What are the Tactics That Flat Earthers Use to Convince People?

追加: 2026-05-29

[00:00:01]Last week, we looked at the first part of the flat earth playbook where I showed you six tactics that flat-earthers used to try and convince people. But we are only warming up because today we're diving into the other six parts of the playbook. The tactics that keep the confusion alive, the tricks that make weak arguments appear strong. And hopefully you'll start spotting some of these immediately because once you recognize the pattern, you will genuinely not be able to miss it again.

[00:00:37]Hello all and welcome along to another video with me Simon Dan. Thanks very much for joining me. All right, welcome back to the flat earth playbook part two. Now, if you missed part one, firstly rude. Secondly, the link for it is in the description, so go check it out when you can. But for now, we carry on and let's start with one of the most exhausting tactics in the flat earth playbook, the gish gallop. Now, if you've already debated a flat-earther or seen a debate before, you'll already know this one. Even if you didn't know it had a name, the gish gallop. And it might actually be one of the most frustrating tactics on the whole internet because it usually goes something like this. You start discussing one topic, say curvature, but then suddenly they'll say, "Okay, explain gas pressure." Or then they'll say, "Why is moonlight cold?" then why don't those stars look right followed by how come we can't feel the earth spinning then NASA lies the Antarctic treaty and so on and so on I mean seriously can we just finish with one thing first and basically this is what the gish gallop is throwing as many claims as possible into the conversation at once and by doing that it becomes impossible to respond to all of them and this is the problem because bad arguments are quick and good explanations take time you can say that gravity is fake in 1 second but then explaining gravity properly is a longer conversation. And flat earth absolutely thrives on this imbalance because if someone throws 20 arguments at you in 30 seconds, you clearly can't answer all of them properly. And then suddenly it feels like they're winning. Not because their arguments are any good, but because there's so many of them. It's confusion over quantity. And if you've sometimes seen two people debate Earth and one of the flatearthers uses this tactic, it is just chaos because every time someone answers something, the conversation jumps sideways, which means nothing gets examined properly. And that is the playbook rule number seven. When in doubt, throw absolutely everything to the wall and hope something sticks. Now, eventually, once enough confusion is sneaked its way in, another playbook rule enters the game. And this one is incredibly powerful because suddenly suspicion itself becomes proof. This one is mistrust equals evidence. And this one's slightly important because there is sometimes a small truth hiding inside this one. Governments lie sometimes, corporations lie sometimes, institutions mess up. Nobody sensible is arguing otherwise. Healthy skepticism is absolutely fine. But flat earth takes that idea and stretches it beyond breaking point because suddenly if NASA edited an image once that automatically means that space is fake. If a government has lied before then the globe is a lie. But suspicion is not evidence. Let me say that again.

[00:03:17]Suspicion is not evidence. As I said being suspicious of something is perfectly reasonable. Question things.

[00:03:24]Look deeper at stuff. Fine. But suspicion still has to be followed by actual evidence. Otherwise, you can end up believing almost anything. Imagine your weather app gets tomorrow's forecast wrong. Would you suddenly decide that weather isn't real? Of course not. That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? So, if you're following suspicion, and suspicion alone that can take you anywhere, and that is playbook rule number eight. When in doubt, mistrust becomes proof. Now, once suspicion becomes your default setting, something interesting starts to happen.

[00:03:55]You become very selective about who you trust. And before long, you stop testing ideas against reality and start testing them amongst your group. Which brings us beautifully to playbook rule number nine, the echo chamber. Now, this one is fascinating because after a while, the flat earth argument becomes completely circular. You'll hear the same arguments, the same clips, the same live stream moments over and over and over.

[00:04:19]Sometimes from videos that are over 10 years old, and eventually you'll realize something strange. Every rabbit hole somehow leads to the same handful of people live streaming for 6 hours about perspective or something. It's like flat earth has somehow become its own cinematic universe. And here's where the playbook comes in. Because if someone disagrees, it's easy. Scientists bought off. Pilot, they're lying. Astronomer is a shill. Exflate controlled opposition.

[00:04:45]A person with expertise brainwashed. And suddenly only flatearthers are then considered trustworthy to explain flat earth, which is a little bit like asking burglars for advice on home security.

[00:04:56]Probably not the most balanced approach.

[00:04:58]And look, we all live in echo chambers a little bit. Algorithms feed us things we always agree with. People naturally enjoy hearing opinions and what they already believe. That's human nature, but it becomes dangerous when disagreement itself becomes suspicious.

[00:05:11]Because if you automatically dismiss someone who challenges your belief, how can that belief ever be tested? And honestly, I think this is one of the reasons why flat earth becomes so difficult to leave because it stops becoming what's true and starts becoming who can I trust. The community literally becomes the filter because if everyone around you repeats the same thing often enough, then confidence grows even if understanding doesn't. And that is playbook rule number nine. Only trust people inside the bubble already. But even inside the bubble, flat earth still runs into some problem literally scale.

[00:05:43]because Earth is unbelievably mindbendingly big. And honestly, I think the next one causes more confusion than anything else. I genuinely think this is one of the biggest issues in flat earth.

