Once a friend went on a moon landing denial rant. I immediately started an ironic spherical earth denial rant, copying every argument he was using. Problem solved.
I had a really bright student in one of my classes past year who was a moon landing denialist. She said her best friend, who was a student at Berkeley, had convinced her and was also a flat earther. I was shocked, until I learned that they'd been indoctrinated via r/conspiracy and YouTube. Now I see that stuff as a subset of the problems with social media in general - namely distrust of the media and expert knowledge combined with the creation of insular online communities that can lead into a new kind of groupthink.
Deep in my heart I still believe that the flat earth society is a massive joke on conspiracies, and one day they will come out and say "ha!!! you thought we were serious? super-gotcha!!!".
Many people are not joking. Which I use as a check on any time I start thinking "Surely people won't believe..." There are people who believe the world is not round, which implies that there are not many limits on what some people won't believe.
i sincerely believe that many conspiracy theories start as jokes or pranks. there are so many kooks in the world and now we are all connected. write and true believers you will find.
True indeed. I was now trying to create an even more implausible conspiracy theory, but then I run the risk of actually starting it. Maybe that's how all conspiracies were born? :P