The modern resurgence of flat Earth theory is linked to its combination with conspiracy theories about secret groups controlling the world by deceiving people into believing the Earth is round.

The resurgence of flat Earth theory in modern times is linked to the transformation of the idea into a conspiracy theory, which has been facilitated by the internet and social media.

"Flat-earthers are characterized by their illogical and opinionated views, refusal to accept evidence, and fanaticism in defending their beliefs."

Flat-earthers are characterized by a lack of scientific understanding and a tendency to believe in unproven or satirical ideas, often taking unverified information at face value and failing to critically evaluate evidence.

Flat-earthers are characterized by their rejection of scientific evidence and reliance on unproven theories, such as the torus-shaped Earth theory, which has been disproved by scientists due to its impossibility and absurdity.

Flat-earthers prioritize offended feelings over scientific truth and are not open to changing their beliefs based on evidence.

Flat-earthers may be characterized by a lack of scientific understanding and a tendency towards fanaticism, with their beliefs being influenced by social and cultural factors.

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories.

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories, as it contradicts established scientific knowledge and is often promoted alongside other conspiracy-related content.

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories, which are ideas that reject the scientific consensus and propose alternative explanations.

The flat Earth theory is a type of conspiracy theory that is often promoted by conspiracy websites and has a significant presence online.

"Social media has contributed to the spread of false information, including conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement, by making it easier for people to access and share misinformation."

Social media platforms like YouTube have contributed to the decentralization of information, allowing theories like flat Earth to spread and creating a 'rabbit hole' effect that draws people in.

Social media platforms have played a significant role in the decentralization of information, making it easier for people to access and engage with a wide range of ideas, including conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement.

Social media has contributed to the decentralization of information, allowing conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement to spread more easily.

"The internet and social media have contributed to the decentralization of information, making it easier for false and hateful information to spread."

"Mike Johnson adheres to young-Earth creationist beliefs, which include the idea that the Earth is approximately 6,000 years old."

Mike Johnson is likely a young Earth creationist due to his association with Answers in Genesis, which promotes this view.

Kyrie Irving's history has been subject to exaggeration and scrutiny for his unconventional views, including his flat Earth theory.

Kyrie Irving has been scrutinized for his past belief in the Flat Earth theory, although he has claimed to have been joking.

"Kyrie Irving has been scrutinized for his beliefs in the Flat Earth theory, with notable figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson commenting on his views."

Kyrie Irving, a well-known NBA player, has been scrutinized for his belief in the flat Earth theory, which he has publicly expressed on multiple occasions.

Mike Johnson's views on climate change are shaped by his evangelical faith and Christian fundamentalism, which is linked to creationism.

Mike Johnson's views on climate change are influenced by his connection to Christian fundamentalist Ken Ham, who believes God would prevent humans from destroying the planet.

The flat Earth conspiracy theory rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and its believers can be found among certain subgroups, including Millennials and Trump supporters.

The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and it has been found to have a conservative preference in a study.

"The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, with a history dating back to ancient times and a modern resurgence through social media and celebrity endorsements."

The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence, including observations of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during eclipses, which is always round.

The flat Earth conspiracy theory rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and has been promoted by individuals and organizations who mix it with conspiracy theories about secret groups controlling the world.

Al-Ma'mun astronomers disproved the flat Earth theory by measuring the height of the polar star and demonstrating that the Earth is a sphere.

Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, born in 973 AD, is credited with disproving the flat Earth theory by calculating the Earth's circumference using a triangulation method.

Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni calculated the Earth's circumference using a trigonometric equation based on triangulation.

Neil deGrasse Tyson provided a logical response to Kyrie Irving's Flat Earth claim.

The torus Earth theory was first proposed by Dr. Rosenpenis in 2008 on the Flat Earth Theory forum as a joke, but it was taken seriously by some flat Earth supporters.

The modern resurgence of flat Earth theory is linked to its combination with conspiracy theories about secret groups controlling the world by deceiving people into believing the Earth is round.

Title:

Content: How did Muslim scholars refute the flat Earth theory a thousand years ago?
The flat earth is currently one of the most famous scientific myths widespread in the Arab world, and has private groups on social media met by supporters from all over, and in recent days has been controversial because of statements by the Egyptian artist Mohamed Sobhy.
There are two histories to this theory, not one; the first is ancient and the second is modern.
A number of Greek philosophers believed that the earth was flat, and the ancient Scandinavian and German peoples also believed that the earth was flat and surrounded by oceans, and the common belief in ancient China was that the earth was square and flat while the sky was spherical.
But it ’ s really surprising to know that early astronomers assumed its sphericity, and they were from almost every culture: Pythagoras, who lived about 2,500 years ago, proposed the sphericity of the Earth based on his observations of the moon during the eclipse.
Pythagorean's observations are still evidence of a refutation of the flat Earth theory: Pythagorean observed that the shadow that the Earth casts on the Moon during the eclipse is always round.
Regardless of the moon-facing part of the planet, eclipses occur everywhere in the world.
The idea of a lunar eclipse is simple: put a big lamp in the middle of your room and turn off the rest of the lights, stand at a distance of one meter from it, now turn around while you reach your hands in front of you with a tennis ball, when you give your back to the lamp and pass the tennis ball in the shadow extended in front of you because of your body, this is the eclipse.
To Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes, born 276 BC, was the first to measure the circumference of the Earth using a simple method involving the angle of the Sun at different locations.
Eratosthenes was astonished to read that the columns in the ancient Egyptian temples of Aswan on the afternoon of June 21 of each year did not leave a shadow under them, and the mystery of the wonder was that the columns in Alexandria left a shadow under them on the afternoon of the same day.
Eratosthenes came to the conclusion that the earth must be convex and not flat, otherwise the columns in Alexandria would appear shadowless, and then after reflection Eratosthenes came to the clever idea that we could measure the length of the shadow in Aswan which is zero, and its length in Alexandria, and then measure the distance between Alexandria and Aswan, and infer the circumference of the earth.
The story goes that he sent a man to measure the distance, so that with some simple geometry he could measure the circumference of the Earth, which he concluded was about 39,348 kilometers.
Eratosthenes' account was transferred to the Arabs from among the sciences they translated.
According to Carlo Nelino in his book "Astronomy: A History of the Arabs in the Middle Ages", the Caliph al-Ma'mun al-Abbasi (who ruled from 813 to 833 AD) asked two teams of astronomers to test these calculations and come up with the most accurate measurement of the Earth's circumference....
The safe astronomer.
The method adopted by the Arabs is to go out into a perfectly flat desert, and then rely on the inclination of the polar star in the sky.
The ancients realized that the position of stars in the sky is affected by your place on Earth, the further you travel south, the lower the polar star in the sky until it disappears completely after the equator, and the more you travel north, the higher the polar star sky until it became above your head in the North Pole, which means that the Earth is round, otherwise the position of stars in the sky changes with your place on it.
The height of the polar star (and all other stars) is measured in degrees, and it is like to put a protractor in front of your eyes, the horizon is at zero, and then look at the protractor from the side to find at what degree the polar star stands, and this is something you can do exactly as the ancients did, and now astronomical software is easily available.
Al-Ma'mun astronomers measured the height of the polar star, then moved north once and south once, until the amount of inclination of the polar star changes by one degree, and then measured the distance north and south, and this measured distance is one degree from the circumference of the Earth's circle, and it can know the rest of the circumference of the Earth, because the Earth is a ball, and like any ball, rotation around it requires 360 degrees.
The first team of Al-Ma ’ mun astronomers went out to the Sinjar desert, a small city in northwestern Iraq today, and the second team to the Palmyra desert in eastern Syria, and carried out the same experiments in both places. In the Sinjar desert, for example, the height of the polar star was about 35 degrees. south of the wedge site until the measurement dropped by a degree.
According to al-Ma ’ mun ’ s astronomers, the scale of one degree was about 56 parsecs and two-thirds parsecs, which Nalino calculated — according to Edward Kennedy of the American University of Beirut in a paper published in the Encyclopedia of the History of Arab Sciences — to be 111.8 kilometers, a value used by later researchers such as al-Biruni and al-Toussi.
Calculating the circumference of the Earth in this experiment, it turned out to be about 410,248 km, which was close to modern measurements (40075 km) in the most accurate way at the time.
Note that the difference between the two measurements is about 1,100 years, and the reason for the difference is not related to the same method but to the ellipse of the Earth, as the distance between the two latitudes increases slightly as we head north.
Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni
The second attempt was by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, born in September 973 AD, who used the best and easiest formula to calculate the circumference of the Earth in his time.
The Al-Biruni method is based on triangulation, where the sunset is observed from the top of a high mountain overlooking flat ground to the horizon, the astrolabe measures the angle the sun descends relative to the observer on the top of the mountain, where the line connecting the observer on the top of the mountain and the horizon makes the sunset clock touch the planet Earth.
It is known that the tangent of a circle perpendicular to its diameter, and then we have a right-angled triangle at the horizon, and we can measure the radius of the Earth by knowing the height of the mountain, which is mathematically easy.
Currently, the same calculations can be applied by high school students, for example, in all countries of the Arab world, who have a good amount of trigonometry study.
In a study published in the International Journal of Sciences, an Italian team repeated al-Biruni ’ s experiment and concluded that its results for the radius of the Earth are equal to 3,928.77 English miles, which compares favorably, being 2% different, with the average reference radius at the measurement latitude, which is 3,847.80 miles.
Pakistani physicist Mazhar Mahmood Qureshi, in his book An Introduction to Muslim Contributions to Science and Technology, points out that al-Biruni ’ s experience in what is now Nandana Fort in the mountains of northern Pakistan is a typical example of the use of experimental scientific methods.
The most important book of al-Biruni astronomical is "The Law of Masoudi", in which al-Biruni collected all the astronomical problems of his time, and the way of al-Biruni was to present the origins of the matter and the views of the Indian, Greek and Arab astronomers and then weighted between them.
Modern history of flat earth
But at that point, you might ask yourself: if the sphericity of the Earth was obvious to Muslim scholars and their comrades in other parts of the world in ancient times, why did it come back?
In 1849, the English writer Samuel Rowbotham published a pamphlet entitled "Oil Astronomy" (from the Greek letter zeta, not oil), in which he defended the theory of the flat earth, and followed this with another entitled "The Instability of Modern Astronomy and its opposition to the Bible".
In 1883, Rowbotham founded oil societies in England and New York, shipping thousands of copies of his books to talk about flat earth.
Meanwhile, William Carpenter, a printer and native of Greenwich, England, supported Rowbotham and advocated his theory, learning it from John Jasper and preaching to more people than any cleric of his generation in the southern United States. Once.
From here the myth began to branch again in the United States, and then to Europe, and then to the Arab world and the rest of the world, but in this context it was mixed with conspiracy theories concerning secret groups trying to control the world by deluding people that the earth is round.
The proof of the sphericity of the earth is not new, and has a long history in which Muslim scholars have made an influential contribution, but because the “flat earth ” has been transformed from ignorance of the nature of science into a conspiracy theory it has been imported along with other famous theories into our Arab world.
Source: Al Jazeera + Websites

