If you are already prone to misunderstand the world to the extent required to believe the earth is flat, you won’t have the conceptual tools to ever realize your mistake. But this retention rate is only evidence of what it takes to be a flat Earther in the first place. One famous flat Earther says flat Earthers have a 99 percent retention rate: Once you go flat, you don’t go back! I doubt serious statistical methods were deployed to arrive at that figure, but I’ve little doubt that the truth’s not far off. They’re irredeemably trapped by the assumptions they’ve made about the nature of the world. Steer one: You are not going to change the mind of a convinced flat Earth believer. The other half never gets the chance to, what with the constant bickering.

Half the room never stops to listen to it. I try to advance a more sophisticated argument they’ve never considered before. No one takes the time to realize I’m fully acquainted with flat Earth literature. Constant interruptions are raised against points I’ve never made. I never finish my fifteen-minute presentation. She’ll eventually walk out in apparent disgust. During the questions, when she senses my annoyance, she’ll knowingly wink at me in solidarity. There’s only one other “globetard” in the room: An elderly woman who stays quiet throughout, except once to ask a question about where the edge of the earth is. Here, I offer up some words of advice on how to steer a flat earth debate. Since then, I’ve debated (or, more accurately, “debated”) many flat Earth believers. A growing number of people think the earth is flat. My curiosity was pricked by an article in The Economist.

Flat earther blasts off