[00:05:54]So, this playbook rule is ignoring scale because humans are actually terrible at understanding big things or very small things for that matter. Earth feels manageable because we live on it. We walk around on it. We drive on it. So, our brains naturally shrink it down to something intuitive. But Earth is enormous, absolutely enormous. And that matters because flatearthers often expect curvature to look dramatic. Like we should all be standing on some giant blueberry or something. You know, walk to the beach and immediately see a massive bend. But that's not how scale works. Earth's curvature is very subtle over short distances because, as I said, Earth is so huge. That's why the horizon looks level at sea level because you're tiny and Earth isn't. And the same misunderstanding happens with space.

[00:06:35]People say things like, "The moon looks too close," or "The sun can't be that far away," because our brains struggle with truly massive distances. Honestly, most of us struggle to picture how far away 100 miles is, let alone hundreds of thousands of miles. And once scale gets misunderstood, everything else starts looking suspicious. How can planes fly that far? How can we see that mountain?

[00:06:55]Why doesn't the curve look bigger?

[00:06:57]Because reality is bigger than intuition. This happens in science all the time. Atom is weird. Space is weird.

[00:07:03]Time is weird. Reality doesn't care whether something feels intuitive.

[00:07:07]That's why science measures things because our instincts are terrible. They are not always right at all. And unfortunately for flat earth, the measurements point to one very annoying conclusion. Earth is very, very large and very, very round. And that is playbook rule number 10. When in doubt, underestimate the scale of everything.

[00:07:25]Now, once scale starts feeling confusing, something else starts creeping in too. Suddenly, criticism itself becomes evidence. Which brings us to playbook rule number 11, the victim narrative. This one is powerful psychology. The idea goes something like this. They mock us because we're right.

[00:07:42]People disagree with us. That's proof.

[00:07:45]Scientists criticize it. That's proof.

[00:07:47]People laugh at flat earth. Even more proof. I understand where this comes from. Nobody likes feeling dismissed.

[00:07:53]And nobody enjoys being laughed at.

[00:07:56]>> You stupid.

[00:08:00]That's human. But here's the problem.

[00:08:01]Being criticized does not automatically make you correct. Because if that logic worked, every bloke shouting at pigeons in the Tesco car park will be misunderstood geniuses. Sometimes ideas get criticized because they're bad ideas. That is just life. But don't get me wrong here. History has plenty of examples of people being mocked before eventually being proven right. That happens. Science changes. Ideas evolve.

[00:08:26]But there's one important difference.

[00:08:28]Those ideas eventually had evidence, repeatable evidence, and flat earth often skips that bit. Instead, the criticism itself becomes validation. Why are they trying so hard to debunk us?

[00:08:40]Because that's how claims work. If someone makes a claim about reality, people are allowed to challenge that.

[00:08:46]That's discussion. But I think this playbook rule becomes dangerous because it sort of makes a shield for them. If disagreement becomes proof, then nothing can ever challenge them because every criticism only strengthens it. And that is playbook rule number 11. If people disagree, you must be on to something.

[00:09:04]And finally, we arrive at what is possibly the biggest contradiction in the whole flat earth playbook.

[00:09:08]Experiment avoidance. Flat-earthers constantly say, "Don't trust authority.

[00:09:13]Test things yourself." And I agree.

[00:09:15]Testing things is good. Observations are good. Experiments are good. That is science. But here's where things get a bit awkward. Because when experiments disagree with flat earth, suddenly their enthusiasm disappears.

[00:09:27]>> There's We don't see you, Enrique. Lift up your lift up your light way above your head.

[00:09:32]>> Interesting.

[00:09:32]>> The experiment will become flawed. The equipment is broken. The observer is biased. They even say the results were manipulated or even well that one doesn't count. But honestly, this is why I think experiments matter so much because reality answers back. That's the beauty of science. You don't get to vote on measurements. You cannot argue with observations. Reality does what reality does whether we like it or not. I mean look, experiments can go wrong. Mistakes happen. Bad setups happen. Human error exists. All of that. That's normal. But if every experiment that disagrees with your belief suddenly becomes invalid, whilst every experiment that vaguely supports it becomes perfect, you're probably not following evidence anymore.

[00:10:12]You're protecting a conclusion. And I think that is where the flat earth playbook really reveals itself because the language sounds scientific, research, experiments, testing, but the very moment that that test starts giving the wrong answers, suddenly we don't trust experimentation anymore. And that's the contradiction because science isn't about proving yourself right.

[00:10:30]Science is about finding out if you're wrong. That's the point. Unfortunately for flat earth, reality keeps being incredibly stubborn. And that is the final rule in the flat earth playbook.

[00:10:40]So there we go. I hope you enjoyed that video. If you did, please please do let me know in the comments below and I will make more of the same. But for now, we're all done and dusted for another one. Thanks so much as ever for watching. If you enjoyed it, please do consider giving the video a big thumbs up uh and subscribe to the channel, too.

[00:10:56]I've been Simon Dan. Have yourselves a great day and I'll see you all tomorrow for part eight of the DITR Flat Earth interview. Should be good. See you then.