The resurgence of flat Earth theory in modern times is linked to the transformation of the idea into a conspiracy theory, which has been facilitated by the internet and social media.

"Flat-earthers are characterized by their illogical and opinionated views, refusal to accept evidence, and fanaticism in defending their beliefs."

Title:

Content: "The Lost Earth Truth 1": The level of the earth seems to be the "gold rush" of our time.
Photo Credit: iStock
What we want you to know is
Through the multi-dimensional advanced high-tech "heterogeneous meta-helmet", scientists learned that the earth is full of four-dimensional entrances, the third dimension of the material plane and the fourth dimension of the etheric plane are originally "twins".
Written by Radu Cinama
Tiping said it was the "gold rush" of this era.
Based on a reference to the House of the Cabal, which hides the door to multidimensional interaction, I found an informative note that I had never seen before, floating among dozens of notes on my desk.
In general, I prefer to work in electronic form or wait for notes or files in digital format, but given my particular interest in the Dimension Portal, I decided to check everything on my desk, including the latest events.
I do not know the reasons and methods, but the information I found was ignored.
After reviewing notes and data summaries, I discovered an event called “Ground Floor – References ”, a“ movement ” that I ’ ve heard has made waves among people, but I never thought it would become a theme for our department.
The illusion of this idea is obvious, especially for those who have good judgment and personal experience of our planet from the perspective of outer space.
I was a bit confused and didn ’ t know if I should read a few pages of summaries about the ground floor.
I went to Lieutenant Nikola and asked him about it.
He told me that the information came from the operations department of another SRI division, an acronym for the Romanian Intelligence Agency, which has the status of a second level notice.
The lieutenant made it clear that the only reason this information reached our department was because it triggered an abnormal "phenomenon" in the world, but in our country, the number of "followers" is relatively small and the proportion is reasonable, and the level seems to be the "gold rush" of our time. It makes you speechless, even in a state of “shock. ”
I can understand that the paranoia and other obscure interests of hundreds of years ago amplify the lack of knowledge, which may occupy the minds of a relatively small number of people, but it is unreasonable to allow it to develop to the level of the international movement of the 21st century.
From a heavenly point of view, I wonder if human stupidity can rise above that level, but I don ’ t quite believe in that prospect.
However, even the most bizarre phenomena must be taken into account, at least taking into account the crowd and their opinions, which is one of the Secret Service's tasks.
I did read the summary, which revealed the main points of the problem very clearly, but did not give any conclusions.
Severe retrogression into the Middle Ages
On the same night, I took advantage of Cesar ’ s free time and shared the ground level problem with him, more as a social case than a research direction.
Cesar laughed loudly, talked about the topic for a while, and then suddenly turned to some very interesting questions.
He told me that three or four years ago, the issue was introduced to him and discussed with other colleagues in the intelligence department because there were signs that the idea was trending toward a consensus.
Out of respect for readers, I don ’ t usually include such a discussion in my series.
It requires only a little wisdom and minimal scientific training to understand, and arguments in support of this theory are tantamount to ignorance and fanaticism.
Beyond this, however, Cesar reveals some psychological cues that seem to be of some importance to general knowledge and social experience.
When discussing topping with Cesar, the first point involves a large number of followers.
“The mechanism for this strange theory of increased follower numbers is related to human isolation, ” says Cesar.
“It ’ s as if the population is divided into two distinct categories, but this separation is actually based on each person ’ s level of consciousness, which is directly related to their vibration frequency. ”
“But, ” I replied,“ I don ’ t know what caused this outbreak, and more and more people are insisting on these ‘ arguments ’ without meaning. ”
It's more like a stupid virus. "
“This major shift in thinking patterns is not at the same wavelength as what is commonly understood in the world today.
In other words, such new ideas have nothing to do with the knowledge of our time.
This is an effective method, because the earth is flat, and the idea is strongly supported by mystical factors, as well as by those who are keen to see things stagnant and not progressing.
This is the best way to control it: take people away from reality, let them dream nonsense, support their fantasies, and encourage them to project.
Therefore, it is controlled by imposing on the masses what they want.
Followers of earth thought, firmly believing in it, will seek to meet others, gather, and even separate themselves from others, because they will see others as fools deceived by lies.
In other words, they will be convinced that they are the ones who “discovered ” the truth. While it is sad to hear the news, unfortunately, the situation is quite real. ”
“Although I have this report under my nose, I can ’ t believe it has reached this point.
I feel like this is an ugly dream, as if some people in the world have voluntarily gone back hundreds of years.
That's how I feel.
Incredibly, people ’ s minds today are still influenced by delusions that defy not only decent intelligence but also scientific reasoning, making everything frenzied.
Look at the results! ”
I showed Cesar ’ s estimated numbers and charts.
"I know.
We've talked to other colleagues, "he said.
“Your surprise is evidenced by the huge difference in conceptualization and vibration frequency that people are beginning to feel.
This is a reality that has become increasingly prominent over time and cannot be ignored.
This is part of the isolation I told you about.
In principle, people interact with those who are evolving and those who prefer to stay in purely physical, crude or involuntary groups.
Those in the first category perfect themselves, recognize the changes that are taking place on Earth, and experience certain emotional states and specific sensations.
That ’ s why it ’ s incredible for some people to think about problems in a medieval way, such as followers of the Earth Theory. ”
Cesar saw the astonishment on my face and hurried to prove what he said again.
“Yes, I ’ m not exaggerating.
This is a return to the Middle Ages, because these people cannot evolve; instead, they return to a more archaic state of consciousness, closer to their true level of consciousness. ”
“Why can ’ t they evolve? ” I asked in surprise.
Of course, I know the answer, but it ’ s always a pleasure to capture Cesar ’ s explanation.
In addition, there is always a new element that can enrich my knowledge.
“Because the current state of things they attract has nothing to do with the higher vibrations of the Earth, this feature is becoming more and more apparent. ”
“For the followers of the Earth Plane, their consolation lies in the frenzy of these primitive ideas, which are maintained as free spirits and ideas are blocked.
The same was true during the Inquisition: a set of foolish and erroneous ideas was raised into law, and any violation of those ideas was enforced. ”
When I think about it all, I hope I ’ m wrong.
“Are we back in the Middle Ages? History has set off a wave of extreme ideas.
Ancient people already knew that the earth was round, but the situation deteriorated in the Middle Ages, when there was a revival of modern science, but was this only to take us back to the Middle Ages now? ” (The author undoubtedly refers to the knowledge shared by Pythagoras and Aristotle, who both asserted that the earth is round, and the argument made by Eratonius in ancient Alexandria.)
Cesar calmly replied, “We don ’ t; but for the part that has degraded, yes. ”
Several factors contributed to this.
Followers of the Earth ’ s theory are indignant at their opinionated views, their refusal to think logically or rationally on the basis of real arguments and evidence, their denial of evidence, and their deceitful defense of their position.
In general, this is a kind of missionary covering up fanaticism.
The psychological factor of the earth level, the mind pulls people's distance
We note that whenever fanaticism prevails, society is confronted with a lack of insight and the limitations of personal freedom.
Cesar gave me an example that better explains how this dilemma can be achieved in the context of a relatively developed civilization.
"This phenomenon is the same as in quantum physics.
If there is enough energy, the electrons can jump into higher orbits.
If there is not enough energy, it can be kept at a slightly higher level and relatively stable; but at some point, the remaining energy will be released in the form of photons, and the electron will return to the orbit where it was originally found, back to where it started.
In quantum physics, this is the basic orbit of electrons.
In other words, electrons with these characteristics will return to the level where they have a safe orbit. ” I interjected, clinging to the subject.
“I know that throughout human history, the idea that the earth is flat has long existed in some religions.
Modern astronomy has developed extensively since then.
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto have only been discovered for about two hundred years.
In this sense, the ground floor is actually not very old, its memory is still fresh.
Perhaps that is why some humans return to the state they once knew. "
“This is another factor, ” Cesar acknowledged,“ in any case, human society is changing from ‘ possessiveness ’ to ‘ feeling ’, that sense of possession, egoism, competition, and violence tends to be gradually replaced by pure and positive emotions and feelings, which are fundamental to love, altruism, and compassion. ”
I have some doubts.
“It ’ s hard to believe, because almost all of us are seeing the spread of these negative manifestations. ”
“At first glance, it might be so.
Remember, however, that most people on Earth are uneducated, and they ‘ resort ’ to this illusion of competition, money, commerce, and lack of spirituality.
A large number of people who are addicted to this dream, tend to oppose those who are guided only by spiritual values and seek a pure life with a clear meaning, and have achieved a balance at this point.
This is what we call isolation. "
In fact, what Cesar wanted to say is that everyone is invited to participate in the great spiritual transformation of humanity and our planet, with the desire and dignity to demand that his life be the germ of light, spirituality and hope that we can enter a bright future.
This is an excellent ideal, but so far too few people have followed this ideal.
Book Introduction
This excerpt is from The Lost Earth Truth 1: The Hidden History of Holographic Time Travel, published by Daxi Culture.
Written by Radu Cinamar
Translated by: Sandra
• momo online bookstore
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Radu Cinamar became famous after revealing an unprecedented and mysterious collaboration between the US and Romanian militaries.
American and Romanian troops have made an expedition under the Romanian Sphinx in the Bucegi Mountains and discovered the greatest archaeological discovery of all time: a mysterious chamber about 50,000 years old, containing a holographic record of human history of the Earth, biological resonance imaging technology, and three mysterious tunnels that lead to secrets deep in the heart of the earth.
Despite the political intrigue, confusion, and restrictions surrounding this great discovery, the expedition leader allowed Radu Sinamar to visit and explore the artifacts.
Since then, Radu ’ s life has been a labyrinthine adventure, filled with strange events, secret connections, and unusual people and things.
This book delves into ancient history in an unprecedented way, through the interaction of advanced technology ’ s “heterogeneous helmets ” with the author ’ s cerebral cortex and intuition, presenting more than 70 stunning images of the scene, the result of which is holographic projection, explaining and illustrating the DNA changes that took place over thousands of years and how humans evolved into what they are today.
Reveals the mystery of how multiple alien civilizations influenced and guided human DNA to evolve to a higher level.
Some of the hot spots in human history, which in the past either remained unknown or were only considered from a mythological point of view, include: Atlantis, Troy, Shambhala, and Huppelburia.
Disrupting the myths of the past, this book provides rich and accurate communications from the actual scene of holographic technology, combining esoteric knowledge and some scientific factors.
Special emphasis is placed on the "intersection" between the physical dimension and the etheric dimension and on the cracks or entrances between the dimensions.
In addition to revealing the ancient history of mankind, this fascinating work also describes a time out to see the origins of humanity and its hope for the future.
Book Features
Time-lapse decoding! The beginning of important human change
Through the multi-dimensional advanced high-tech "heterogeneous meta-helmet", scientists learned that the earth is full of four-dimensional entrances, the third dimension of the material plane and the fourth dimension of the etheric plane are originally "twins".
And you can see the "cosmic record" in the holographic image!
You can also overlook the cross-section of the earth, covering the deep human genetic technology and high-dimensional cosmic civilization, and no book in its amazing history has been exposed so far!
Editor-in-Chief: Weng Shihang
Editor-in-chief: Bohan Pan
Tags:

