinely dying to know.

[@OhAbsinthian]

I work in land development, and one of the first things we do when we start to plan a project is draw a boundary of a property. There are two coordinate formats: grid and surface. Grid coordinates are used for when we are drawing on a flat surface. Surface coordinates are used when we are working in files that replicate literal Earth coordinates. To transition linework from grid to surface, we must shift all linework to the northeast by ~1000 feet (this number varies depending on where on the planet the project will be built). If we do not translate our linework to surface format, we will end up drawing a development that overlaps with neighboring properties or roadways. This is due to the curvature of the earth's surface. My entire industry is (literally) built on the knowledge that the earth is round.

[@jackmace6531]

Hey but tell that to a Flat Earther, ya know?

[@thedailyremedy968]

i’d like to just take your word for it like literally everyone else here does but can you actually provide links to any documentation that calculates/detects land curvature (aside from topographical mapping calculations) in your field of work so that i can verify the claims you make here are true?

[@millhousemillard2140]

​@@thedailyremedy968 you could just read something instead of ya know....taking flat eathers at face value lol. If you believe something you will believe anything that is said about it and if you don't you'll dismiss the evidence or ask for impossibly complex evidence then....dismiss it, all the while claim you're a free thinker but you're caught up so much in your bias that you havent had a free thought since childhood lol

[@thedailyremedy968]

@@millhousemillard2140 most people are caught up in their bias-the globe model use a philosophical premise which is biased. That’s right if I see a quote used by a flat earther I’m not just going to believe it’s a fact that it was said without having checked the source reference material.

[@millhousemillard2140]

@@thedailyremedy968 its not a philosophical premise lmao it's science. Explain gravity and the formation of the earth please

[@felsics9441]

Sorry, Im just fascinated by the idea that a bird doing that kind of damage to a plane means it couldn’t destroy a building. Like…The bird does that damage, because the plane hits it with that force. If anything that proves how destructive a plane crash can be.

[@mm1145]

More over look at how much damage the plane dose to the bird

[@fredericksmith7942]

@@mm1145also, yeah I’m sure that the noses of the 9/11 planes were destroyed to the point of being unrecognizable on impact, we just don’t have any footage of them because everybody on the floors they hit died immediately. Because they exploded.

[@timothymclean]

Conspiracy theorists' understanding of reality makes Hearthstone minions look like an overcomplicated simulation.

[@sculpy2758]

I know right? Planes are SO destructive that two of them managed to destroy five buildings in New York! As well as hundreds of cars, many almost a mile away! Amazing things, planes.

[@davidshea6272]

@@sculpy2758 Do you get paid to be this stupid, or is it a hobby?

[@vivian-sasha-taylor]

The delivery of the line "because they're all going to QAnon" punched me in the face and knocked me out instantly.

[@Astra7525]

...followed by noticeable "Oh fuuuuuuuuckkkk"

[@markboggs746]

It's a cool sounding idea, but it's wrong tho. Did most Qtards used to be flat earthers? Um... No.

[@Astra7525]

@@markboggs746 yup. is not true. Read again.

[@markboggs746]

@@Astra7525 Eh? What are you talking about? Read what again?

[@Astra7525]

@@markboggs746 jesus... OP: "All" FlatEarthers are going to QAnon You: Wrong! Not all QAnons are former FlatEarthers!

[@lettuceprime4922]

i lost my dad to covid conspiracies about a year ago. he was a soft, curious, smart guy. degree in nuclear engineering. loved, respected, & enjoyed his family. he appreciated the novel & unfamiliar & could weather immensely stressful situations with an air of disaffected optimism (& did so even to his literal last, haggard breath) at the end of the day, though, his loyalty to my mother, a woman with a pretty strained grasp of reality & a susceptibility to this kinda shit that stretched back into my childhood, ultimately colored his perceptions of the world & of the virus we had a series of extremely heartfelt conversations about the vaccine, some that even contained searching for outside information & on-the-fly online research. all of these conversations occurred about 6 months after this video's publication. it's extremely stupid, i know, but i've always considered myself a pretty persuasive person. i think if i'd said the right things, the right way, i'd still have a dad. i wish i'd shown him this video. i think it might have helped break down the kind of liquid mind-shit he'd imbibed. i don't know. i just miss my dad

[@robinsonnox9980]

Sorry for your loss. That's a real fucking tragedy.

[@pascalfarful952]

I think it's importatnt to state here that the death of your father is not your fault. You did what you could do and it's not your fault that he got trapped into that stuff. I'm sorry for your loss.

[@PhotonBeast]

I'm sorry for your loss. As another commenter said, you did what you could and so at the end of the day, it's not your fault. You didn't fail; indeed, you put in a huge amount of effort and love - both to help him and for yourself to maintain your own well being.

[@Saibellus]

this is a bit of an extreme example, but years back i was in an abusive relationship. my ex would start pointless fights with me - screaming, taunting, actively trying to make me upset for the sake of it. i used to think that if i just found the secret combination of perfect words, i could make him see what he was doing to us, to me. if i only could put the right phrases in the right order with the right tone, it would be like a spell, and the curse would break. i am terribly sorry for the loss you experienced, which no doubt hurts all the more for feeling so preventable. but you must accept in your heart that when a person begins to act irrationally, only they can truly bring themselves back from the brink. they must decide to seek new evidence, they must let it penetrate, they must emotionally open themselves to a different reality. it is just human nature - documented, studied, and visible all around us. how many times has someone been in an objectively shitty relationship, but no amount of advice or intervention changed a thing - even when that person hummed and herred and agreed with what they were told? they need to decide within themselves that they are fed up. you did all you could. most of all, you loved your dad and did your best for him. dont carry a weight that isnt yours.

[@darksidegirl]

Imagine people who don't speak english, who don't have the luxury of being able to show these videos to their parents like me. I'm in the same situation, but thank god they didn't get ill.

[@Stubbstep]

Revisiting this after the NFT video just to comment that Dan is not only producing genuinely incredible videos, but his ability to tie in past events into the crazy shit going on today is fucking riveting

[@pimplepickerton]

Like what?

[@keir92]

Reminds me of Adam Curtis

[@404T2K]

The NFT video is informative sure but completely misleading.

[@s4mpson]

@@404T2K Oh, please elaborate. Definitely love to hear some more shills.

[@johanlarsson9805]

Jax, I'm doing the exact same thing! The NTF video was so great, and I am even a supporter of crypto normally (just not NTFs) so it was a tough watch for me and my ideas but he's so good that you can not help not being convinced.

[@firefly4f4]

I know that more recently, "Line Goes Up" has gotten more attention, but I still think this is Dan's best video. The commitment to getting the experiment as accurate as possible is impressive.

[@tylerb6981]

I think The Future is a Dead Mall, Line Goes Up, This is Financial Advice, and this are all examples of absolute masterwork Video Essays / Documentaries. They all strike the same intellectual and cathartic chords with me. I rewatch them regularly, and take something different away every time.

[@sachathehuman4234]

​@@tylerb6981same! Dan has managed to foster a deep interest in mainstream conspiracies/financial scams, which are always hard to explain, like "im super into crypto but not like THAT" lol

[@clsisman]

This video marked a BIG change in Dan's content. IDK what happened to him but holy s**t, the quality and complexity of his essays just SHOT up. He immediately jumped like 10 other creators into my top youtuber spot. That shot at the end always reminds me of the Tim Minchin quote, “Isn’t this enough? Just this...world? Just this beautiful, complex, wonderfully unfathomable...world? How does it so fail to hold our attention that we have to diminish it with the invention of cheap, man-made myths and monsters?”

[@clairyboots.]

English is not my first language, so ive had some trouble truly understanding this is financial advice. Could someone very loosely explain the overall premise for me!?

[@RunicVersion244]

"They are trying to build a flat earth" is as good an explanation of the motivation of reactionary politics as I've ever heard.

[@dougthedonkey1805]

Props to the Qanon guy's kid for standing up to him and saying "nobody's gonna help you" when he kidnapped them, that must have been terrifying

[@princesseville6889]

I got strong "daaad, staaahp, pls, its annyoing" vibes by the deadpan pronounciation of the kid.

[@dougthedonkey1805]

@@princesseville6889 it seemed more exasperated and terrified to me

[@inbuttsmeeting]

@@princesseville6889 that was not deadpan. he’s almost crying when he says it

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

@@princesseville6889 touch grass sometimes, your ability to tell someone's emotion is rusty.

[@OriginalDonutposse]

Never mind that the dad is literally so ignorant that he mispronounces the name of the thing he worships, and thinks Q-Anon rhymes with cannon.

[@bjorn-falkoandreas9472]

Man, watching MTG spout Q-nonsense hits differently 3 years later. People actually voted for her and do not feel shame or regret over it.

[@pjlusk7774]

And they’ve done so twice now

[@lman318]

Apparently some of them do, given she massively underperformed in the next midterm.

[@kharlun]

Magic The Gathering!?

[@Galchoo1]

​@@kharlunMarjorie Taylor-Greene.

[@cayden6057]

Quite possibly the stupidest woman in Congress.

[@kimonmatara6903]

I've had the displeasure of meeting people like that. They're impossible to talk to. They're only interested in one thing, and that's whether you're "with them" or "against them". They're in a permanent state of civil war.

[@zawrator4457]

Well, of course, their ideas dont hold up to scrutiny and they know that on some level.

[@LeBonkJordan]

To quote Umberto Eco's famous 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism": "For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus _pacifism is trafficking with the enemy._ It is bad because _life is permanent warfare._ This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament."

[@JoshSweetvale]

​​​​@@LeBonkJordanEvolution says this is correct though. Life is conflict. The solution to fascist utopianism is to lionize conflict itself. 1984 did. And again, 'survival of the fittest' can easily be twisted to glorify bloodsport and the Chinese-style phoenix cycle of empire-civilwar-empire-civilwar-empire, where the 'good guys' are the guys who won _because_ they won. Until the next tourney or war.

