介绍:
LW: Now we’ll take a look at some unusual theories. Have you ever walked outside and thought, man the Earth looks pretty flat? You probably then realized that it doesn’t make sense and went on with your day. But unlike you, there are some people, including a semi-famous rapper, B.o.B. who beg to differ. Like birthers and other truthers, these flat earthers think what you think – they think what you see is what you get. Now, Brian, maybe you can enlighten us a little bit here. What exactly is this theory? Why should we care about it?
BK: Well, the second one is a little more difficult, but the first – flat earth is what it sounds like. The earth is not a sphere, it is just flat, which –
LW: That’s not true.
BK: Exactly. But again, it’s like you said there, it’s – they think what you think you see is what you get. Because you think that you’re seeing flatness. Like you go outside and you look and say no, I don’t see any curve there, the earth is flat, the world looks flat to me, and on – in practical terms, on a daily basis, yeah, the ground right in front of you is flat. But, if we’re talking about the earth as a whole, as a planet, which it is, then that’s of course not true.
WY: I just have one question: He lives in the US, so can he see China?
BK: See, and that’s the sort of thing there. Because if the Earth is flat, you should be able to see everything else there pretty much, ‘cause the reason why we can’t see things is because – like, you can’t, for example - we can’t see the Empire State building or the Statue of Liberty from here in China because the Earth curves.
WY: I think sometimes the people are so drawn to it, it’s just that they believe or they choose to believe what they want to believe.
BK: Yeah, that is a lot of what’s going on here. Conspiracy theories often happen when things are not very clear, like when there’s some sort of murkiness, like for example 9/11. That was a very hectic time those attacks there, and no one was there watching everything exactly as it happened at all these points so people get to thinking maybe there was this sort of thing happening or whatever.
WY: And also, another very famous example is like the end of the world theory.
LW: What I can’t really understand is why people believe in them that much then.
BK: Again, I think we’re seeing more of it these days because there’s a growing at least disappointment or distrust or dissatisfaction with authority so that’s you just think, oh – you’re just less likely to trust them. But there’s a political scien[tist] out there, Michal Barkun, who has some ideas there. So one of his things is that they claim – that these conspiracy theories, they provide a pretty easy explanation to more complex sort of things. Like you got some sort of confusing, complex thing going on, complicated stuff, it’s like, okay, this is what it is, a pretty, relatively simple, pretty understandable sort of thing. The other thing that they do is they say it’s very much a, we’ve got the good guys here, the bad guys here, and all these bad things are happen[ing] because one evil person or group is doing this sort of thing.
LW: One of the ones I hear very often is the one that says the moon landing was faked.
BK: Yeah, you do hear that. The idea is that it was all filmed in a Hollywood studio, but when you think about this, you would have to have all these different pictures faked – okay maybe, and all these people going in and lying, like these astronauts, they were just not lying to their…
LW: Not just the astronauts. The people who worked on the rockets [BK: Right], the people who built it, the people who outsourced the parts, the [BK: Yeah] secretary who answered the phones, everyone would have to be [BK: It is]. The sheer level, the sheer level of organizational capacity for that is incredible, as well as just everyone would have to be in on it, just human nature, no one would break ranks.
BK: No, exactly…study here that came out on BBC analyzing this, saying that for a conspiracy theory to work, for all these people to be in on it, and keep it closed, is so unlikely, ‘cause people just talk, and that’s how it is.
LW: Yeah, I don’t know. And you know, B.o.B. kicked us off with this, so I do want to close with him. I don’t quite understand it. I hope he comes to his senses sometime soon.