Flat-earthers are characterized by a lack of scientific understanding and a tendency to believe in unproven or satirical ideas, often taking unverified information at face value and failing to critically evaluate evidence.

Title:

Content: Scientists, leave the jokes – they give rise to prejudices
09.01.2022, 18: 34, Miscellaneous
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Do you think the supporters of a flat earth in the shape of a bagel drew this idea from the Old Testament?
As if not so!
It was presented to them by Dr. Rosenpenis in 2008.
On the Flat Earth Theory forum, he jokingly offered a rationale for his theory, writing:
"I used advanced scaled astrophysical professional academic software to create a model of the geoponchik, the most delicious celestial body of our planet Earth, covered with sugar icing."
In short, the doctor “joked ”, and those present were happy to believe that our world has the shape of a massive donut with a giant hole in the middle.
It is not known how the "hypothesis" grew legs, but it widely diverged among supporters of the flat Earth.
To know, the poor people experienced a lack of scientificness in their own worldview.
At the same forum, but already in 2012, another flat-earth proponent named Varaug added to the idea of more science-like.
He seriously argued that our planet is a ring or, to use scientific terminology, a torus.
Say, we can not see the hole in the middle due to the fact that the light bends, following the curve of the torus and making the hole “invisible ”:
“I have a theory that the Earth actually has the shape of a torus (bagel).
But the light is warping, so we can't see it. "
Explaining why no one has ever fallen into this hole, the “theorist ” asks other forum participants to imagine the Earth in the form of a“ donut with jam ”, in the direction of which gravity acts.
According to him, day and night still exist because the Earth in the form of a donut makes a revolution every 24 hours, and the hole is at an angle of 90 degrees to the Sun.
A flat Earth proponent suggests that the torus shape was formed as a result of the gravitational attraction of rocks, dust and pieces of cosmic matter to an orbit without a central focus.
This actually created a ring-shaped planet orbiting the void.
Scientists have disproved this theory, explaining that the Sun could not rise and set as it does if the Earth had a gaping hole in the middle, and we could not see day and night as now.
Oxford professor Dr. Anders Sandberg points out that on a donut shaped Earth, the clouds would be three times higher and pushed by stronger winds.
Well, people living near the hole would see “double seasons ” when summer is replaced by winter and vice versa.
Source of information and images: dailystar.co.uk
Unreliable source: RIA Fognews
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Flat-earthers are characterized by their rejection of scientific evidence and reliance on unproven theories, such as the torus-shaped Earth theory, which has been disproved by scientists due to its impossibility and absurdity.

What do flat-Earth proponents believe about the shape of the Earth?

Flat-earthers prioritize offended feelings over scientific truth and are not open to changing their beliefs based on evidence.

Title:

Content: The Daily Express Original
Express: “indulge conspiracy theorists ” – British universities criticized for supporting anti-scientific ideas
The famous biologist Richard Dawkins attacked the “tolerant ” British universities.
According to the professor, the leadership of educational institutions cares too much about the “feelings ” of students and therefore is in no hurry to debunk the growing popularity of pseudoscientific ideas, including the hypothesis of a flat Earth and the denial of evolution, writes the Daily Express.
The famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins lashed out at the “tolerant ” British universities.
The academician accused their leadership of encouraging the spread of pseudoscientific ideas and conspiracy theories, including the hypothesis of a flat Earth, reports the Daily Express.
Dawkins, 80, was a professor at Oxford University until 2008.
In addition, he has published several best-selling books and made documentaries about the origins of life, the publication explains.
Dawkins urged higher education institutions to "stand up for scientific truth."
In his opinion, they need to educate students, and not “protect ” the feelings of conspiracy theorists.
“University leaders who think that the ‘ offended feelings ’ of flat-earthers and evolutionists matter more than scientific truth need to go back to university to find out what it ’ s for, ” he wrote on Twitter.
“Defend the scientific truth and the clarity of language.
They do not go to university to feel “safe ” and“ protect feelings. ”
They go there to face challenges and learn to cope with difficulties, ” the professor stressed.
Flat Earth societies exist at many British universities, including York, Nottingham Trent and Cambridge.
According to one popular theory, our planet is a disk that surrounds a 46-meter ice wall that does not allow people to fall from the edge, draws the attention of the Daily Express.
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Flat-earthers may be characterized by a lack of scientific understanding and a tendency towards fanaticism, with their beliefs being influenced by social and cultural factors.

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories.

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories, as it contradicts established scientific knowledge and is often promoted alongside other conspiracy-related content.

Title:

Content: A Comparative Algorithm Audit of Conspiracies on the Net: Resultsby@browserology

A Comparative Algorithm Audit of Conspiracies on the Net: Results

Too Long; Didn't Read

A comparative algorithm audit of the distribution of conspiratorial information in search results across five search engines.

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license.

Authors:

(1) Aleksandra Urman, She is a corresponding author from Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland;

(2) Mykola Makhortykh, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, University of Bern, Switzerland;

(3) Roberto Ulloa, GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany;

(4) Juhi Kulshrestha, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany.

Results

Prevalence of conspiratorial information in web search results

We present the results of our analysis on the prevalence of information with different stances towards conspiracy theories (RQ1) per engine across all locations, collection rounds and queries in Figure 1, and disaggregated per query-engine-location in Figures 2-7 (Figures 2-4 correspond to the observations from March 2021; Figures 5-7 - from May 2021).

Location-based and temporal differences

The shares of content with different stances towards conspiracy theories vary widely across SEs and queries, but less so across different locations and waves. These observations indicate that our findings are not highly dependent on a specific location or time frame - at least when it comes to English-speaking locations and periods of observation that are relatively close to each other.

Engine-based differences

The only search engine that consistently did not return links promoting conspiracy theories is Google (see Figure 1), except for small shares of content promoting conspiracies in relation to the “new world order” query in May for the two US locations (Figure 5 and 6). The share of conspiracy-debunking content on Google was similar to that of other SEs for the most queries. At the same time, Google had the highest share of content that did not mention conspiracy theories at all, thus its users were less likely to be exposed to any conspiracy-related information.