[@SaladofStones]

@@LeBonkJordan I think its similar to the idea of communism, which is that the current state of conflict will be ended following a final upheaval and thus a restructuring will naturally occur leading to an end of the need for future conflict.

[@JohnGardnerAlhadis]

It's all about having an "Other", a tale as old as time. QAnon has their deep state. Abrahamic religions have the Devil. Nazi Germany had the Jews. All forms of indoctrination depend on adversity (a shared enemy or threat) to spread. Look closer at any form of brain-poisoning and you'll see this pretty common pattern.

[@emmafountain2059]

Qanon is fascinating to me, specifically the way they interact with “Q drops”. As a kid I was super into spy stuff. For fun I’d find random digits, serial numbers, etc. and try to “decode” them into like “spy messages” using ciphers and pattern matching and stuff. It was fun, but even as a kid I knew I was just finding meaning in nonsense. The fact that grown adults don’t understand human’s ability to selectively find meaning in patterns is kinda crazy.

[@cassarandara9489]

As this video pointed out: they are deliberately kneecapping their ability to reason in order to join a movement they think will benefit them.

[@calebharris292]

It just clicked that the same older people who believe to their deaths that qanon and q-drops are real are the same that had "secret-squadron" and decoder rings. It rings with them because they yearn for their childhoods with a more stable (for white people) economy, a culture where they were defacto and conformed to them and their wants. And for the younger believers, they're drunk on their parents' (or grandparents') rose-colored memories and want what they pretended to have.

[@JoshSweetvale]

​@@cassarandara9489"Logic is forbidden" Has defined Man. And it has now infected A.I.

[@damien678]

​@@JoshSweetvale Could you elaborate on that last point a bit more? I'm genuinely curious to know what you mean, exactly.

[@ThinkyBoi42]

It's like that game where you try to relate two random things. Like apples and the moon. Apples are round. Apples have worms. Worms make holes in apples. The moon has holes, and is also round. The craters on the moon were caused by moon worms.

[@reid3031]

My Mom is currently undergoing recovery for brain damage, and the combination of rewatching this video and helplessly watching her try to make sense of the chaos that is "trying to decide when to go to the bathroom" was absolutely chilling. There are very vulnerable people out there who are truly incapable of putting together complex concepts, and seeing that there are people like Q out there that are trying to actively prey on people like my Mom is absolutely electrifying in the worst way.

[@JoshSweetvale]

Giving dumb people enough agency to hurt themselves is the problem.

[@PeenWienerstien]

If you think theres one single "Q" that is a real person who actually exists, you're just as bad as the people who legitimately believe in Qanon. There is no Q, just trolls fooling boomers. Jeffrey epstien is the worst thing that's ever happened to conspiracy theories.

[@damien678]

I honestly think a majority of conspiracy theorists are not truly mentally vulnerable people like that. My father has always believed utterly insane shit, and he believes it not because he was tricked, but because he really, really wants to. They're fun to him, and invigorating. I've rarely seen someone be truly frightened about, frankly, extremely apocalyptic theories; but I have seen so many people be downright *giddy* about the prospect of civilization collapsing, or humanity being enslaved to secret aliens.

[@cyjanek7818]

​@@damien678it's always just for fun until it's not and those people go rush the capitol to overthrow the election results they didn't like

[@damien678]

@@cyjanek7818 Some of those people definitely found doing that invigorating, and fun. My father's idea of fun would have included stuff like that. He would fantasize openly about being able to kill people in an apocalyptic situation

[@Purpleturtlehurtler]

As soon as he said "they all moved to Qanon" my heart sank and that feeling of "oh shit" hit me. It all makes sense now. This is the most comprehensive video about conspiratorial mentality I've ever seen.

[@TATERPOO]

Must been the only one then

[@Damesanglante]

It's an oversimplification and it suit you because it give you permission to label these people without using your own analysis. Many conspiracy theories and theorists aren't part of qanon. I'm a prime example. I'm a conspiracy theorist and i'm a communist. Careful not to drink too much Koolaid from one opinion. 😉

[@ivyivyyiivvvyyyyvy]

@@Damesanglante I thought it was pretty clear that the "they" in "they all moved to QAnon" was referring to all flat-earthers, not all conspiracy theorists. This video never positions itself as an overview of all conspiracy theories, and he even acknowledges that there are people who believe in these things more casually, even within the space of Q specifically.

[@kylegonewild]

@@Damesanglante The lesson of the Jim Jones fiasco was don't drink the Kool-Aid *at all* buddy.

[@amyk6869]

I'm just going to drop Wendy Cope's "He Tells Her" here: He tells her that the Earth is flat- He knows the facts, and that is that. In altercations fierce and long She tries her best to prove him wrong. But he has learned to argue well. He calls her arguments unsound And often asks her not to yell. She cannot win. He stands his ground. The planet goes on being round.

[@jessicaopalinski4149]

Oh this is great!

[@Castoreum5]

its a nice poem, really. But Shouldnt the first line be she tells him the earth is flat. or ist the flatearther in this scenario the calm and well argued one?

[@amyk6869]

@@Castoreum5 No, the flat earther is the well argued (but extremely wrong) one. (It's about mansplaining before that was ever a term)

[@timothymclean]

_He tells her Trump will save the world-_ _Alternate facts leave him unwhirled._ _In altercations fierce and long,_ _She tries to disprove QAnon._ _He claims her whole life as fake news_ _Because he knows what he will pick._ _She argues, but can't help but lose._ _He stands there, stubborn as a brick._ _Trump goes on to be a dick._ (Hey, _you_ try thinking of a word that rhymes with "world"!)

[@speedy01247]

if you call a dogs tail a leg how many legs does it have? four cause calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.

[@Macropiper]

Occasionally rewatch this while dealing with the loss of my own parents to conspiracy lunacy. Even tried using this video to pull them back from the edge. Ended up precipitating cutting contact with them, something that has done wonders for my mental health. I have since realised they were deeper in than I thought, and were never going to listen to their child, and unlikely to listen to people they actually might have respected the opinions of. The person I used to consider my father now believes that viruses aren't real and is getting deep into transphobia and Putin worship. He is likely to already be a holocaust denier. There is no bottom to the conspiracy theory abyss and few ever seem to find their way back from the depths. Thanks for all your work, it is very informative and entertaining.

[@joliechambers1996]

i feel u man, i really do.

[@marktaylor3290]

I'm not sure how old you are, and I certainly don't know anything about your life, and I CERTAINLY know that maintaining a "grudge" against your own parents is incredibly difficult. But it does get easier with time and age. Remember that you have the exclusive membership of the "right side of history" club. You have nothing to be ashamed of and you did your best. Hope you're in a good place today.

[@Schmidtelpunkt]

It is a bit like dealing with drug addicts - at some point you have to get out to save yourself but also as a measure for them to realize they need saving.

[@KunKosh]

I always wonder how comes that some foreign people worship Putin, since most of his rhetoric is "everyone besides us are stupid and gay and we need to kill them before they kill us". Like... it's weird, he focuses to build hate for all foreigners, why would they like him. My honest sympathies.

[@crunglemcbungley]

My mother is in the same boat. She believes China is brainwashing America to be gay and trans in order to destroy the Nuclear Family in the hopes of taking over America with Communism (even though China hasn't been actually communist in a long, long time, and is much more like authoritarian capitalist). She firmly believes that EVERY gay man was raped as a child, because she just feels like it, and she knew one or two gay dudes in her life who (she believes) were. I can't wait for the day that I'm independent enough to cut all ties with them and watch them sink into a well-deserved pit of loathing and loneliness. They deserve it.

[@ethanscully3943]

I was on a submarine in the Navy for three years. For us there were some important practical implications for the curve of the earth. Depending on how high the periscope was above the surface of the water you would see ships coming over the horizon at different distances. Decreasing the depth of the submarine meant a higher periscope enabling you to take a “high look” and see further than if the scope was closer to the surface of the water. If you’re trying to avoid someone spotting you, you should know when you expect them to come “over the horizon” (when you could see the part of the boat that actually touched the water instead of just the masts at the top) and we memorized mathematical thumb rules for the distance to the horizon based on how high up the periscope was. That’s said we had one guy on board who claimed to be a flat earther despite seeing the top of ships coming over the horizon every day (he was involved in logistics and supply and not responsible for looking out the periscope to make sure we hit anything). The first part of this video made me think of that lol.

[@slurmygunch6010]

the mental gymnastics are impressive

[@Kat.Evangeline14]

Earth is Flat.

[@BonDieu617]

@@Kat.Evangeline14 Yeah, yeah, we know. Just make sure you don't forget your meds this evening. You know you need them.

[@Laksoiden]

to each it´'s own.

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

@@Laksoiden Physics isn't a forum for you to "each their own", cheers.

[@VDAband]

Part 1: this is a really interesting video Part 2: oh this is a genuine horror movie. I should have read the disclaimer.

[@jaleink2953]

I just think it's fascinating that Qanon with all it's "save the children" posturing has a home on 8chan. When back in the day I remember 8chan was created because 4chan wasn't friendly enough to pedophiles.

[@riley8385]

The "save the children" discourse is always a facade for abusing children.

[@mrswjr4061]

Nancy Pelosi’s catch phrase: If you are going to enter the arena you need to be able to take a punch, but you also need to be able to throw a punch….for the children.

[@riley8385]

@@mrswjr4061 who

[@phastinemoon]

*whispers* it’s because they don’t actually care about the well-being of children. Or anyone - like Dan says, they’re a death cult. The idea of a good life on Earth isn’t even worthwhile to them, because they are convinced they’ll have a new, better, “real” life in heaven, but only if they follow a specific outline on Earth. They don’t care about happiness, welfare, or anything, for anyone - especially not children.

[@andyjay729]

@@riley8385 The technical term for that is "projection".

