The Flat Earth, a conspiracy theory built with memes and Facebook groups
Terraplanism has always been a marginal theory that had never been taken seriously. Even in the Middle Ages, it was not believed that the Earth was flat. Not even on the internet.
Until 2014, as Óscar Alarcia explains in his book La secta de la tierra plana. Many of those who now defend these theories "yes they hated NASA and believed all sorts of conspiracies, but they were not terraplanists," he adds by telephone. But to defend that the Earth is flat was crazy even for the majority of conspiranoics. And we are talking about people who could believe that the Holocaust did not exist, that we have never reached the Moon, that Michelle Obama is extraterrestrial, that 11-M and 11-S are actually the work of "the sewers of the state" and that vaccines cause autism.
So, where did all the terraplanistas come from? Why are there videos with hundreds of thousands of reproductions and Facebook groups with thousands of users who share memes that deny that the Earth is spherical?
Terraplanistas and social networks
Apart from Samuel Rowbotham in the nineteenth century and the Flat Earth Society, which was on the verge of disappearing a few years ago, for centuries we have hardly questioned that the Earth is round.
Eric Dubay is the one who begins to popularize the idea of a flat Earth in the United States, when at the end of 2014 he broadcasts a pdf of 35 pages with 200 proofs that our planet "is not a spinning ball". The idea has been receiving the support of more or less popular characters, such as the NBA player Kyrie Irving, the actress and singer Tila Tequila and the rapper B.o.B. And in November of last year, some 400 people attended an international conference on terraplanism, which was held in North Carolina (United States).
The theory still took two years to arrive in Spain: "I discovered it in January 2016," tells Verne by telephone Óliver Ibáñez, youtuber who became popular after defending her on Twitter by addressing astronaut Pedro Duque. "At first I thought it was crazy," he admits. Although shortly after not only would end up convinced, but dedicating its channel almost exclusively to terraplanismo.
The Chilean Felipe Lasen is the administrator of the Advanced Terraplanismo Facebook page (almost 1,500 members). Why "advanced"? Because the group is designed for people who already believe that the Earth is flat or, at least, that it is not spherical. He wants to avoid basic arguments and insults: "Social networks are very complicated for terraplanists," he explains. You can talk about the aliens and nobody is going to attack you. Tarot, the same. They do not attack you because it does not harm your belief system. " On the other hand, it is easy for the conversation to get louder when the flat Earth is mentioned.
Ibáñez and Lasen are not alone: in Argentina there is Iru landucci and on Facebook there are dozens of groups dedicated to the matter: Flat Earth (25,000 members) Earth does not move (3,100), Earth is flat (2,500), Flat Earth vs. Spherical Earth (uncensored) (8,800 members) ... Alarcia spent months in many these forums. Calculate that there are about 100,000 people in these pages, only counting the Spanish. Of course, "I have no way of finding out who really believes in all of this and who are only laughing."
The memetic war of the Earth flat
In the opinion of Alarcia, the theory of the flat Earth is part of the climate of mistrust of the power of recent years. The same climate that has given rise to Brexit and Trump's electoral victory. In the United States, he explains, terraplanism and the supremacist right have much in common. They even have their version of Pepe, the frog from which the alt-right was appropriated. This is Fepe, the penguin of the flat Earth.
Moreover, the way in which these theories have spread is the memetic war, following a strategy similar to that of the US President's supporters during the election campaign: the incessant bombardment of memes and videos in which the same three are repeated or four sentences. The terraplanistas "move based on repeating things, but when you ask them to go further, they do not go beyond that." This is, as he adds in the book, "a handful of memes repeated until exhaustion," which for many consist of "their only form of communication."
Of course, these memes are constant in their Facebook groups. Ibáñez himself shares them often, he tells us: "It seems to me a good way to transmit information. Nowadays people have a very short attention span. " He adds: "The memes are quite effective. Summary all in one image, in one or two sentences and they are also funny, they are entertaining. "
Above all, they deal with the issues that most concern the terraplanistas: how is it possible that the water of the oceans follows the curvature of the Earth and does not go off when the planet turns? Why do not we notice the rotation? Does not anyone realize that all NASA photos and videos are Photoshop mounts?
Paragraphs against memes
Fighting these memes is easy, but it takes time. We know that the Earth is round because they have explained it to us in school and we have seen videos and photos from space. But we may never have questioned it, just as we did not ask ourselves how to prove the existence of Finland even though we have never been there. "That is the problem," explains the scientific popularizer Jordi Pereyra. Someone comes to you and tells you that the Earth is flat and you know it is not, but you can not say why. "
Well, he can: Pereyra has been writing for five years in his blog Ciencia de Sofá and is the author of two books: The universe in a cup of coffee and The four forces that govern the universe. His blog and Facebook page have been receiving terraplanistas comments since 2016.
It was then when he responded to a video by Ibanez, refuting his arguments point by point. In his text and among other things he remembers that "the surface of the water does not tend to stay flat and horizontal in any situation, but to adapt its shape to the gravitational field that acts on it". Of course many terraplanistas deny that gravity exists, in a usual tactic in the conspiracy theories: when something bothers, it simply refuses.
It is not the only post that Pereyra has published on the subject: "These people are a super-small minority of the population. But they are very heavy, so sometimes you are forced not to convince them, that is impossible, but to deny what they say in case someone has any doubt. " Although giving these subjects court may seem dangerous, since they are given publicity, Pereyra believes that it is better to respond and refute.
The problem is that the truth is complex to explain and the memes are very simple. To refute this kind of images does not take much, perhaps three or four sentences, but it is much easier to remember an occurrence than the operation of the satellites used for mobile telephony. Although there are terraglobistas memes, of course.
Everything is a lie
Terraplanistas Ibáñez and Lasen are open to the possibility of showing them that the wrong ones are them, but they do not admit the validity of the tests that are given to them. For example, Ibáñez maintains that there are no photos or videos of Earth from space, which are all montages. In his opinion, the following video, which shows a spacewalk on the International Space Station, is false, for example. "They have been caught so many times with obvious failures that show that they are not in space, that everything is recorded in a studio with virtual reality techniques such as harnesses and green screen, as in the movies, which we think is not going To be real, there is no reason to believe them at this point, "says Ibáñez.
This is how all conspiracy theories resist the debate, denying everything. In his book Denying to the Grave, psychiatrist Jack Gorman and Dr. Sara Gorman explain why we sometimes reject scientific explanations and embrace theories of conspiracy. The authors remember that the internet has helped connect people who otherwise could not share experiences. This can be useful for lovers of trains and exotic musical instruments. But also for all kinds of conspiranoias. These groups tend to isolate and polarize, as they tend to emphasize "the us-against-them aspect of conspiracy theories, ridiculing everything that contradicts them."
The conspiranoics may not give up, but their theories do end up being forgotten over time. As happened with UFOs and ghosts, for example. Pereyra recalls that fewer and fewer people mention these two issues since we all have cameras in our phones. It is no coincidence that no one has recorded a clear image and continue sharing the same four blurry images, again and again. It is possible that terraplanismo end up happening something similar: after all, they are the same four memes always, refuted, too, again and again.
Of course, we must recognize that they are more funny than the photos of flying saucers.
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Memes and internet jokes are a clever way to plant ideas and perceptions :/ it also happens with feminism and gay rights...