The search engine with the highest proportion of conspiracy-promoting content was Yandex, while the remaining three engines - Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo - were somewhere in-between Google and Yandex, with Yahoo having lower shares of content without mentions of conspiracy theories compared to the others but the highest proportion of conspiracy-debunking content. There were minor variations between the three with Yahoo having slightly lower shares of conspiratorial content. The similarities between Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo are, perhaps, to be expected since Yahoo and DuckDuckGo are partially powered by Bing’s search algorithms and results.

Query-based differences

We observed evident discrepancies in the shares of content with different stances towards conspiracy theories across queries. Results for “9/11” contained the lowest shares of conspiracy-promoting content across all engines except Yahoo where, depending on the location and collection round, the share of conspiratorial content - e.g., that 9/11 was an “inside job” - reached close to 50%. No search engine returned results debunking conspiracy theories related to 9/11 but that arguably can be connected to the data void on this - i.e., there is content promoting either the official version or the conspiratorial one, with the former stating facts, but not debunking the latter.

The queries “george soros” and “new world order” are the other two queries for which relatively high shares of content that does not mention conspiracy theories were returned. For both queries,

we observed comparatively low (<20% for “new world order” and <30% for “george soros”) shares of content promoting conspiracy theories on all engines except Yandex. There is also a difference between the results returned for these two queries. For “george soros”, more results debunking conspiracy theories were returned, with no results that would simply mention the theories. For “new world order”, we observed few debunking results but relatively high proportions of results that simply mentioned the theory - i.e., that there is an emerging secret totalitarian world government - without a clear stance towards it.

Finally, the queries that attracted the highest shares of conspiracy-related content were “illuminati”, “flat earth” and “qanon”. For “qanon” we retrieved mostly content debunking the theory - with the exception of Yandex. Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo contained comparatively low (up to 25%) proportions of conspiracy-promoting content. There was no content without any mentions of the conspiracy theory on either of the engines, which is perhaps to be expected given that “qanon” is a rather unambiguous term. With “illuminati” and “flat earth” the shares of conspiracy-promoting content were high on all SEs (except Google). Yandex, like with other queries, contained the highest shares of conspiracy-promoting links, whereas Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo, depending on the location and the wave, displayed between 25% and 50% of conspiracy-promoting results. While with “flat earth” information debunking the conspiracy - i.e., listing arguments why the Earth is not flat, - was commonly displayed across all SEs, for “illuminati” conspiracy-debunking results were much less prevalent (except for Google).

Some of our expectations outlined in the “Methodology” section were not supported by the analysis. Notably, the search results regarding “illuminati” (a subject surrounded by many conspiracy theories) contained more conspiracy-promoting information than the results for “new world order” (query naming a particular conspiracy theory). Qualitatively, we have established that the non-conspiracy-related results displayed for “new world order” were referring to this concept in the context of international relations (e.g., Slaughter’s (2012) article in Foreign Affairs that was featured in Google’s search results). In the case of “illuminati”, we attribute the high shares of conspiracy-promoting content to the wide spread of the related conspiracy theory and frequent references to it in popular culture (e.g., Dan Brown’s books).

Prioritization of different types of sources in search rankings

In relation to RQ2, we first present the results of the analysis of the shares of sources of different types across all queries-locations-waves (Figure 8), and then disaggregated per engine-query-location-wave combination (Figures 9-11 correspond to March 2021; Figures 12-14 correspond to May 2021). Finally, in Figure 15 we present the share of content with different stances per source type, aggregated across all SEs and queries for each of the two data collection rounds.

Location-based and temporal differences

Similar to the observations on the search results’ stances towards conspiracy theories, we did not find major differences across locations and collection rounds. The only obvious difference relates to the prevalence of scientific sources: their share was higher in the UK than in the two other locations, and it was higher in March 2021 than in May 2021.

Engine-based differences

Our observations regarding the source types partially echo the findings on the content with different stances towards conspiracy theories reported above. Specifically, Google is the only search engine that did not return links to conspiracy-dedicated websites, while Yandex had the highest share of such links (Figure 8). Additionally, Google’s results contained the biggest proportion of links to scientific sources, while those were absent on Yandex. In turn, Yandex was the engine with the highest share of links to social media in the results. Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo contained similar shares of links to sources of different types with some differences for specific queries (e.g., Yahoo had fewer results from the media in response to “9/11” query than the other engines).

Query-based differences

For all queries except “flat earth” the outputs of SEs contained rather high shares of links to media and reference websites (e.g., Wikipedia pages), which is in line with what previous research found for queries related to COVID-19 (Makhortykh et al., 2020) or elections in the US (Kulshrestha et al., 2019; Urman et al., 2021). There were, however, some query-based discrepancies. For instance, for “qanon” the results had the highest shares of links to media, perhaps due to the intense media coverage of QAnon at the time of the data collection . The variations in the distribution of conspiracy websites across engines were similar to what we observe with regard to conspiracy stances: “flat earth”-related results had the highest shares of conspiracy websites, followed by “illuminati” and “qanon”, while for the other three queries conspiracy websites were less prevalent.

Source types vs stances towards conspiracy theories

With regard to the shares of content with different stances towards conspiracy theories across source types (Figure 15), the observations within the two periods are rather similar, once again indicating the robustness of the findings against (short-term) temporal changes. Expectedly, all conspiracy-dedicated websites contained only information promoting conspiracy theories. Additionally, conspiratorial information was often present on social media that aligns with existing research on conspiratorial content spread online (e.g., Bessi et al., 2015; Stano, 2020). Among all other source types, the share of conspiracy-promoting content was the highest among websites in the “other” category. This included, for example, links to the webpages of individual books dedicated to specific conspiracy theories on Amazon webstore. There were very few media and reference sources that promoted conspiracy theories; instead, both source types predominantly either mentioned conspiracy theories or provided information unrelated to conspiracies. Media websites also contained high proportions of conspiracy-debunking content but the highest share of such information came from scientific websites.

The minor share of conspiracy theory-promoting information coming from scientific sources (see March 2021 observations in Figure 13) corresponds to one link to a peer-reviewed article from an academic journal in which the author postulated that International Relations scholars should question the official version regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks and backed this statement with the arguments coming from the “9/11 truth movement”[3]. For ethical reasons, we refrain from citing that particular paper here to not promote the conspiracy further.

[3] “9/11 truth movement” refers to loosely connected individuals and groups that support conspiracy theories questioning the official version of the September 11, 2001 attacks (see more on the movement and related theories in Wood and Douglas, 2013)

The flat Earth theory belongs to the category of conspiracy theories, which are ideas that reject the scientific consensus and propose alternative explanations.

The flat Earth theory is a type of conspiracy theory that is often promoted by conspiracy websites and has a significant presence online.

"Social media has contributed to the spread of false information, including conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement, by making it easier for people to access and share misinformation."

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Who's most likely to be open to conspiracy theories? UNH research points to millennials and Trump supporters

Who are the groups most likely to believe in conspiracy theories? That’s the question a University of New Hampshire researcher recently set out to solve.

Sociology professor Lawrence Hamilton looked into national survey data gauging public beliefs in several conspiracy theories, including: "NASA astronauts did not really land on the Moon" and "The Earth is flat, not round."

After digging into that data, Hamilton found "acceptance or openness to conspiracy beliefs was significantly higher among certain subgroups, including Millennials and supporters of ex-president Trump."

NHPR’s Rick Ganley talked with Hamilton about his findings — and the role social media plays in spreading conspiracy theories. Below is a transcript of their conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

Read more about Hamilton's research here.

Transcript

Rick Ganley: It's worth noting that some of these conspiracy theories are old. Some are more recent. But all of them seemingly were given a boost by social media. And it's not hard to find false information, obviously, about topics online. Did you find it used to be much harder to hear about or be convinced of something like this?

Lawrence Hamilton: Well, I've never asked these questions before, so I don't have my own data. There are Gallup polls going back to the late 1990s that seem to find much smaller fractions of people thinking that the moon landings were faked, for example. So there's some kind of indirect evidence. I don't know if anybody tracked it very well. The number of people who've heard about these theories [that's] rising are the people who are drawn into them. And I'm sure that YouTube and social media — people describe it as a rabbit hole, where if you start watching one video [alleging the Earth is flat], they'll recommend another one for you. And pretty soon it seems like the whole world is all about flat Earth.

Rick Ganley: Your research looked into the political leanings of people who responded. What did you find there?

Lawrence Hamilton: We did find a political correlation, and that wasn't a foregone conclusion, because I had specifically chosen conspiracy theories that are not known to have a clear political [connection]. I mean, there's been a lot of research going back really to the 1960s on the paranoid style in American politics that has found conspiracy theories are more popular among conservatives across a range of issues. In the 1950s, it was conspiracies by Communist infiltration in the U.S. government. Now, it may be conspiracies directed at politicians — [alleging without evidence that former President Barack] Obama is a Muslim, or [President Joe] Biden stole the 2020 election — and others that are targeted at scientists, like climate change is a hoax, COVID-19 is a hoax or COVID precautions or vaccines are a hoax. And I chose none of those. I chose things like: ‘The moon landings were fake,’ or ‘Earth is flat,’ ‘Vaccines implant microchips.’ So it was interesting to find that even there, there's a conservative preference.