[@specificdaughter]

The way that "Hold on, I'm taking a hit" (17:59) always absolutely slays me, I know that it's coming and yet it makes me cackle every single time

[@kumoryuuichi]

It absolutely killed me as well, I was only half-listening to that clip at first so I thought he was criticising people who thought the sun was at the centre of the universe. When he took a bong hit after looking at the Earth's orbit speed, my only thought was "he must've realised how big the world is, it's a logical reaction." It was only when I replayed the clip, started to understand the bullshit he was spewing, and decided to punch the numbers into my calculator as he spoke. 66,600mph divided by 60 squared gives... Huh. What an idiot, what's he on about?" Then the bong hit came around again and I was floored. A flat-earther stoner. I didn't know they even existed. Now I've seen everything!

[@theophilusmann7869]

I came to the comments with confidence that someone else died with, "Hold on, I'm taking a hit." These guys are topshelf.

[@theophilusmann7869]

I might add, the sound of him actually taking the hit at 17:56 while recording a YT conspiracy video, proves that he is a high-level truth teller.

[@omatofi]

i remember the first time i heard it. the shit he was saying was slowly making me angry and i was mentally preparing arguments in my head against it. then the pause before the bong hit and then the reveal. fucking broke me

[@bugjams]

​@@kumoryuuichi You didn't know flat-earth stoners existed? I assumed they were nothing but stoners!

[@jaspermoth1145]

Im pretty late to this video but i just, really need to let you how much this video means to me. Im a teenager whos dad lives and breaths Qanon and the rest of the reality warping shit. Hes,, not as intense as to make any headlines about child endangerment, but by god is it horrible. So much of my childhood is in the context of what he told me and my siblings, countless, painful dinners. All of this to say, your video is like a breath of fresh air. When all of that is all you hear, its really difficult to trust anyone or your own instincts, and it hurts. So thank you, so much.

[@Narokkurai]

Stay strong. Toxic families can be really tough to get away from but your life will get so much better once you're in a more tolerant community. If you've got plans for college, try to make it one faaaar away from home.

[@jaspermoth1145]

@@Narokkurai thanks my guy, i appreciate it

[@jessn.3851]

My dad has been super into Qanon too. Thankfully as an adult I am able to live on my own. But even though he wasn't into conspiracy theories growing up, it's not as if he was magically an easier person to deal with. He always had strong opinions, and mine didn't matter, nor did my feelings matter. I hope you can hang in there and move out so you can truly find your peace when you are older. You're not alone.

[@jaspermoth1145]

@@jessn.3851

[@Xondar11223344]

I feel for you. Just know that there are rational people out there and we're pulling for you.

[@tombrown9679]

I was having an interchange with a flat Earther on Twitter when I pointed out I could prove the Earth's curvature basically right outside my back yard looking at oil platforms in the Santa Barbara channel. He responded, "Oh, you mean like this?" and he gave me a link to a guy who made a KZbin video "proving" the flat Earth by looking at a different (but nearby) set of oil platforms from the beach and from the top of a staircase leading down to the beach. It didn't take me long to realize how close to me this video was made (about 10 miles away) and so I went to that same beach and staircase (one I didn't even know existed actually) and repeated the guy's experiment and came up with a different result. I watched several other KZbin videos from this flat Earther until I realized what was going on. He acknowledged the existence of optical distortions such as mirages, refraction and fata morgana but he claimed that only once or twice a year could you see an undistorted image. So in other words this guy went to that beach over and over again until he saw what he wanted then made a video about it: cherry picking!

[@goyguy3211]

I like cherries....why not pick them? kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpjHqJyMnqaqadk

[@IndiBrony]

It's that wonderfui old adage "a broken clock is still correct twice a day" - he simply waited to snap a picture when the broken clock was pointing at the right time.

[@billhileman3169]

If a result occurs ONCE that should never happen, THEN the conclusion has to be that circumstances of weather, humidity, and other atmospheric phenomena have much to do with proper evaluations of reality. This video is just another hit piece. "Flat Earth School -- the Number One Globe Killer" is a doc that shows the lack of curvature by viewing offshore oil rigs that should not be completely visible, yet they are, and the horizon is visible well beyond their location.

[@LugiThePainDrinker]

I find it very difficult to believe you did any of this. I believe you argued with a flat earther online, but that’s all you did lol

[@hatlessjet7802]

@@billhileman3169 well the earth isn’t flat and flat earthers never proved it

[@ryankelsay5984]

"Lake Minnewanka is only a 90 minutes drive from my house. It's in my backyard" is one of the most Canadian sentences I have ever heard

[@knightofficer]

Shit I live in Kansas and I just breezed right past that one, "yeah that is pretty close neat", hard to remember a 60 minute drive isn't a simple commute for most people

[@taoofjester4113]

@@knightofficer reminds me of going to Vegas and asking how far it was to the hotel I needed to check in at. The answer was 9 blocks. I was like cool, I will just walk to it. They were a little surprised and reiterated it was 9 blocks. Little did I know 9 blocks in Vegas is way different than 9 blocks in Idaho.

[@nathanwycoff4627]

you from europe or something ryan? The States is pretty big too

[@ryankelsay5984]

@@nathanwycoff4627 nope, Canadian. The states ARE pretty big, but when compared to Canada, its regions (provinces/states) are smaller, and the towns are way closer together.

[@SixDeadMice]

@@nathanwycoff4627 it's really not a competition you know, he was bringing up Canada cause Dan (folding ideas) is from Canada why would he mention the US in this context?

[@sebastianquintana5412]

Starting with the bong ripping guy who doesnt understand unit convertion and ending up in hardcore accelerationism really encapsulates the concept of "banality of evil"

[@arostwocents]

There's much more serious evil in the world than dummies who don't understand science. Look at nearly all those who have any sort of power under fascist economics for one.

[@JackRackam]

I'd heard of QAnon before, never really knew what it was. I'm afraid this is too much for me to handle, I need a big strong authoritarian to make it go away

[@rinnhart]

Check out the "qanon anonymous" podcast for that rabbit hole.

[@zachjordan7608]

the channel 'some more news' did some excellent coverage on them.

[@krmdfan4067]

Thanks for explaining Qanon. These people were there when an attempt was made to storm the Reichstag (seat of parlament) two weeks ago. Greetings from Berlin

[@Jrez]

You want a big strong authoritarian to protect you? You might like to join QAnon

[@Jrez]

@Puvendran Pillay No one cares about what?

[@stephanierose1]

I always lose it at "the 'trees' or as I call them, the silica pillars"

[@itssovalentine]

Hold on I gotta take a hit

[@grantus_pax]

"my 'sex toys', or as i call them, the silicone pillars"

[@timothymclean]

I thought he said "basilica pillars," until I googled "basilica" and realized it wasn't actually a kind of rock.

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

@@timothymcleanbazinga pillars

[@GreyWouldBe]

​@grantus_pax 😂🎉 Bad Dragon has a new tagline!

[@amarshall5407]

When you talked about the QAnon parents dragging their families through things all I could think about was that California man that killed his children. He was completely convinced his wife had "serpent" DNA and his children were monsters. I was pregnant at the time and I cried most of the day, it was a truly monstrous act.

[@NobodyXChallengerYT]

Oh my God…

[@Gr-Ra5]

When people put their unsupported belief (themselves) above reason, it becomes a truly hideous thing.

[@kdub3288]

No that’s just an insane and very disturbed individual.

[@theangryholmesian4556]

​@@kdub3288...who believed in and was influenced by QAnon.

[@Backinblackbunny009]

Men kill their kids all the time to get back at their partners. America is an inherently fascist culture.

[@NyxHarmonia6976]

The guy talking about "Annunaki star creatures avoiding fallen angels like a plague." sounds like he's giving me tips for a videogames that doesn't exist.

[@gilly_the_fish]

Babe, the new Space Angel's 3: Rise of the Annukanites achievements guide just dropped!

[@deathmetalalchemist5861]

F Dianetics, I got the whole library of Annunaki genetics…

[@timothymclean]

He was talking about how "ancient aliens" advocates don't believe and/or avoid talking about fallen angels, but I like your version better.

[@XxChronOblivionxX]

When you described the dwindling size of the flat earther movement in the last few years, a small part of me, full of hope and optimism and naivety, started to smile. And then, "Because they all went to QAnon." Thank you for crushing that last bit of remaining hope I didn't even know I had.

[@nomad58257]

And then qanons became accelerationists. Yikes.

[@VonVikoGoat]

@@nomad58257 nono the qanons tried to bond with their kids and now are into web3.0 and the metaverse

[@Mugdorna]

And since then they moved to anti-vax and "nazis in ukraine"

[@SioxerNikita]

Why is that removing the remaining hope? They are an essentially a fringe irrelevant movement.

[@Jake-hc8rt]

​@@SioxerNikita Qanon was a much larger movement last year, many members being involved the jan 6th riots and other such events

[@SarahZ]

I was so sure I wouldn't have time to watch this in a single sitting, and then immediately became so immersed in this video that I watched it in a single sitting

[@drust1985]

same

[@ianwallace4127]

This was engrossing, very well made. It might be the best antidote for some.

[@junior1388666]

Nothing is more interesting than watchin' crazy people doing crazy shit

[@doctaflo]

ME TOO! and i STARTED it at 4:00 AM

[@BritneyLaZonga]

Thats what always happens when i watch a Sarah Z essay my love ;D

[@karlaeickhoff3594]

It's honestly kind of chilling to see him effectively spending half an hour predicting the Jan 6th riot. Boil over it did.

[@mellow_mallow]

God. I forgot that this came out before that.

[@danielep.4076]

yep, did it ever :///

[@SmartSmears]

Marjorie Taylor Green making an appearance near the end of the video is something else in hindsight

[@HarshPatel-zw7yz]

I can only imagine what sort of a frenzy they're in after the FBI raid.

[@lissy_love64]

Well when you see patterns...

[@danieltrevinoc]

44:01 That part where they ask why can a bird dent an airplane and also rip through a building has been stuck in my mind for years now. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO THE BIRD?

