This is a bit off-topic, but I’m thinking this blog could use more off-topic stuff these days.
Here are two (short) videos I rounded up from YouTube. I want you to tell me which is the least convincing.
First, a possibly just a teensy bit questionable “alien” encounter that the video poster swears is “REAL!” Supposedly captured by a CCTV camera. Why a CCTV camera would be pointed at a storm pipe in a field I have no idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-n7GwzHV2k
Next, proof that gravity is fake, as revealed by a secret Illuminati clue hidden in plain sight on Third Rock from the Sun.
And, yes, the guy posting it is utterly sincere. He’s a flat earther, literally, and for some reason flat earthers think gravity is a LIE!
Read the comments for the video on YouTube and despair for the future of mankind. I mean, that’s true for pretty much all YouTube comments, but trust me, these are even more despair-inducing than usual.
Now it’s up to you to pick The Least Convincing YouTube Video of the Week!
[socialpoll id=”2351244″]
Waves to @pitshade – Hi!
Because I can’t resist posting my favourite comedy group:
welcome, @pitshade ! help yourself to a misandry welcome package. It’s got scented candles and leg warmers!
Mish, VP: I rather enjoyed both the Night Watch books (starting with ‘Men at Arms’) and ‘Going Postal’. I know they were both off the main storylines, but still hilarious.
Oh, and I think everyone on this site would get a real kick out of ‘Monstrous Regiment’ 🙂
Wow. I just realized that Terry Pratchett totally stole his map from the Flat Earthers.
I dunno guys, the Pipe Creature might not be an alien but at least it exists, unlike evidence for a flat earth with no gravity.
[Sorry, Double Post]
I’ve read my way through Discworld, and I got PTerry’s autograph in Monstrous Regiment, “Love and Socks”. My personal treasure. 🙂
@David:
yes!
sooner rather than later, methinks.
grab the moment.
Not a video, but one of my favorite ridiculous conspiracy theories is that Boy Meets World is illuminati propaganda. http://boymeetsworldilluminati.tumblr.com/
This is my most hated “PARANORMAL!!!11” video ever:
Sure, it looks well done, at least compared to some dipshit moving a stick around from behind a pipe. But it’s floated around everywhere as “THE #1 PROOF OF ANGELS EVER FILMED”… And it’s an ad for jeans.
Guys, if your #1 proof is a fucking ad campaign, it’s time to give up.
The alien one is just so prosh. The way they keep repeating that same 5 seconds of footage with different zooms and arrows and red circles and slo-mo, but each repeat makes it look faker than the last. Plus that sad “real!” in the title.
joekster, a lot of flat earthers think that a good portion of plane flights in the southern hemisphere are fake.
I voted that neither were convincing, but was pained to say that, as one was far more irritating.
I don’t usually have a problem with people who believe we have been visited by aliens; I kinda wish I could believe that, instead of just feeling fairly sure that whatever other life exists in this universe is so very far away we are unlikely ever to meet.
The flat-earth people however tend to be rather more obnoxious on average.
I’ve seen more convincing cctv footage, aliens, ghosts chupacabras, cryptids, demons, etc. Put me in mind of Sweep, from Sooty & Sweep – much more convincing.
But, irrefutable proof of a lack of gravity, based on a throw away gag from, Third Rock from the Sun? Got me convinced!
Remember checking out some of the old UK Flat Earth Society papers, when I had access to the Science Fiction Foundation archives, way back. Did think then that Flat Earthers were pretty much a busted flush.
How times change.
Both were really disappointing. I was left with a feeling of “is that it?”
I watched the videos in order. The first one was so lazy and ridiculous, I could hardly believe it. It’s clearly just someone waving a stick around. I mean, they didn’t even try to make it look spooky or convincing.
After that, I expected to be voting for the flat earth video, because how could they possibly be less convincing than wavy-stick? Well, they managed. Did they really think that a line from a sit-com constitutes an argument?* I doubt it, but making a real argument would require work, so meh :/
I don’t expect much from my conspiracy nuts, but I do expect them to care enough to make an effort. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t even have to make sense. But it does have to show that they give a shit.
*They even missed the really interesting implication of that line. Note that Dick isn’t just saying that we’re wrong about gravity and some other natural force is involved. He saying that it’s our faith in gravity itself that keeps us stuck to the earth. Basically, he’s arguing that mankind is exercising a kind of collective telekinesis, mimicking the effects of gravity. That’s way cooler than any flat earth idea I’ve ever heard.
Thanks, dreemr and Scildfreja!
All I know about Flat Earthers is that they are Conservative and Weird with a Power of 1 and a resistance of 2. However I have read all the main Discworld novels, the Tiffany Aching books and some of the supplemental ones. Currently reading Science of Discworld 2 but it is reading than the pure fiction is.
@ pitshade
I love the Tiffany Aching books, even though The Shepherd’s Crown makes me cry every time I get to That Chapter.
Skiriki: that’s totally awesome. When did you have a chance to meet Pratchett?
David: thanks again for the info. It seems flat earth ‘theory’ has evolved quite a bit. Incidentally, is ‘delusional’ considered ableist? I’d hate to be insulting.
Everyone else: been reading the blog for awhile, and enjoying it, but as a straight, white, cis male I don’t have a whole lot to contribute to most of the conversations. I’m about as privileged as a person can be, so I mostly read the blog and comments to help educate myself as to what the basic issues are.
If all this renewed interest in Flat Earth theories leads a few people to read some, Discworld novels, then perhaps not entirely a bad thing.
One can hope.
If they don’t believe in gravity, then why do they think things fall?
It’s videos like the alien one that really want you to rethink words like “hoax”. A hoaxer generally wants you to believe their nonsense. I think that one was performance art.
Joekster: I’m trying to recall when Worldcon was in Scotland? 2005, OMG. Sadly, I did not meet him personally — my friend was going there, asked PTerry to dedicate it to me and she brought it to me, specifically knowing that it would make my day. (It did. It still does.)
Y’know what, I’m going to post my favourite, too:
Trust me, it’s worth the payoff.
I love the “southern hemisphere flights are fake” bit. You could literally live-stream yourself talking to them before taking off from Santiago’s airport, and then live-stream with them again, 6400 nautical miles and 13.5 hours later in Sydney’s airport, and they would claim that you’d constructed elaborate sets that replicate both airports. Or that the commercial jet you filmed yourself boarding was actually hypersonic. Or that you’re some kind of teleporter.
I love flat-earthers, they’re so hilarious.
My favorite thing is when you put all their totally contradictory theories in one place and ask them to reconcile them with each other (for example, the sun is a giant flashlight and the earth is a giant disk on top of a cylinder, but all the other planets and stars are spheres) they’ll say that it’s not their job to come up with a coherent universe, they’re just contributing to science by proposing alternate theories.