Rick Ganley: A lot of this does come down to faith in science and academics and what so-called experts have to say. Do you see this as evidence of a decline in faith in institutions?

Lawrence Hamilton: Well, I would say there's a decline — and this is something we do have data on — there's a wide decline in trust in scientists, and it's largely partisan. It's not so much happening among people who self-identify as liberal or moderate. But among people who identify as conservative or very conservative, there's definitely a decline in trust in scientists. The COVID pandemic was an interesting case in point, because we were actually tracking this on surveys, and trust in the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] took an enormous nosedive over space about four months, specifically among conservatives. Other groups didn't change. But the conservative trust in the CDC took this huge dive when [former President] Donald Trump's tweeting turned from praising the CDC to attacking it. And with that flip, conservative trust in the CDC flipped as well, and nobody else has changed much.

Rick Ganley: Your research also highlighted a pattern having to do with age. Respondents who classify themselves as millennials, that is those born between 1981 and 1996, were the most likely to agree with some of the conspiracies that you posed. And Gen Zs, I guess, were also more inclined than older respondents. What did you find there?

Lawrence Hamilton: Well, some of that corresponded to previous surveys. There's a section at the end of our report where we say, well, how does this compare with what other people have found? Just as a reality check. And that's been reported by a number of other studies as well. So millennials in particular, and Gen Z to a slightly lesser extent, were much less skeptical about the conspiracies compared with boomers or older generations. And one explanation that's been offered for that, well, two explanations: Regarding the moon landings, of course, older generations lived through those and remember the national pride and excitement and so forth, whereas [for] younger generations, it's something in the history books. So maybe they don't have that sense of having been there when it happened. But the other thing is that you could expect younger generations to be more engaged with social media, which for some people could take them down these rabbit holes again.

Rick Ganley: Does your research have any suggestions on how to stop people from believing in conspiracy theories?

Lawrence Hamilton: That's a real hard one because there's this tendency to get into information silos where all you hear are the voices that reinforce your prejudices. And a thing about conspiracies is that they will give you a reason to reject anything that contradicts them. People have been seeing [the science behind] climate change for a long time, [and] you can't go in with fact sheets. That doesn't persuade anybody. They'll just become convinced that you're part of the hoax, too. There aren't any simple answers. The strongest recommendation is that scientists stay engaged in public communication through every channel they have, and that they try to make their conclusions understandable or accessible to people from a lot of different walks of life who obviously are not reading the peer review journals.

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Social media platforms like YouTube have contributed to the decentralization of information, allowing theories like flat Earth to spread and creating a 'rabbit hole' effect that draws people in.

Social media platforms have played a significant role in the decentralization of information, making it easier for people to access and engage with a wide range of ideas, including conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement.

Social media has contributed to the decentralization of information, allowing conspiracy theories like the flat Earth movement to spread more easily.

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‘No evidence of aliens,’ Pentagon tells a disbelieving public

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A new report from the Pentagon found no evidence of alien spacecraft — or that the government has covered up evidence of such technology.

The Department of Defense said it went into the congressionally mandated inquiry with an open mind, but simply found nothing indicating the existence of extraterrestrials or secret programs about them.

“All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification,” a DoD spokesperson said in a statement.

Many reports of so-called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena remain unresolved, but the government took pains to tell the public these sightings are not alien spacecraft, something it has been reluctant to say overtly in the past.

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Interest in unexplained sightings is growing

Sources:
The Pentagon, The Hill, Gallup

Public interest in UFOs is greater than ever before, the report found, attributing the increase to the increased availability of information, like purported sightings, via the internet and popular culture references to aliens.

The percentage of Americans who think UFO sightings are likely proof of alien life has risen over the last few decades, from 20% in 1996 to 34% in 2022. A 2019 Gallup poll found that 68% of Americans believe the U.S. government knows “more about UFOs than it is telling us.” However, 60% think reported sightings are explainable without stepping into extraterrestrial territory.

Report unlikely to dispel alien theories multiplying online

Sources:
The New York Times, The Pentagon, The Washington Post

“Amid widespread distrust of the government, the report is unlikely to calm a growing obsession with aliens,” The New York Times reported. “The report will not be the last word.”

The report’s investigators seemed to anticipate that their work would reach a skeptical audience, The Washington Post reported, and tried to get ahead of the inevitable naysayers by explaining why so many people believe the government is hiding proof of extraterrestrial life — and why those views are misguided.

“The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media consent centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs,” the report read. The Pentagon noted that it’s now more difficult to rebut claims of extraterrestrial life and technology, which are spreading faster than ever thanks to social media.

UFO ‘truthers’ could be normalizing other conspiracy theories

Sources:
Duke University, The Pentagon

A 2021 study found that when the government partly validates a conspiracy theory — for example, by launching a serious inquiry into the existence of UFOs — people view conspiracy theorists on the whole more positively. “When government leaders publicly walk back a long-held consensus that a particular issue is not worth serious consideration, they may cause people to feel more favorable toward those perceived to hold other fringe views,” the Duke University study found.

The Pentagon report went to lengths to affirm that there are large sections of the population who truly believe they’ve seen alien spacecraft, saying “many people sincerely hold versions of these beliefs which are based on their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information.”

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Antisemitism in the Digital Age The changing nature of Holocaust denial in the digital age

For as long as there have been reports of Nazi crimes there have been people determined to deny and undermine them. The Nazis themselves were the first deniers, seeking to destroy the evidence of their crimes and deny them to the world.

For most people the notion that the Holocaust was an enormous hoax is nonsensical. How is it possible to see the newsreels from barbed wire-encircled camps with emaciated and withered bodies in piles or mass graves and not be filled with horror and sympathy? With such definitive evidence how can one still not believe? How do some people remain unmoved by the horrifying revelations of the Holocaust? How after news of Belsen, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Buchenwald and Chełmno do so many still not believe?

It is likely that many who deny the Holocaust publicly think differently in private. They do so as biased revisionism and denial was or is politically expedient and vital to their attempts to rehabilitate the doctrine with which they identify, namely fascism. Nazi atrocities have of course become inextricably linked to the doctrine of fascism, and any attempt to relaunch the ideology requires either the separation of one from the other or denial that the atrocities had happened at all.

Holocaust deniers have traditionally relied on a number of arguments to try and disprove the Holocaust. These include: Hitler and the Nazis were not responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War; there was no Nazi plan for genocide; that all evidence of extermination camps is faked; that gas chambers were erected after the war; that Zyklon B, the gas used to murder Jews, was merely a delousing agent; that Jews and others who died in concentration camps died from diseases like typhus; that the Holocaust was invented to force Germany to pay for the establishment of the state of Israel; that the Holocaust is a Jewish conspiracy. These arguments have all been around since the end of the Holocaust itself but, in the digital age, there has been a shift in the nature of Holocaust denial and the ease with which it can be accessed that has given some deniers a sense of optimism. As an article on the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer from October 2020 put it: There is no way to allow people to openly discuss the Holocaust and also have them come to the conclusion that it actually happened. You could do that before the internet, when the only way for people to spread information was through newsletters mailed to their mailboxes that they had to sign up for. In the modern age, anyone who tries to talk about the Holocaust is going to get spammed with facts that ultimately prove that [it did not happen]. This recognition by the far right that the internet has created opportunities for them to spread their Holocasut denial is deeply worrying. However, before exploring how far-right denial has been changed by the online spaces in which it is now spread, it is necessary to explore denial propagated by individuals and groups beyond the far right.

Different types of Holocaust denial

Today the Holocaust is not only denied by the far right but also by people from across the political spectrum and by people of all races and religions. In addition to the far right, the most likely places to find contemporary Holocaust denial is from the far left of the political spectrum and from within Muslim communities around the world.

Denial by the left wing and within Muslim communities

Left wing motivations for denial and diminishment are often different to the extreme right, driven not by a will to resurrect fascism but often the result of a fundamentally left-wing reading of history, rooted in class, materialist logic and an opposition to imperialism. Outright denial of the Holocaust remains extremely rare on the left, as a belief in egalitarianism and a history of opposition to racism and fascism do not easily fit with the denial of the Nazis’ planned extermination of the Jews. More prevalent is the diminishment of the Holocaust, relativising it or excusing denial, deniers and antisemitism in the interest of alternative political objectives.

For small elements of the more ideologically dogmatic far left, the fact that the Holocaust was perpetrated by people from all class backgrounds sits uneasily with their own worldview; it cannot be explained in totality by materialist logic. How can the working classes of Europe simultaneously be victims of fascist oppression and often perpetrators of the Holocaust? Fascism is something “practiced upon the working class”, rather than practiced by it according to them.

Another form of Holocaust denial that emanates from within left-wing politics is what is often called ‘false equivalency’, namely the false comparison of the oppressive actions of the Israeli government against the Palestinians with the mechanised extermination plan of the Nazis against the Jews. This form of Holocaust revisionism or diminishment is also propagated by Holocaust deniers in the Muslim world and diaspora. Middle Eastern denial was born independently from its European counterparts, developing not as a means to resurrect fascism but rather as a means to undermine the creation and development of a Jewish State in the region. A core tenet of this type of denial is the idea that the Holocaust has either been completely manufactured, or at least extensively exaggerated, with a view to legitimising Israel and creating an ideological bulwark and justification for the Zionist project.

In addition to depicting the Holocaust as a hoax manufactured as a means of justification for a Jewish state, there is the tactic of diminishing the historical uniqueness of the Holocaust via relativisation. Another device used, again as a means to delegitimise Israel, is to exaggerate the occurrence of collaboration between Zionists and the Nazis during the 1930s.