[@justanothercommenter5835]

Also it’d be a lot more accurate to state that the airplane hit the bird and not the other way around - the dent is because the plane is moving fast after all.

[@demo2823]

​@@justanothercommenter5835When both objects are in the sky the force on each other is only relative and either could be considered to be the hitter. Two planes that crash midair have equal force impact on each other even if one was slower. But the tower was rooted to the ground. This is a big reason why a plane could absolutely punch a hole through it just like a fast moving car can stay whole while slicing through a parked car.

[@dinosaurwarlock1967]

It's such a jaw-dropping example of toddler logic. A bird can disable a plane (when the plane slams into it at Mach 0.8), therefore a bird is stronger than a plane.

[@timothymclean]

@@dinosaurwarlock1967 Why do you think Batman keeps such a close eye on Robin?

[@NoriMori1992]

The part that's most ridiculous to me is that they looked at the two ideas, "a bird can seriously damage a plane" versus "a plane can seriously damage a building", and decided the SECOND ONE must be the lie. Surely, SURELY the naïve view would be "a bird can't possibly do that much damage to a plane"! Surely if you put a gun to a rando's head and asked them which seemed less likely, they'd say the bird one! But no, apparently these people can't even do misplaced skepticism right.

[@DebbieGarciaa]

"All reactionary movements are in tension with reality, a tension that eventually results in a psychological crisis, [...] the point where reality itself becomes the enemy. Because ultimately it's not about facts, it's about power." Spot on, Dan. Something almost identical happened here in Brazil.

[@riley8385]

It's happening in Argentina very quickly as well, and media is actively encouraging it because they know these nut-jobs vote right-wing and that's better for corporate profits. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing QAnon shit very soon.

[@teecee1827]

@@riley8385 they are growing everywhere and the economic recession only increases their replication.

[@Felipemelazzi]

I agree. The recording of that meeting of the president with his ministers in May really looks like a vent session instead of a proper meeting.

[@khhnator]

it didn't happen... is still happening

[@breno855]

Brasileiro detected

[@zanryll]

I'm bipolar and have had episodes of psychosis, the q drops read almost exactly like the shit I would write down when psychotic, a loose list of statements and ideas that have some vague theme, that in my mind prove some deep philosophical truth, but in reality are just paranoid gibberish.

[@heatshield]

Why is the My Pillow guy always yelling? What are sheep? Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who?

[@willowscottling]

I also have bipolar, and I've had this exact same thought.

[@caitlinpostle]

@WolfgangLMclain I just struggle with plain unipolar depression, but I definitely went through a kind of manic phase as a teenager - I think it's more common than people realize. My theory is that hormones can do some wacky shit to your brain, but my way of coping was just as you both said: writing it out, even if it made zero logical sense. I can look back at it now and laugh, but I can't imagine anyone else taking it seriously. I'm sure there are real factors that drive people to try to assign meaning to other people's incoherent ravings, but I'm still over here scratching my head.

[@s.r.r.]

@Jack Sparrow You're obviously not coping well if you believe this crap.

[@germaniatv1870]

Everything is everything, reality I keep my mind on everything, cause everything Ain't always everything, and everything That you see ain't reality, they just illusions

[@CTOOFBOOGLE]

That footage you got using the jib was the single best practical demonstration of the curvature of the earth I have ever seen. That really was something special, and I could see something like that being very effective in a classroom environment. Bravo!

[@Turidus]

That clip alone would be worth the entire video.

[@hartmutkern5966]

every flat earther who wants to prove there is a curvature just has to buy a common drone. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bp7MZn2tq8-Ymqc its exactly the same phenomenon, without a curvature, there would be no point in going higher to see farther, even beyond the groundhorizon to see the sunset again. the thing is those flatearthers dont want to actually prove anything. and the other thing is, kids in classrooms arent as dumb as flatearthers on the internet, so no need for such footage in classrooms :D

[@CTOOFBOOGLE]

Hartmut Kern need? Maybe not. Still would be a worthwhile inclusion.

[@raziraphale]

I'm still so thankful for this video's existence. It first dropped at a very difficult time for me. My mother had kicked me and my brother out early in the pandemic, and this really helped me figure out how my mother, who was generally left-leaning but believed in a few kooky and "harmless" conspiracy theories like the moon landing being faked when I was a kid, could fall so hard and fast into Q that I had to suddenly scramble to find my first apartment when people were still barely allowed to meet in-person. The part about parents in crisis resonated a lot. The combination of the lockdowns and my father's passing just before really isolated her, and made sure she was seeking answers from her "harmless" fellow kooks at the right time to fall down the hole. It was almost inevitable, and fit right in with her existing conspiratorial thinking. All this to say, I'm here 3 years later to report that my mother has since gotten into flat earth. Time is a flat circle, much like the earth, apparently.

[@GraphiteShores]

I only wish you and your brother the best of times.

[@joemetricshapes4415]

I am honestly touched by this video. I grew up in a very conservative household under the thumb of a "religious group" that touted end-time doctrine. The second half was chilling because I saw the path that I could have walked. I was genuinely raised, and convinced, that the world would end, and conspiracies against "Christians" were being enacted. I'm so lucky I got out of that mindset. It took a very long time. I couldn't watch the second half of this video for a long time, cause it brought up painful memories. Thank you for making this.

[@KalCounty]

Was it jehovah's witnesses? Cause if so, I've been there too. My dad, who by most rights was a smart, compassionate, pragmatic man, sat me and my brother down when I was about 7 and told us that one day bad people were gonna come for us and we'd have to run away and hide with the rest of the people in our congregation and we'd have to be prepared for that day to come, when we'd have to leave everything in our lives behind and flee to the corners of the earth or else some conspiratorial and all-powerful "they" would get us. I loved my dad and now that he's gone I miss him every day, but I think in retrospect that that night was possibly the worst judgement I had ever seen him display, all because he was wrapped up in a religion that taught him that one day within our lifetimes, the tide would turn and the evil secular world would turn on us and nothing would ever be the same again, something he felt obligated to pass onto his children who trusted him implicitly. It scared the hell out of me.

[@invincible9462]

My parents got / are into the Fatima stuff, and having that blackout / charcoal paper for windows for when the demons that sound like your loved ones come knocking… special crucifixes (which I actually have above my door for S’s & G’s. I feel ya. I’m 25 but my parents had me had me late in life so the age part probably accounts for some of it. Going to be a real plot twist when I hear my passed aunt knocking on my front door 💀💀💀

[@invincible9462]

@@KalCounty going to be a real plot twist moment for you when the demons come knocking. 😭 lol this is one example of a plot twist I can do without.

[@stirfrybry1]

How long have you been on HRT? Will your parents use your real name on your grave stone?

[@joemetricshapes4415]

@@stirfrybry1 who are you talking too? If you're talking about me, I'm Cis. Also how about you reconsider your life choices that would make you say something so horrible to strangers on the internet.

[@timseguine2]

Two things: 1) How did I just find this channel? 2) I really did not need another channel of high quality, long form content to feed my tendency toward procrastination

[@moscanaveia]

I thought you were making a long list of seemingly unrelated questions, like the q-drops.

[@timseguine2]

@@moscanaveia I would have, but somebody already made one I felt I couldn't top that contained "Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who?"

[@SunflowerSpotlight]

Ooh, anyone else you'd reccomend? My procrastination knows no bounds, so I can always use more material to feed it.

[@lady8jane]

@@SunflowerSpotlight If I may ... The channels linked under the video are all great, as is Lindsay Ellis who you can find in the top comment. I also really like Rowan Ellis, Pop Culture Detective, Big Joel and Curio, who all make wonderful think pieces around literature and pop culture. readwithcindy does hilarious book reviews and if you like a bit of KZbin drama, dangelowallace is your guy.

[@cotdd]

KZbin put it in your feed so that you don't think too much. ;)

[@Calpsotoma]

"Trust the plan" + "plans change" = buy into what i say, even when I'm wrong

[@gambee_]

I love that Dan doesn’t tease what part 2 is about in the title. Probably costs a lot of views but it was so worth it for the twist. I gasped. Such a great video.

[@trouty606]

It's one of the best gut punches I've ever experienced in any form of media.

[@SpawnRevenge92]

As always with conspiracy theories, I'm reminded of this Alan Moore quote: "The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless."

[@jonathanmarth6426]

Not quite true. World's more like a rowboat with thousands of people holding a paddle, some got more leverage than others and it's rare that more than a few paddles stroke in accordance. And frankly, I prefer that to a world that has a single person on the rudder. Unless we somehow manage to gene-engineer the omniscient, immortal, incorruptible philospher king.

[@wephilips6651]

I think another reason, not mentioned in the video (so far, only an hour in) is that Qannon/flat earth conspiracies are a short cut for people who are unsuccessful/unintelligent to start to feel superior to others for a change. Why go to take the trouble, hassle and time to complete a degree and then a masters and maybe a phd when you can just go online and spend a couple of weeks doing ‘research’ and then you can turn around and call the people who (you feel) have been looking down on you and sneering stupid/shills/sheep. TLDR; conspiracy theories are a short cut for losers to finally feel superior (obviously not all believers but in my experience a lot) Edit: yeah he does address this

[@TheRoboKitty]

Alan Moore's quote isn't wrong, but I think he's missing a key factor: some people are just egotistical hateful morons. You take the fear of the world being rudderless, with the hatred toward other people for not blowing down to your _obviously_ superior ideas, and you get conspiracy theories

[@TheGreatAtario]

Pretty much the same thing that underlies most religious thought

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

@@jonathanmarth6426 ...Even if you don't prefer the myth of an authority-driven world, it is incredibly popular. And it is almost certainly popular because so long as you think someone has their hand on the wheel, every problem is then as simple to fix as replacing the driver. This is why, for example, the Russian peasantry under Tsarist rule loved the Tsar even though the aristocracy was ruinous to their lives (out of dysfunction rather than malice): they *needed* to believe that the Tsar was good and just and was going to show-up and save them from the local barons one day. I've had discussions with people that just get incredibly uneasy and almost frantic when it is explained to them that while the Trudeau government may be bad (we'll leave that can of worms unopened for now), the PMO is not directly capable of influencing things like petroleum prices (or the value of any other commodity). Evil Trudeau is not making your gasoline expensive, and a Tory government would not be capable of magically making your gas cheaper unless they subsidize it. And people just... don't accept it. They don't accept that the state doesn't have fine control over the economy. If pressed on why they believe that any democratic government, whose power is predicated on their popularity, would ever just choose to brick the economy, they either cite a conspiracy theory or recite a partisan catchphrase that has nebulous meaning. You can tell it is just scary to them, too scary to believe, that you actually can't fix the system by installing a benevolent ruler.