The rise and fall of traditional far-right denial

However, while Holocaust denial is propagated by people across the political spectrum and from all religious and ethnic backgrounds, it has often been the fascist and far-right Holocaust deniers at the forefront of the development and propagation of denial. Throughout the postwar period a number of major figures dominated the Holocaust denial scene; David Irving, Ernst Zündel, Fred Leuchter and Robert Faurisson amongst others.
This group sought academic credibility and mainstream acceptance through the publication of pseudo-academic and pseudo-scientific books as a way to spread their denial theories. Many within this scene used bogus academic titles, scientific status and false descriptions to gain recognition and to give their views respectability and credibility. At its peak some of these deniers sold worryingly large numbers of books and filled large lecture theatres around the world.

However, the traditional far-right Holocaust denial movement slowed down significantly in the second decade of the 2000s. The ageing movement struggled to rejuvenate itself while many of its most prominent activists have become less active due to old age or have passed away. Among these are Tony Hancock in 2012, the founder of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), Bradley Smith in 2016, Ernst Zündel in 2017 and Robert Faurisson in 2018. Even those organisations that remain, such as the US based Institute for Historical Review (IHR), no longer hold the sway they once did. The exceptions to this are the conferences organised by the Iranian government and marches and events in Eastern Europe.
With the birth of the internet the traditional Holocaust deniers were fast adopters, quickly understanding the potential to reach new and bigger audiences than before. Modern technology especially has had a profound impact, not just on the ability of the denial community to spread their ideas, but more fundamentally on the idea of, and motivation for, Holocaust denial itself. Recognising the internet’s potential for reaching people at an unprecedented scale, deniers have had some success in gaining a wider audience. In an attempt to stay relevant, some organisations and individuals from the traditional scene have modified their rhetoric in a struggle to stay up-to-date with an increasingly online and digitally literate far right.

However, generally, the traditional denial community that migrated online has struggled to take full advantage of the emergence of newer platforms and the traditional movement as a whole seems to have remained largely outside of social media. As a great deal of far-right content has flourished on social media, one would expect Holocaust denial ideas to spread just as easily online. The issue for traditional deniers, however, is that their material has not translated well into this new arena. The web has democratised denial output, making the expressions of openly violent and extreme antisemitism accessible alongside “serious” denial tomes and videos of lengthy “scholarly” presentations. Social media algorithms often favour the most sensationalistic content, which has encouraged a shift in the tone of denial messages online away from longform pseudo-scientific argumentation.

Holocaust denial in the digital age

While the decline of the traditional scene is welcome, a newer form of Holocaust denial has emerged in the digital age that reflects the nature of the toxic online environments from which it has emerged. In many ways, the message is the same – that the Holocaust did not happen – but the tone of the message and the way in which it is disseminated has changed.

In 1946, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre published Anti-Semite & Jew, in which he explored, in particular, the causes of antisemitism, at a time when the historical, political and moral significance of the Holocaust was not lost to many. Discussing the way in which antisemitism, like all forms of hate, is a matter of placing one’s faith in a hateful passion, borne of insecurity and which necessitates the rejection of reason, Sartre gives a warning to those who fall for the knowing irrationality of the antisemite: Never believe that [they] are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play.
They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past. For much of the contemporary far right who have grown up with an internet culture that has cultivated an extreme, contrarian attitude against liberal conventions and social taboos – this event of unique and tremendous historical, moral and political significance has become a mere object of their once “trolling” ridicule and now, increasingly, hateful vitriol, and its main victims – the Jewish people – their fundamental target.
Yet, in their casualised, throw-away engagement with the Holocaust, there is also an indication – evidenced, not least, by their overall detachment from the traditional denial community (even online) – that they have less interest in giving the “ridiculous reasons” Sartre suggests an antisemite might try to offer. These simultaneous deniers and celebrators of the Holocaust have little interest in attempting to feign “seriousness” as many traditional deniers did (which is not to suggest that this was anything but a thin veil for antisemitism). Rather, this generation truly “delight[s] in acting in bad faith”.
In a sense, therefore, denial as it exists for many who have emerged from the young online far right today is a full embrace of the flagrant and abhorrent unseriousness which has always been part of the denial of the Holocaust. And if this emerging group moves readily between denial and celebration, therefore, we must also now fight – in addition to sincere denial of the event – just as hard the belief Sartre suggests the antisemite
relies on: the right to “play” with a memory of such grave importance.

Trolling

In the past decade we have seen the emergence of far-right groups, networks and movements that are primarily focused on the internet. Movements such as the so-called alt-right, for example, emerged on social media and in modern forums, such as Reddit and, especially, the /pol/ discussion board on 4chan, the latter of which is particularly akin to a social network in its frenetic stream of content. Within these online spaces, an existing online behaviour, trolling – the act of being deliberately offensive or provocative with the aim of provoking a hostile, negative or outraged reaction, often with the stated aim of ‘merely’ engaging in humorous ridicule – developed a distinctly extreme, antagonistic and taboo-breaking style. Whilst not entirely new – the similar notion of ‘flaming’ others online predates trolling, and USENET groups dedicated to flaming Jews and many other groups existed well before the likes of 4chan – the particular style of trolling found in these modern online spaces has aided the normalisation of extreme antisemitism, including with regard to the Holocaust, and is now documented to have catalysed many towards accepting far-right beliefs. Notably, Andrew Anglin, founder of the alt-right neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, who has stated that he is “at heart a troll”, has claimed that it was through 4chan in 2010 that he “got into Hitler”. Similarly, Mike Peinovich (AKA Mike Enoch), host of ‘The Daily Shoah’ podcast and founder of the alt-right website TheRightStuff.biz highlights this when describing his site’s origins: „We started trolling, that’s how we started The Right Stuff, that’s where it came from. Literally, we wanted to bother liberals… We loved to trigger them. We loved to go in and just hit them on all their points and through this sort of opposition to that we actually developed some kind of coherent worldview, and that worldview centred around race politics.“ Stories like this, where ridicule gives way to the acceptance of extreme ideas, are prevalent across those areas of the contemporary far right which have emerged online.

Mocking and ‚humour‘

A style guide for contributors to The Daily Stormer, leaked in December 2017, reveals how this route has become weaponised by the far right. The “prime directive” of the site, the guide details, is to “Always Blame the Jews for Everything”, not for the purposes of building a movement but with a view to insidiously spreading “the message of nationalism and anti-Semitism to the masses.” Citing a propaganda doctrine from Mein Kampf as inspiration, Anglin explained that: „The goal is to continually repeat the same points, over and over and over and over again. The reader is at first drawn in by curiosity or the naughty humor, and is slowly awakened to reality by repeatedly reading the same points.“ The “naughty humor” referred to is openly stated by Anglin as a means to normalise extreme antisemitism and “the acceptance of violence” by readers, whilst avoiding the legal repercussions of actually promoting violence. He admits that this tone “is obviously a ploy” as he does “actually want to gas kikes”. This tone is likewise employed in the site’s regular Holocaust denial, much of which covers the recent actions of traditional deniers and links to videos expressing their views (as well as in their occasional interviews with deniers, including Nicholas Kollerstrom in 2013).

Indeed, there is evidence that the site’s forum has allowed for some interaction between the traditional denial community and those newer to such attitudes. Users have shared links to traditional Holocaust denial literature on the forum’s “Online Library” and expressed their support for traditional deniers. Following the death of Ernst Zündel in 2017, a user called ‘7x13_28 Stereotypical Badger’ stated in a forum thread that “I am heartened by what he did for all of us, and the correspondence he and I shared 2008-2009”. Recognising the changing dynamics of communicating denial in the social media age, a thread entitled “How would you debunk the Holocaust in 140 characters or less?”, was started by a user named ‘Hadding’ in July 2017. The same user stated in the thread in December 2017 that they had “just finished an article for CODOH” and that “The article has been reviewed by [established denier] Germar Rudolf; so, it’s good. Maybe somebody would like to use this as material for memes”.

Similarly, a February 2018 article on The Daily Stormer epitomises the clashing of the old and new visions of Holocaust deniers. The article addressed the criminal investigation of denier Michèle Renouf after claims she made at a neo-Nazi rally in Dresden, Germany that same month. The article ends with an embedded video of denier Fred Leuchter speaking at a Holocaust “revisionist” conference in the early 1990s. Leuchter, who claimed to be an engineer though he had no relevant qualifications, declared in the speech that: „I am an engineer and a scientist, not a revisionist […] but because of what I have seen […] I have a responsibility to the truth […] because of this responsibility I am calling for […] an international commission of scientists, historians and scholars.“ Including content from these traditional deniers and their pretensions to seriousness would give the reader the impression that The Daily Stormer takes a similar approach to Holocaust denial.
Yet, the site’s leaked style guide focuses on the importance of “lulz” (i.e. on being humorous) and discourages writers from using an intellectual tone (no “college words”, it declares). The article on Renouf itself is entitled “Germany: British Woman Investigated for Denying Kooky Fake
Shower Room Hoax”. Despite recent crackdowns Alt-right neo-nazi site The Daily Stormer by tech companies, modern search algorithms and social media have unquestionably had a long-term effect on the accessibility of offensive, hateful and false information available to users online, much of which is often embedded within, or at least slowly normalised by, taboo-subverting internet ‘humour’.

In addition to a shift in tone towards a more mocking or comical style is the emergence of a more celebratory stance on the Holocaust, sometime born out of this ‘trolling’ culture. Some antisemitic engagement with the Holocaust by the young far right online today is celebratory, or at least casual and (ostensibly) for the purposes of juvenile, subversive ‘humour’. Whilst some will still have descended down the path to celebrating this horrific event through straightforward radicalisation by extreme, traditional antisemitic ideologies, others have taken the more unconventional route of coming to believe the extreme politics they first were attracted to as a taboo and engaged with for subversive, ‘humourous’ effect.

Historicistion

Another factor influencing the readiness of some young far-right activists to deny, mock or celebrate the Holocaust is the historicisation of the event. For many young deniers, the Holocaust feels like a removed and distant historical event in a way that would seem impossible to postwar generations. Some younger users who engage antisemitically with the Holocaust, potentially lack not just a sense of the event’s moral significance, but moreover a declining sense of its historical and continued political significance and uniqueness. The result is a situation wherein the young who engage antisemitically with the Holocaust may use their awareness of the event’s significance for others, and their own disinterestedness towards it, to switch between denial, belief and all stages in between depending on the degree to which they wish to attack others, more or less with regard to who they are (in the case of Jewish people) or for their sensibilities (in the case of the mainstream liberal-left). Demonstrating these shifts, the aforementioned Peinovich tweeted on the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day in 2018 that: „Even if you think it happened despite lack of any real evidence, you should disregard the holocaust. It is used as a propaganda tool and moral blackmail against whites that want to stand up for their own interests. No more. #HolocaustMemorialDay“. On the same day he also tweeted: „Here’s the thing Jews. Real or fake, I don’t give a fuck about the holocaust, mmmkay. #HolocaustMemorialDay“.
Rather than previous generations of the far right that often obsessed over the Holocaust, there is a growing group who argue that the best approach is simply to ignore it. For example, an article from The Daily Stormer in April 2021 argued: „We’re headed towards a century since the supposed Holocaust allegedly took place. The war ended 76 years ago. So rather than “did it happen?”, it seems we should be asking “why are we still talking about this all the time?” Here we see a perfect storm emerge where something that for some young people holds little significance but also allows for maximum offence to be caused through its denial, ridicule or celebration.

Conclusion

There was a time when far-right antisemites dedicated their entire lives to disproving the Holocaust, increasingly today, in the digital age, younger far-right activists seek to dismiss it, ridicule and mock it or semi-ironically celebrate it. This shift can perhaps be explained by the wider democratisation of online debate, which has reduced the need for Holocaust denial to seek academic credibility, but also to the growing distance in time between the present and the horrors of the Holocaust. As collective memory of the Holocaust fades and the number of living survivors grows ever smaller, antisemites may no longer perceive the need to deny its existence and can now focus their efforts on relativising, diminishing or mocking it instead.

This text ist an excerpt and can be read with illustrations and footnotes in:

Antisemitism in the Digital Age
Online Antisemitic Hate, Holocaust Denial, Conspiracy Ideologies and Terrorism in Europe

A Collaborative Research Report by Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Expo Foundation and HOPE not hate
2021

Contents:

  • Executive Summary
  • The Report in Numbers
  • Introduction
  • Conspiracy Ideologies, COVID-19 and Antisemitism
  • Superconspiracies: QAnon and the New World Order
  • Case study: Path of radicalisation into antisemitism
  • The Changing Nature of Holocaust Denial in the Digital Age
  • Case Studies of Antisemitism on Social Media:
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Parler
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • “4chan /pol/”
  • Glossary of Antisemitic Terms
  • Learnings from Project

Download the report as a PDF here:

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"Mike Johnson adheres to young-Earth creationist beliefs, which include the idea that the Earth is approximately 6,000 years old."

Title:

Content: How Mike Johnson’s creationist beliefs clash with climate facts: ‘He just wasn’t interested’

Mike Johnson was a few months away from assuming elected office in late 2014 when he was confronted with an impassioned appeal by the man he would later pay tribute to in his first speech as House speaker: his father Patrick.

The elder Johnson, a former firefighter in the Louisiana city of Shreveport, had survived a near fatal industrial explosion when Mike was 12 years old, a defining event in both men’s lives. He had just joined a local community environmental group, working to fight against US government plans to burn – in the open air – over 15m pounds of toxic munitions. It had thrust Patrick and his future wife Janis Gabriel onto the frontlines of Louisiana environmental advocacy.

As authorities were on the brink of approving the “open burn”, which would have sent vast quantities of known carcinogens into the air, Patrick and Janis turned to the most influential person they knew.

Then an ambitious, rightwing constitutional lawyer, Mike Johnson would in a matter of weeks fill the vacancy for Louisiana’s eighth state legislative district – whose borders are just 20 miles from Camp Minden, a military base where the illegal munitions dump – the largest in US history - was located. A small amount of the munitions had spontaneously exploded two years before, causing a 4-mile blast radius.

The pair drove to Mike Johnson’s legal offices in the late morning, Gabriel recalled, and Patrick Johnson explained to his son the immediate environmental and health dangers the toxic dump posed, not only to residents in the immediate vicinity but to members of the Johnson family living in the region.

“His father and I went to him and said: ‘Mike you need to get involved in this, this is really important. Your family really lives at ground zero,’” Gabriel said in an interview with the Guardian. “We basically begged him to say something, to someone, somewhere.”

A terse back and forth followed, she said.

“He just wasn’t interested,” Gabriel said. “He had other things to do. He was never interested in environmental things.”

The couple left deeply disappointed.

“It just blew my mind that he wouldn’t give five minutes of his time to the effort,” she said. “He basically shut us down.”

A spokeswoman for Johnson said he “disputes this characterization as described” but did not respond to an invitation to elaborate further.

Gabriel, 72, has thought about this failed appeal to Johnson repeatedly in recent months, ever since he was thrust from relative obscurity to the US house speakership in October.

A denier of climate science, Mike Johnson has spoken about how his evangelical faith has shaped his political worldview. According to a broad examination of his past statements, Johnson’s anti-climate advocacy often bears the hallmarks of a Christian fundamentalism linked to creationism.

Louisiana’s fourth congressional district, which includes Camp Minden, has long voted staunchly Republican, but many residents still hold deep concerns about pollution and the climate crisis. In a year the district experienced record heat and a number of climate related disasters, some say their representative in Washington, who is now second in line to the presidency, is fundamentally failing them.

* * *

Mike Johnson’s views on climate change became publicly apparent in 2017, just five months into his first term in the US Congress. Asked how he felt about the climate crisis by a constituent at a rowdy town hall meeting in Shreveport, Johnson launched into a critique of climate change data, saying he had also seen “the data on the other side”.

“The climate is changing, but the question is: is the climate changing because of the natural cycles of the atmosphere over the span of history, or is it changing because we drive SUVs?

“I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”

Some attendees booed.

Two years later, Johnson – who has received almost $350,000 in political donations from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2016 – led the Republican Study Committee as it lobbied against progressive Democratic efforts to implement a Green New Deal. Johnson denounced the sweeping federal blueprint for climate action as a “guise to usher in the principles of socialism” and create a system of “full government control”.

In Louisiana, which is economically dependent on the oil and gas industry, the remarks were consistent with the Republican party’s support for fossil fuels.

But to experts who study the Christian fundamentalist movement of creationism, the comments revealed a worldview that falls far outside traditional Republican pro-industry norms. They see the remarks, and Johnson’s rejection of climate science, as evidence of Johnson’s adherence to young-Earth creationist beliefs, including the presumption that the Earth is just 6,000 years old.

Johnson has been closely associated with the creationist movement since 2014 – before his entry into politics – when he became a vocal supporter and lawyer for Answers in Genesis (AiG), a global fundamentalist Christian organization that built a gigantic Noah’s Ark replica and amusement park in Kentucky. Following a headline-grabbing legal battle, Johnson ultimately helped the group secure taxpayer incentives for the project.

“Creationists can just wave away all of the geologic evidence of climate change because they are convinced that all rock layers were laid down in a global flood about 4,400 years ago,” said David MacMillan, a former Christian fundamentalist who has left the movement.

MacMillan grew up attending creationist conferences, had posts published on AiG’s website, and helped raise money for the establishment of AiG’s first creationist museum near Cincinnati, earning him a spot on a donor wall and a lifetime pass to attend. Now – having left his fundamentalist views behind – he is speaking out about the dangers of science denial.

“They will tell you that hundreds of thousands of annual ice core layers are just a bunch of snow that formed while the Earth was cooling off after Noah’s flood. They believe climate scientists are sifting through meaningless noise to try and find patterns that will get them noticed and promote narratives that please the global elite who want to control us.”

What’s more, MacMillan added, most fundamentalists argue that even if the climate is changing, it should make no difference because they also expect the imminent, apocalyptic, final judgment of the world.

Johnson forged a close relationship with AiG founder Ken Ham, an Australian Christian fundamentalist who has argued that humans “don’t need to fear that man will destroy the planet, as God wouldn’t let that happen anyway”.

MacMillan, who knows Ham, said the AiG founder pioneered a technique of trying to sow doubts about science by presenting scientific consensus as merely a belief system, much like religion.

In a video interview with the Canadian psychologist and alt-right provocateur Jordan Peterson in November last year, Johnson drew directly from this creationist strategy when asked why Democrats pursue policies to address the climate crisis.