[@Majoofi]

It's become really clear that it's easy to debunk false doctrines, but it's really hard to convince people that they believe in false doctrines.

[@neeneko]

The historic problem with debunking is it is only effective on people who are not already in the scam. It is easy to preform, but ineffective on the intended audience.

[@valletas]

@@neeneko only way to effectively kill the belif is to create some heavy negative stigma towards someone that thinks like that Thing is while this is happening this is slowly happening

[@mduckernz]

@@valletas I believe this is a decent part of just how extremely they object to what they see as "cancelling" (which they have expanded to mean "suffer any kind of social consequences")

[@Damesanglante]

It won't work, but you should go take a psychopathy test. Just saying. 😆

[@inciaradible7144]

These James Bond novels are getting really weird, but I am glad Q is being more fleshed out as a character.

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

But where’s Picard to put a stop to his hijinks

[@Katerspacedopwater]

Q surely has come up with some interesting new gadgets

[@sword7166]

Not sure I like the direction the writers are taking him in though :/

[@MuttPlaysMAGIC]

Oh my God, thank you

[@wernergurner]

Admittedly I'm only 15 minutes in but I still haven't seen a winged serpent.

[@erin9868]

This video is 3 years old. I've watched basically all of your content between then and now. I clearly know that you're alive and well and I'm pretty sure you have all of your limbs. And yet, I was worried about the bears eating you. Like, genuinely worried. I did not know people had to wear jingle bells to scare bears away and I was concerned that all that stood between you and a gruesome demise was a kind of charming bell. Glad you're okay. I'm so relieved.

[@ps.2]

I mean... he did also mention the bear spray.

[@cloudbrooks]

this wholesome comment was very much needed after such a heavy video. i know it wasnt for me but i thank you for making it

[@grfrjiglstan]

The second part of this video...it hits harder now.

[@Damaniel3]

I should have seen it coming, but that segue from flat earth to QAnon was perfect - and scary. This whole video is scary at a very deep level, because we're literally seeing that slide to accelerationism going on in real time. I'm mainly back here after the QAnon-backed coup, and this video lays out everything that led up to this inevitable outcome.

[@patricknelson]

@@Damaniel3 Particularly later on around the 1:03:40 mark when he starts talking about accelerationist groups and their need to “force the end” in order to bring on doomsday themselves. I frequently heard “the storm” (and “storm” the capitol) with loads of Q cultists there on January 6th.

[@patricknelson]

Oh, and of course, this was written in September 2020.

[@coonus1]

I personally enjoyed the part when he was roasting that woman and she said “ the forskins, did you know that they sell them “🤔😂👏

[@kimcanadian9781]

@@patricknelson not so much of a conspiracy theory anymore is it

[@alisonalisoff]

Dan hiking up toward something throughout the whole video, promising that we're almost there - but that we have to be cautious of dangerous unseen forces - only to end the video without any conclusion is just the best narrative device omg

[@silverseergriclav]

He was hiking to the other side of the lake to stand on the shore he filmed in his proof video and show off how big the tree that vanished was.

[@TurboNemesis]

@@silverseergriclav it was also a good visual metaphor for the qanon conspiracy, as described by the original commenter.

[@WormholeJim]

@Rita 25 y.o - check my vidéó Awwwwwww *RITA* I thought you were only talking to me, I was getting soooo intrigued! But you're just a scam, aren't you? Not really there at all. I guess only mystery remaining then is when will the potbellied old geezer sitting around in his pee-stained underwear and groping for some human contact the way he imagine girls would secretly like to be groped by him - if only he dared, tire? Not right at the moment, statistics would indicate lololol

[@natmorse-noland9133]

"Flat Earth has been bleeding support for the past several years... "...because they're all going to Qanon." Lord, the cry of pure anguish I gave out in response to that line...

[@reallyWyrd]

Same. Except in my case it was kind of cathartic anguish-- reaffirming things are as bad as I'd feared.

[@Jrez]

Conspiracy theorist are really a great psychological specimen. Myles Power has a series on 9/11 truthers, and a friend of his discusses the psychology behind belief in conspiracy theories, correlated with things like a very external locus of control and an inclination to believe in many conspiracy theories, confirmation bias, etc. I haven't rewatched it in a while but it was interesting.

[@wyndgrove9452]

Same! Should've seen it coming...

[@misterjoshua5720]

Mine was a groan of despair.

[@lysergicserpent7676]

I was thinking about Qanon the entire time during that portion of the video and was wondering why he wasn't making a video about it instead. Then the turn came and I was like "oh snap, well played!"

[@Bhazor]

That Marjorie lady sure is crazy. Glad she isn't in a position of power

[@blamejames0]

I hate this timeline 😅

[@jaywhangmakes]

/s

[@starryeyes2092]

and she's british! who would've thought there are english q-anon truthers

[@Sir_Bucket]

​@@starryeyes2092I mean looking at what the Torie are doing I'm not surprised.

[@justastraylesbian5817]

The worst part is that I am from her jurisdiction. My grandfather voted for her in the last election he was alive for. He was such a sharp man, and was my first real hero. Marla Maples is also his second cousin. You know, Trump's second wife. That he cheated on. My grandfather viewed him marrying Marla Maples as his reason to vote for Trump. He also said that he was "a business man" who will "bring the economy back on track." Ignoring that Trump had filed for bankruptcy numerous times. It's in this that the despair of it all is so present. People that we love are so brainwashed that they can ignore evil, or even see that evil as righteous. My grandfather never learned anything about who I really am before he died, and he would have hated me if I had told him. I remember seeing her ads on youtube, sitting in the den with him on his recliner, him saying, "That's a real woman, right there," even as my father and I despaired over the fact that she would likely win the seat. She won by a landslide, because of all the other people like my grandfather who saw her as godly and a woman for the people, even though she supports ideologies that would see their grandchildren dead.

[@TheRamblingShepherd]

I reached out to a flat earth proponent I heard on a skepticism podcast once. I found the conversation fascinating, because it prompted me to think of a huge number of ways that ordinary people "test" the flat earth every day. For example, ham radio satellites. You can pick up radio signals from satellites in your yard with a glorified walkie-talkie...but to do so you have to account for red shift and blue shift and use a directional antenna. These are impossible-to-fake signifiers of the satellites' absolute speed and angular speed, respectively, which coupled together tell us how high the satellite is. Specifically, well above the altitude that this guy thought...existed. He was of the opinion that the universe ended about 50 miles up. Never did convince him, of course. He'd put out an invitation on the podcast to talk to someone who'd worked as a surveyor who used the curvature of the earth in their job, but in the end, the fact that I was a surveyor seemed to convince him I was in on it.

[@ragnarockerbunny]

"They are not available to be persuaded" and "You cannot logic someone out of something they didn't logic themselves into" keep replaying in my mind. As much as we'd like to wish it were so, the human mind isn't a perfectly rational thing, it's very capable of developing some poorly reasoned beliefs and finding ways to reinforce and justify those beliefs.

[@Damesanglante]

They are impossible to convince as you are. It's called "ego".

[@eatbass8055]

​@@Damesanglante ego, and the entire scientific community

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

@@Damesanglante weak bait 🙄

[@fearlessfred89]

Have they ever seen the shadow of earth on the moon during an eclipse???? It's round !

[@LiminalLuminaryThings]

“They are trying to build a flat earth.” That’s so scary and accurate.

[@galgacus832]

Not to mention the dopest ending line I've probably ever heard.

[@galgacus832]

Oops. Spoilers I guess. Don’t look!

[@ashkuigp]

That escalated quickly

[@ACharmedEarthling]

It sounds like they are trying to build 1984. Power as the end rather than the means.

[@tbrown3356]

Earth is flat and stationary. God already built it that way.

[@allnaturalfigjam310]

Can we all just appreciate that the lack of dramatic music and rhetorical questions makes this genuinely more watchable and informative than most documentaries

[@notveryobservant1056]

That’s why I hate so many documentaries! Rhetorical questions that never get resolved!

[@lonelysheepling]

I mainly consume KZbin documentaries and man going from these types of videos to the stuff on streaming services is so jarring, there’s so much garbage and stalling, they drag them out so much that it’s clear they don’t have anything to say and are just filling time. True crime documentaries are the worst of them and nature documentaries are the good end.

[@loganphillips5935]

@@lonelysheeplingWendigoon has a good true crime one called the boys on the tracks, also lore lounge has one called the boy in the box.

[@medes5597]

Dan is one of very few KZbinrs who actually understands what a video essay is. A lot of the others make what amounts to theatrical lectures. Which isn't a criticism, and the difference isn't exactly large enough to be something I'd usually quibble. But everytime I go back to Dan, I'm always blown away by how he's basically in a different league to many of his peers. This isn't a criticism of them - I still love what they do - but a praise of Dan for how well he's mastered what he does.

[@TalynCo]

Extremely eloquent, well spoken and sticks to the point. Wish there was more of it these days.😊

[@birtarb07]

Seeing that Q anon segment and all the clips being so obviously before january 6th is just facinating

[@davidmelon9409]

I once heard a preacher say "only cultists have all the answers". I feel this applies.

[@theangryholmesian4556]

Ironic coming from a preacher.

[@docstockandbarrel]

Also people who know more than you seem to have all the answers, so there's also that...

[@leahliddle324]

I did my masters' thesis on Neo-Nazis and also spent one of my semesters studying the history of radical Islamism and while I never got to write about this while studying I have a pet theory that there's such a thing as "Daeshification" in political groups - Nazis gave rise to skinheads, Al-Qaeda gave rise to Daesh, and Trumpism gave rise to qanon through basically the same process. It feels like a law: any political movement, if its goals are sufficiently reactionary, will eventually morph into a doomsday cult.

[@stirfrybry1]

LOL! Did you study Antifa?

[@Ealsante]

I think as long as a group sets itself on a (edit: radical) path, even a little, that dynamic starts. It's a ratchet of overbidding - basically, people start thinking up more insane things to claim the leading edge of the movement, and those who don't follow either drop away or are turned away. When Lenin said he wanted a vanguard party, that was... kinda what he was talking about. You'd have to be just as deluded and violently inclined as he was, to make up that hard core and still believe you are the majority.

[@wephilips6651]

@@Ealsante I don’t think you can call Lenin a reactionary. He was a revolutionary. I say that completely neutrally without judgement. His goals were the overall of the existing status quo, not a return to one that previously existed

[@wephilips6651]

@@Ealsante maybe you meant radical instead of reactionary?

[@enfercesttout]

@We Phillips Long term goals that never came to materialise. Short term goals were mildly reactionary at the face of workers council democracy. Stalin was completely reactionary.

[@flurgerbla7609]

'but what did you really think of flat earth?' 'I guess I liked it fine, a little full of itself but they put in a lot of effort'

[@B1CL0PS]

If you pay attention you can see that this video is actually part of the origin story of Hat Dan. But what happened? Why is he wearing a different hat? I believe the true Hat Dan was eaten by a bear shortly after this video and the one we see ins subsequent videos is an imposter.

[@Spyno41]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah

[@ramywiles]

@@Spyno41 Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhh *repeated and excessive gunshots*

[@willkatching9219]

"Its cringe. There's no other way to describe it. I cringed. This Q drop made me cringe."

[@juliocbp9389]

@@ramywiles *Directed by Dan Olson*

[@miss.guidedghosts7858]

Flat Earthers: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SPREADS THE LIE THAT THE SUN ORBITS THE EARTH Galileo Galilei: the WHO does WHAT??

[@sofastuffing]

I think you meant to write it the other way round lmao :P

[@i.cs.z]

Galileo can fuck off, just because he was more correct than others in hindsight he was still unprofessional asshole and that is what got him in trouble.

[@Blackgriffonphoenixg]

​@sofastuffing No no, the quoted video literally said that. Flat Earthers are that goddamn stupid.

[@firewall5189]

@@sofastuffing was going to say it looked right to me, but actually yea youre correct lol. good eye

[@catherinestickels2591]

​@@sofastuffingNo they're saying that Galileo would be pretty peeved at that assertion because if that was true it would have made his life a lot easier, that's incredulity

[@StCrimson667]

"It gives them power over others who are bound by something as weak and flimsy as reality...They will effortlessly carve out an exception because it makes them exceptional. They engage in wild hypocrisy as an act of domination, adhering to something demonstrably untrue out of spite. Because they believe that power belongs to those with the will to take it and what is the greater sign of will than to override truth." HOLY CRAP! THAT'S LITERALLY IT! THAT PERFECTLY SUMS ALL OF IT UP! And also, this, right here, is fascism incarnate because fascism is, at it's heart, the worship of power.

[@DFWNites]

"Wild hypocrisy as an act of domination, adhering to something demonstrably untrue out of spite..." kind of like burning down police stations to create safe neighborhoods? And then sending untrained strangers with assault rifles out to patrol and keep people in line?

[@rekindle7602]

@@DFWNites or like insisting that law enforcement isn't a problem despite an overwhelming evidence of brutality and excessive force being used against black and brown people.

[@setlerking]

DFW Nites I don’t think you understand the original quote nor what the term “context” means

[@Lucan47]

@@setlerking I'm pretty sure he understands and is deliberately engaging in "Wild hypocrisy [...] out of spite."

[@riley8385]

"Might makes right". The core and only true precept of fascism.

[@penapukki4623]

"Why would anybody make a video that's over an hour long about flat earth in 2020?" Oh, because it's actually QAnon. That's actually the most worrisome thing I've ever heard about flat earth.

[@moscanaveia]

I used to write flat-earthers off as harmless myself. But I also recognised that flat earth is the gateway drug to other not-so-harmless conspiracy theories.

[@galgacus832]

Sneaking a video about QAnon into a video about Flat Earth is exactly what Dan Olson, Deep State satanist, WOULD do.* *I am being sarcastic. I have to signal that a LOT these days because...comrades. Things are weird.

[@moscanaveia]

@@galgacus832 Well, it takes an elevated spirit to perform this sort of irony. You would get upvoted a lot by the bots-for-brains of the cueanon community, simply because they would so heartily agree with you. Then when the first moron congratulates your brave truth-telling, then you can spring the trap and shame them publicly

[@huaweilayhill9182]

Is this where the birthers went? I'm not sure that half of the GOP is QAnon, though.

[@ministryoftruth8499]

Whoever thinks all flerfers/conspiracy theorists are right-wing and/or religious is sorely mistaken. In 2020 there are plenty left-wing and/or secular people that believe the flat earth and all sorts of conspiracy theories. From what I've seen it's pretty much a 50-50 split.

[@halfpintrr]

I’m rewatching this; of course terrorists who only had a few flying lessons could hijack a plane and fly it into the Towers. They weren’t trying to live. They didn’t need to land. They just basically needed to know how to accelerate and not immediately go into a nosedive.

[@zawrator4457]

My favorite part is where she says "the fourth plane disapperared without a trace," whilst showing a plane shaped hole in the ground with debris lying around.

[@Marispider]

I was thinking that as soon as I heard it lmao. Flying a plane is complicated, I'm sure, but the hardest parts by _far_ are 1) taking off and 2) landing. They skipped both of those steps.

[@felsics9441]

@@Marispider Dad is a pilot. When flying with him, take off and landing were the only times I had to be quiet-the rest of the flight, we would talk a lot over the headsets. So yeah, definitely those are the hard parts lol.

[@walterkruse348]

My favorite thing to point out about the 9/11 truther conspiracy theories is the whole "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" thing. No, jet fuel doesn't burn at the melting temperature of steel; that is true. But have you ever seen a blacksmith work? They get their ingots red hot, but not molten--the bars don't become a liquid. And yet, even though the iron is not melted, it's much easier to work: more like a stiff clay than a rigid metal. Steel (which is just iron with a sufficiently high carbon content and often small amounts of other elements) loses most of its structural strength LONG before it actually starts melting. This video demonstrates this indirectly, showing how the deformation of the hot steel absorbs the energy of the hammer blow, reducing its rebound. kzbin.infoLN0_a7SQvkA?feature=share Fun Fact: There ARE some metals that can be heated to within spitting distance of their melting point while maintaining their mechanical strength. We call these "superalloys", and they're frequently used in high-temperature applications like jet engine turbines.

[@aste4949]

Yeah, the most difficult and dangerous parts of flying a plane are talking of and landing. Staying in the air and turning towards where you want to go isn't so hard, and autopilot is also a thing. Also still rolling my eyes so hard at them thinking metal fatigue and softening from high, sustained heat doesn't matter. I wonder if they'd still fall for Uri Gelliger's telekinetic spoon-bending con-when, forced to use spoons he didn't bring with him, suddenly his powers were always taking an unscheduled nap.

[@adams3627]

Little did we know, this was the beginning of a new era of Dan haplessly chronicling incredibly dense people who, infuriatingly, believe themselves to be smarter than everyone else in the world.

[@thatcutenerdgirl6090]

I am once again watching Dan Olsen’s flat earth video.

[@drazlet]

I’ve seen this thing 7 fucking times and I’m on my 8th. I have no clue why, I just . Really like this video

[@BrutalSnuggles]

I think it's Because we're all trying to understand why people would be like this, but it's really just so simple it's hard to accept: They're either dumb, evil, or both. Half the population have IQs under 100, and the Q folks sure hate the educated folks

[@charlottehenthorn]

@@BrutalSnuggles I know why I'm here this is the only version of going to the zoo that's left to us now 😅

[@BrutalSnuggles]

@@DarkDashV6 you're being very generous and kind in your description of dumb people

[@itgms]

I am genuinely curious how many times I've listened to this because it's gotta be at least ten. It's a rabbit hole in and of itself

[@jacksim5759]

yooo that flat earth point about there being no south pointing compasses is wild to me as a Chinese guy because the word for compass in Chinese literally translates to "south-pointing needle". not sure if it works the same in any other languages, would love to learn! I'm sure there's a Chinese speaking flat earther who's like "where are the north pointing compasses mannnnn"

[@teecee1827]

Conspiracy theorists don't care about other languages than english, except when they can draw far-fetched connections to it and mistranslate them. Edit : could apply to any language. Replace English with your preferred language or dialect.

[@merrittanimation7721]

@@teecee1827 I've seen that a lot with ancient alien and creationist conspiracies.

[@Grace-tg4oy]

I never really thought of a "south-pointing needle" being as I and most of the world's population live in the Northern Hemisphere, so I just thought north was the closest pole and that's why compasses pointed north.

[@bernadmanny]

Interesting fact

[@jacksim5759]

@@teecee1827 I think it speaks to how insular and closed minded you have to be to be pulled into these circles, not that I'm immune to it I'm sure. it's like the video says, these conspiracies are obviously false if you have even a little curiosity so that only the most incurious and uncritical people are pulled in, works like that with Nigerian prince scams as well

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

I like the phrase "big tent conspiracy" because it accurately conveys its meaning of holding other conspiracies inside it and also makes me think of clowns.

[@agresticumbra]

Causes me to think of tent revivals.

[@gwilymwilliams3134]

@agresticumbra i think that the evangelical aspect you identify is core to the belief system that sees the hand of Rome (both Imperial in the form of Pontius Pilate and the Catholic church) as metaphors for the beast of revelations.

[@lovepawsplay8530]

Isaiah 40:21-23 King James Version 21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

[@AmbrosiaPoly-yolkEgg]

now don't be insulting the clowns by comparing them to conspiracy cultists

[@MB-vw3jc]

@@agresticumbra really, you ever been??

[@ashleyd9310]

I recently drove a very long distance through rural South Australian and western New South Wales, including The Hay Plains. Having previously watched this video, I paid attention to the landscape in front of me. I could see the trees appearing from the top down and I felt like I could imagine the whole globe of the Earth beneath me. So massive and yet so small.

[@georgecooper9766]

Yeah I grew up around there and was recently back up there and was pointing out to my Melbourne friends who were with me why I felt so claustrophobic for a few years when I moved south. I'm used to being able to see all the way to the horizon with trees being the tallest thing around

[@cakecinema9385]

Oh yeah it didn’t even occur to me how the Australian outback is so flat that it would be really good for this kind of observation.

[@None-Trick_Pony]

Makes me a little sad to live in Virginia. The Eastern Seaboard of the US, is, with few exceptions, mountainous as all hell into you get to southern Georgia.

[@maddieb.4282]

@@None-Trick_Ponydon’t be too sad

[@BREADSWORD]

"hold on I'm taking a hit" took me OUT oh my god

[@TheLandBeyond_Productions]

Eyy

[@TapDat52K]

Breadsword watches Dan Olsen. :InsertHeartBonerMoeGifHere:

[@SolarFlorad]

Happy to see you. Hope you're having a great day.

[@mutantfreak48]

the ring of power

[@brajkraft]

The wall in my small breakroom at work place was litterly covered in coffee after that line. Luckely Im alone in here atm.

[@Chapy63]

Concerning the trees that burn inside out, fun fact here. I was a forest fire fighter in Quebec for many years (Hello to my fellow BC & Alb colleagues with who we worked many ungodly fire) and we were always on the lookout for those trees that we called ''cigars'' because they could often only be distinguished from the other trees by the smoke that would come out of the top (like an upright cigar). Those trees were fairly common in our forest in Qc and can continue to burn for days after the main fire has pass by, making those tree very much weaker than the others. At this point the forest is ravaged which enables the wind to blow much more strongly, which in turn will break those weak trees without warning. Each year we got many cases of random cigar trees snapping suddenly and falling on ground teams, sometimes still red hot in the inside. Quite dangerous!

[@Crazdor]

I'm going to ignore everything else you said and focus on the "ungodly" part because it reinforces my belief that this is all a conspiracy against Christians! (Seriously though, thanks for all that you and your colleagues do! Some of these fires have been just terrifying.)

[@greenredblue]

Invisibly hollow flaming trees suddenly snapping and falling on people. Thanks, I really needed a new reason to lay awake at night.

[@ianwinkler6224]

@@greenredblue hopefully while not sleeping underneath a tree

[@fredericksmith7942]

All Firefighters Are Badass. You did a great and important job.

[@TheRoboKitty]

I salute your firefighting. Trees hollowed out by fire are pretty important here in California too. Both because this state is constantly on fire (thank you climate change) and because they're important tourist attractions for our national and state parks

[@LukeNimtz]

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire

[@Hup.]

Saving that quote for the next time I see Killing in the Name lyrics.

[@BaggyMcPiper]

Ah damn, I thought Rotting Christ came up with that line.

[@bubbasully15]

Geoffrey Abram that’s exactly what I was thinking haha

[@seanworle]

@WHY YOU ARE AN IDIOT Show me a competing theory which predicts what we see in the universe as accurately or better, and I will gladly give up on gravity.

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

"Reality gets the last laugh." -Me

[@LeoFieTv]

If only old school documentary makers would understand that we don't want dramatic reenactments or sob stories of single cases or dramatic prolonging, but super dense information, flatly presented in colloquial language and maybe some jokes.

[@PartanBree]

And pretty views

[@karthikkumar6861]

Those documentaries are made for the lowest common denominator and it's difficult to maintain interest of people like that with simple talking.

[@squibble08]

documentarians really do need to watch more youtube i agree. how tf do youtubers have better audio balancing than 90% of television? i cant watch shows without subtitles but i rarely need them on youtube

[@1998_MIN]

I'll also accept charts and graphs overlaid on Google Earth accompanied by witty narration and KPM library music

[@jamieohjamie]

Hearing that woman say COVFEFE and interpret it so seriously sent me over the edge.

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

She also said it was referencing the COVFEFE Act introduced on the House floor? Which is one of the silliest things I've ever heard. The COVFEFE Act was deliberately named that to reference the tweet. How is that not excruciatingly clear?!

[@ninawth]

Didn't she also mention that covfefe was interpreted as a misspelling of "coffee" and then debunk that? Eh yeah, I have never heard of "negative press coffee" either.

[@Emppu_T.]

I want a Covfefe coffee cup!

[@timseguine2]

​@@ninawth I was going to make a weird conspiratorial post about insidious french press coffee, but then scared myself by realising Q is apparently impossible to satirize.

[@Quintinohthree]

@@ninawth Clearly "negative press coffee" is like espresso except using a vacuum on the output.

[@lucyann1573]

Hi, I'm a Georgia resident. U may remember us from such films as "We Nominated Q Anon Conspiracy Theorists for Governmental Positions (SO pleased to see one of them in this video)" and "Our Governor Banned Towns From Issuing Mask Ordinances Causing Us To Become A Hotbed Of Plague" and "Throw Grandma And The Kids Under The Bus In The Name Of Capitalism." But hey, at least them Libs are getting owned. Y'all...I'm so very over it. Great vid, Dan.

[@cameronwinter180]

Fellow GAian. Solidarity

[@lucyann1573]

@@cameronwinter180 I was gonna make a comment about how impressive it is that Kemp can still speak with the presidential peen lodged in his throat but...well I guess I just did exactly that. Stay safe, friend.

[@paulkerrigan9857]

Propagating a deadly plague to own the libs. Bah. I feel your pain, man. I never thought that would happen. Have we as a species become too complacent? Medicine and technology have made life so easy in many ways. The notion that a virus or germ could just kill you, in the west, is ridiculous. Therefore, how can a virus be a serious threat? The human brain just doesn’t seem equipped to comprehend or respond to reality if people decide to politicise protecting your loved ones from viral death as weakness.

[@unnamedenemy9]

man, I live in GA (though I'm technically not a permanent resident) and it has been *awful* watching this shit. The last few years have shown me that I was far too kind to conservatives for years -- they're spiteful, hateful, and stupid and don't give a shit who gets hurt so long as it hurts "the libs" more.

[@drakep.5857]

A fellow leftist Georgian!

[@misterjoshua5720]

"Pray the curve away" works with two things in 2020, it seems.

[@shimp9824]

pls explain am dumb

[@DarkHarpuia]

@@shimp9824 I think they are referring to both flat earthers using prayer as a means of solving the inconsistency with their worldview, and with Republican legislators not offering meaningful policy to combat Covid-19, and instead offering prayer. i.e. the infection rate curve will go away if we just pray hard enough

[@KnappstersaurusRex]

Still hasn't worked for my wang 😔

[@gelatinocyte6270]

Pray the curve away = pray that the COVID-19 cases magically goes away

[@merrittanimation7721]

Also applies to trans men.

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

Btw, it's important to note: while Pizzagate has since expanded its scope, it was originally about one specific restaurant in Washington, DC: Comet Pizza and Ping-Pong, a family-friendly establishment owned and operated by a gay man, employs a majority-queer staff, and is frequented by Democrat legislators and government officials/employees while they're in town for work. Pizzagate was driven in no small part by homophobic claims that all gay men are pedophiles, and outright loathing and hatred for members of the Democratic party.

[@teagannam]

I live right by Comet, it’s a great little joint with delightful staff. And not only is there no basement, but it’s got such an open floor plan (you can even see into the kitchen from the front door) that it’s absurd to think anyone could hide more than a tennis ball in there. It’s sad that such a random local business was targeted by this kind of wild conspiratorial rhetoric - and moreover, it’s surreal to live in DC and see people make all these insane theories about places and people that, if they ever saw them in real life, are just laughably normal and nonthreatening.

[@80VAIN08]

Then how do you explain the fact that powerful rich people don't age?

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

@@80VAIN08 Bro, they do. The fact that you're saying this under a comment about Pizzagate tells me you're in a certain sector of the Internet, so I'll tell you this: I'm begging you to log off and get out of that fucking q-anon death cult. There are people in your life who love you and care about you, but are being pushed away by the hateful bullshit that group is poisoning you with. Please, for your own sake, block those websites from your computer and phone, reconnect with those people, and surround yourself with community in love and kindness rather than hatred and contempt. There are many things wrong with the world, but the fascism of q-anon will only make them worse. It will only make YOU worse. There is nothing for you there but an endless cycle of pain and death and loss. You are a human being, not a cog in a christo-fascist machine. Please don't let these grifters take that away from you.

[@TheArmoredFist]

@@80VAIN08 Rich people in fact age and die all the time.

[@None-Trick_Pony]

​@@80VAIN08If powerful and rich people don't age, why do Bill Gates, George Soros, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, plus hundreds more look exactly like their ages?

[@louisehenry760]

Oh man seeing those trees disappear behind the water when the camera is moving smoothly is so satisfying and weirdly touching! Our world is awesome.

[@Sky_Explorer]

The piano music is icing on top to the experience.

[@Entropian2012]

Atmospheric lensing caused by water in the atmosphere is why objects that are near the horizon appear to disappear from the bottom up. The horizon is not caused by curvature but by atmospheric clarity and atmospheric Lensing. Anyone who takes the time and effort to truly search for the truth will find it you just have to be honest and follow it no matter where it takes you. Every flat earther started out as a skeptic

[@tbrown3356]

@@Entropian2012 Globies never understand this. Well said anyway.

[@1980rlquinn]

@@Entropian2012 I'll pray about that.

[@VonMoniker]

@@Entropian2012 So I'm curious about this now, how does water in the atmosphere create atmospheric lensing? Is this the same as humidity, is that what is meant by this? Thanks in advance.

[@jonnywolFIFA]

I genuinely believe this is your masterpiece, Dan. It's such a well crafted video, but the stand out is the writing and the philosophy. It made me realize that the ultimate end of conspiracy theory is to simplify reality, and that the truth of life is its complexity, and that that complexity is beautiful and sublime and worthy of our witnessing

[@ForestGreenSharpie]

in his geocentrism video he reffered to himself as "writer and director of in search of a flat earth" so I think he also sees it as one of his best videos

[@gottalivehappy]

Big words dont make you smart -Me

[@Wveth]

I mean, the biggest word there is "complexity." Is that difficult for you?

[@jonnywolFIFA]

@@gottalivehappy funnily enough I'm not trying to use the KZbin comment section to posture my big boy brain. Literally just saying something complimentary and honest to a creator I respect

[@rattyeely]

@@gottalivehappy why did you attribute that quote to yourself lol

[@caitlinsetnicar8941]

I'm going to deliberately miss every point the video is making to say that Canada looks really nice

[@dominomasked]

You're justified in this. It's so gorgeous I keep expecting some hobbits to wander through the shot.

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

Yeah I kept being distracted at how beautiful the lake and scenery was as I've never seen a mountain range let alone a long pretty lake in my local area of Florida.

[@bananamanchester4156]

Ugh typical round earth sheep, appreciating Canada >:(

[@johnbee7729]

That is one small special area of our country. There is lots of ick up here too.

[@1998_MIN]

Alberta and BC are the most beautiful places I've ever had the privilege to visit. I've gone through Banff and near Whistler and it was humbling to say the least

[@dianauwu1312]

This has made me weirdly excited and passionate about going out to find a local landmark that disproves flat earth. Ironically, the sheer boring flatness of the midwestern US is a great way to see how remarkably unflat the world is

[@1998_MIN]

I kind of love going to the Great Plains from time to time for this very reason. It's not "scenic" but it lets you see the horizon in all directions and feels pretty magical. There's a sort of stark beauty there

[@Alfanumericablate]

Guys. I think Dan might be Canadian.

[@Neddyhk]

Jimmy E , I believe the correct term is “Northest Americans.”

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

salacious accusations. You'll be hearing from his lawyer, eh?

[@niccage6375]

Are you sure aboot it eh?

[@Getwright-]

Lol, you think Canada is real... wake up.

[@smjaiteh]

Nah, that’s a Delaware accent.

[@robertsteffler5155]

Hold up, did that guy literally use a **fictional** Ring of Power as justification for the flat earth? Like... I can't be the only one who burst out laughing at that.

[@sigmascrub]

The shadow government's being run by Sauron! 😱

[@mitzo4526]

Narsil can't melt steel beams!

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

The funniest thing about that is that Tolkien was a theologist and part of his goal in writing LotR was to interrogate christianity as a system of belief and morality. He's literally making reference to an object that is the crux of a fictional examination and dissection of his religion, something these guys would never dream of doing in their lives XD

[@robertsteffler5155]

@@magicrainbowkitties1023 What's even funnier is that if you dig deeper into the lore, the LotR world *was* flat canonically, but was made round BY THE GOD OF THAT WORLD, which is just comical to me because the god in LotR is a direct allegory to the Abrahamic god. What's even funnier is that if you then take that one step further, you have the counterargument to the flat earth theological mindset of: "What if the Earth is actually round, just because god made it that way?"

[@timothymclean]

That's the esoteric fictionalism Dan was talking about. There's always some justification for treating pop cultural texts as seriously as they treat religious or mythological ones, treating them as cryptic or covert revelations of real-life events. Also, I don't think the Ring of Power was supposed to be proof, just another thing that Globalists are trying to hide with their...globiness.

[@Zarathinius]

"Wild hypocrisy as an act of domination" is a perfect crystallization of how this stuff works.

[@potatossuck]

Bing bing bing

[@RichiesRoom61]

When I tell you that I read your comment at the exact same moment the guy said it in the video

[@m.streicher8286]

Some of the first responders to the flight 93 impact were traumatized by the mangled shapes they saw. A lack of empathy prevades these people

[@nickbenton3545]

Fun fact: a guy blew up a building in my town and was partly inspired by The Turner Diaries So I’m...a bit anxious about fascists talking about it on KZbin nearly my whole lifetime later

[@DisorderlyFashion]

Oklahoma?

[@painunending4610]

tbf they were targeting the federal government. hate the sinner, love the sin

[@blackalpharam5637]

I have shown my mother this video, and she has watched it multiple times and is now showing my uncle. It's excellent and I appreciate you greatly

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

Even if he managed to convince 1% of crazies to stop believing in those flat earth or qanon bs, he'd still have contributed more to humanity than all the conspiracy theorists combined.

[@Damesanglante]

You do realize that conspiracy theorists exposed Viet-Nam Usa attacks and many others ? Or are you so deep in your certitudes that everything the system says is true and anything someone labelled as "conspiracy theorists" aka "people that doubt official corporate media" is false ? You sound as braiwashed as Qanon people. Maybe more, because you have trillions of dollars corporates and corrupted governments backing yours. 😂

[@blackalpharam5637]

@@Damesanglante I think the difference might be having evidence.

[@belgaer4943]

“heliocentrism was invented by the vatican” galileo galilee has entered the chat

[@ronnickels5193]

Although it was mathematically proven by Copernicus before Galileo.

[@Garp74]

Maybe the stories about the history of The Church vs. Galileo etc. are just false facts manufactured by science for Flat Earth believers (from their standpoint "science")

[@vaibhav1618]

@@Garp74 There's historical evidence for that. The vatican even went so far as to apologize for it.

[@funnyvalentinedidnothingwrong]

@@vaibhav1618 You know shit got funky if the Catholics are willing to apologize.

[@parallaxnick637]

@@ronnickels5193 No it was mathematically suggested by Copernicus. There's actually no way to prove the Earth goes around the Sun without a very powerful telescope. Newtonian physics had pretty much secured it by the time of Halley's comet's predicted return in 1758.

[@gabrielschirmbeck400]

The dude talking about OCCULTIST SUN WORSHIP with the image of the pope and then puffing his bong gets me every time

[@None-Trick_Pony]

He's outted me and all other Catholics! He realized all of us worship the Sun God! Wait... I misread my Bible; that's _Son of God,_ not _Sun God._

[@kylegonewild]

@@None-Trick_Pony Take a hit then read it again

[@nathanbuchholz9530]

I really think this is the perfection of the video essay medium. I don't really understand how you pulled this off, but the music, the immersion in the beauty of the natural world, and the pitch perfect social analysis really create something special. This is one of the best video essays of all time, and I appreciate its existence in our darkening world.

[@skylerclyne6542]

+ comment boost (very nicely said)

[@steve7613]

Then he dropped the NFT video and somehow topped this one

[@stevenp748]

Agree strongly. It’s the best I’ve seen. Beautiful, tragic, depressing and inspiring all at once. Just like life can be.

[@KingsandGenerals]

Yes, I want to get pilled.

[@timothymclean]

I've got this violet pill, will it work?

[@yaya-ep4fi]

Would getting flatpilled be called getting tableted?

[@appleslover]

You can do an episode on how pillows shaped war and thus shaped the work, pillows of royals that is

[@kneau]

My sweaters are confused.

[@bingbabooie3697]

me at the pharmacy

[@wellesradio]

Flat-earthers thinking that South means “at the bottom” and North is “up” simply because that’s the way it is on maps and how we hold a globe. I can’t even...

[@TheGeorgeD13]

We non-crazies do that too when we talk about locations and places. Say me and another person live in North Carolina. Say I tell a person, "I was just up in New York last week." And the person can respond and say, "Cool, I was just down in Miami myself." We can both very much believe in a round earth while talking like this and we do this sort of thing all the time. Maps are how we relate locations to one another, especially to our location so it makes sense.

[@l.pietrobon3925]

I once saw a Flat Earther say that gravity didn't exist because the Nile "Flowed up". I wanted to kill myself afterwards.

[@TheGeorgeD13]

@@l.pietrobon3925 It does indeed flow north. Kinda proves my point of about how we relate North as up when we talk about our relating of one location to another in conversations. Someone who is not a nutter perhaps would say: "The Nile flows up to the North." Or something like that.

[@hendrikd2113]

@@l.pietrobon3925 Maps where a mistake.

[@TheGeorgeD13]

@Nasir Abdullahi I agree completely and have never said otherwise.

[@Lishadra]

My dad has always called that feeling you get when you can see the curvature of the Earth and you realize we really are all on a rock in space “A taste of God’s perspective.” Whether you’re religious or not, I think it has a certain ring to it

[@kittenbouquet]

I like that, it sounds cool. I don't think it has to be religious, God could just as easily be interpreted as science as viewed from the lens of a hypothetical regular person who was granted the power to see everything.

[@ArDeeMee]

It’s a philosophical concept. Being an astronaut must be mind-boggling, actually seeing the ENTIRE earth.

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

@@kittenbouquetthe way I think about it, God is a product of age-old human tendency. How do you understand and explain the vast machinations of nature and the universe as a whole, processes so far beyond our scale, our comprehension? How does anyone do such a thing? You personify it. You take a brain-melting concept, and you make a dude out of it. People might not be great at comprehending the activities of celestial bodies and their impact on day-to-day life, but people are VERY good at comprehending people. Same way we teach maths to kids through the lens of two kids comparing how many apples they have or whatever. People understand people better than anything else. Again, that’s just my guess.

[@stuart6478]

who is this? what is the relevance? lol

[@AlexiconPrime]

I could see that. A brief moment of realizing just how small you are in the grand scheme of the cosmos. It's chilling but in a good way.