“They regard the climate agenda as part of their religion,” Johnson said. “I don’t know any other way to explain it. They pursue it with religious zeal. And they care not what type of pain these policies inflict upon the people that they are supposed to be serving because they’re not serving the people, they’re serving the planet.”

While many media reports have highlighted Johnson’s controversial relationship with Ham, MacMillan said Johnson’s close association with the group – his bio appears on its website, he has written blog posts for the group, and spoken at an AiG event in Kentucky – means Johnson would likely have had to agree to the group’s statement of faith, which includes the assertion that the Bible is “factually true” and that its authority is not limited to spiritual or redemptive themes, but also history and science.

According to the group’s website: “All persons employed by the AiG ministry in any capacity, or who serve as volunteers, should abide by and agree to our Statement of Faith and conduct themselves accordingly.”

An AiG editorial review board regularly reviews all articles, books and other materials produced or distributed by the group to make sure they are in line with AiG values and that there “is not mission drift”.

In a speech delivered at Ham’s Ark Encounter conference center last year, Johnson raised the apocalypse and Christ’s second coming.

“We are hopeful people because we know how the book ends … God wins,” he said in an address that was met with a standing ovation. “The charge is for us, it’s not yet determined. We’re going to be here until the Lord tarries, when the Lord comes back. And maybe that’s soon, because we’re seeing a lot of signs.”

Mike Johnson and his wife are due to speak at an AiG conference event in April next year, entitled: “Reclaim: overcoming the war on women for the glory of God.”

“There is no doubt that Mike Johnson demonstrated to AiG’s satisfaction that he agrees with every aspect of that statement of faith,” MacMillan said.

A short biography of Johnson is included on AiG’s contributor’s page. A review of the 267 biographies on the AiG site indicates he is one of only two elected officials to post on the fundamentalist group’s website. The other is Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state representative and the current president of the Family Research Council, a far-right evangelical lobby group. Perkins, one of Johnson’s political mentors, once said he believed floods were sent by God to punish homosexuality and regularly cites the Bible to deny solutions to the climate crisis.

When asked by the Guardian if Johnson had ever endorsed the AiG statement of faith, or if he shared Ham’s views on climate or if he believed the earth was 6,000 years-old, a spokeswoman said: “The Speaker is not responsible for the views of others” and did not respond to an invitation to elaborate.

AiG did not respond to specific questions about Johnson and the group’s statement of faith and instead commented on his legal work for the organization. “Mr Johnson served the ministry very effectively and professionally in the matter and Answers in Genesis was very pleased and grateful for his services,” said spokesman A Larry Ross.

Janis Gabriel pointed to Mike Johnson’s hardline faith and political pragmatism when explaining her interpretation of why he had brushed aside his father’s appeals to help with the air pollution crisis at Camp Minden.

“It speaks to those religious beliefs,” said Gabriel. “‘Don’t take care of the environment because we have a finite amount of time here and God will take care of you.’ It’s crazy.”

Gabriel, who was discussing her relationship with the House speaker for the first time publicly, said she was disclosing details of private conversations because Johnson now holds a position of immense power. She wanted to further public understanding of “what and who he is and how that will affect the job he’s doing for us.”

“That is the important conversation,” she said.

* * *

In his 2022 interview with Peterson, Mike Johnson couched his critique of those seeking climate solutions around conversations he was having with residents in his district.

“When I’m in Louisiana I try to explain to our folks, listen: ‘They have effectively replaced father God with mother Earth. . . . They believe we owe fealty to Mother Earth.”

Even as the speaker rejects concerns about the climate crisis, Louisiana’s fourth congressional district is already experiencing new extremes tied to global heating.

In a year almost certain to become the hottest on record, the city of Shreveport endured back-to-back days of record heat in August as temperatures soared to 110F .

Louisiana, too, endured months of devastating drought, which contributed to a water crisis in the south-east, and hundreds of wildfires in America’s wettest state. The largest wildfire in Louisiana’s history occurred this year in Johnson’s district, scorching a staggering 33,000 acres and decimating the local economy. The heat and drought combined cost Louisiana’s agriculture industry $1.69bn alone this year.

The state also logged a record number of heat-related deaths over the summer, according to a spokesman for the Louisiana health department [LDH], with 69 people dying between June and September this year. This was almost double the death toll of any in the past six years, according to data released to the Guardian by LDH.

A report published this year, which examined all occupational heat related illnesses between 2010-2020 found that the highest rates of illness occurred in Louisiana’s north-west, which has some of the largest rates of poverty in the state and is entirely covered by Johnson’s district.

“Heat exposure is intensifying as the frequency, severity, and duration of extreme heat events increases due to climate change,” the government report acknowledges.

In Shreveport, six people died from extreme heat this year alone – a record year, according to Todd Thoma, who has served as coroner in the Shreveport area for 16 years. “This was an exceptional year to me,” Dr Thoma said, as he combed through each case file in his office, pointing to a combination of prolonged extreme heat, high poverty rates and power outages that contributed to the increased risks for the city’s most vulnerable residents.

A 62-year-old woman who died in June after a tornado knocked out power to her home, leaving her with no air conditioning. A 49-year-old man, found collapsed on the sidewalk just four days later. And, on 13 July, 34-year-old Ted Boykin, a father of one who was found dead inside a trailer home, with no air conditioning, that was used by Shreveport’s unhoused community.

The ambient air temperature inside was 98F, according to the coroner’s report. Boykin’s internal temperature was 107.9F.

In an interview Boykin’s sister, Sandy Boykin-Hays, said she considered her brother a victim of the climate crisis and chastised her congressman and others for a failure to accept science.

“He was let down by the system,” said Boykin-Hays. “And to them [in Washington], I’m sure they wouldn’t believe, even if it [climate change] was staring them in the face, because they’re rich. They have money. They don’t have to worry about air conditioning or where your next meal is coming from.”

Boykin-Hays, who works as a food delivery driver and volunteers with homeless outreach, was forced to take out a $3,000 loan to pay for her brother’s funeral.

“They’re ignoring the true issue because it doesn’t affect them,” she said.

In Washington, where Johnson now holds the power to bring legislation to the House floor, the speaker has not yet expressed a position on a bill introduced by California Democrat Judy Chu, to protect workers from excessive heat, despite it receiving some bipartisan support in committee.

“The denial of the climate crisis by Maga extremists like the Speaker isn’t just a danger to the health of his constituents during summer months,” said Chu. “It’s a danger to the long-term well being of future generations in America and around the world.”

* * *

Both Janis Gabriel and Patrick Johnson became board members of the Citizens Advisory Group set up to engage with the EPA over community concerns at Camp Minden, according to meeting minutes reviewed by the Guardian and interviews with two other board members.

Johnson even co-wrote, recorded and performed an original song to help the “stop the burn” efforts, which eventually helped force the EPA into a course change by approving use of a cleaner alternative to dispose of the waste throughout 2016 and 2017.

“Take a stand against the poison, protect our future children’s lives,” Patrick Johnson sings.

The former firefighter had become a national advocate for hazardous material safety after surviving a fiery explosion caused by leaking ammonia at a cold storage facility. Another firefighter died in the 1984 accident. The near-death experience, said Gabriel, changed his spiritual outlook. The couple met in 2013 when Johnson attended Gabriel’s Daoist center as a student in Shreveport to practice tai chi and qigong martial arts. The pair married in October 2016, shortly before Johnson’s death from cancer in December that year.

The elder Johnson, said Gabriel, clearly accepted climate science and was “acutely aware of the environment”. While he “certainly didn’t agree” with Mike Johnson’s “extremist stance” on Christianity, he accepted it. The pair disagreed over support for Donald Trump, Gabriel said.

Mike Johnson has described his father’s survival in the 1984 explosion as an “actual miracle” that “made me a person of very deep faith”. His campaign literature still references the accident and, in his first speech as speaker, Johnson described how his father’s near death “changed all of our life trajectories”.

But from January 2015, when he formally entered politics, Johnson appeared to display little interest in the Camp Minden issue that his father was campaigning on. It was a period described by three organizers as the start of heightened advocacy.

He was given invitations to attend citizens meetings as local campaigning ramped up, according to the board’s chairman Ron Hagar, but did not attend.

“He stayed as far away from it as possible,” said Hagar, a close friend of Patrick Johnson’s. “He had no sense of responsibility to stand up for the people he’s representing.”

A search of public records did not indicate Mike Johnson had spoken on the issue at the time although he was listed as a co-sponsor of a minor 2015 state house resolution to stop the facility from accepting further waste explosives. Photographs show Johnson was also present at a December 2015 press conference at the site, but according to a senior organizer in attendance, Johnson did not speak and the state representative is not quoted in local media.

The issue was championed by a Democratic state representative for the 10th district, which includes Minden, named Gene Reynolds. Reynolds, who is now retired, did not return multiple calls for comment.

A spokeswoman for Johnson pointed to public activity cited by the Guardian and “other activities” to dispute claims he had not been involved in the matter.

Johnson’s short tenure in the state legislature was spent focused on far-right policy initiatives tied to his Biblical worldview, including introducing legislation to push back against same sex marriage, and a continued focus on his non-profit law practice, including work with Ham’s Ark Encounter.

Following her husband’s death, Gabriel moved out of state. She began to lose touch with Johnson, although the pair exchanged occasional cordial text messages.

In one May 2019 exchange, seen by the Guardian, Johnson contacted Gabriel to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. Gabriel told him she had left Shreveport permanently and moved to a different state.

“Don’t blame you one bit for staying there! Shreveport is really going downhill now and it’s sad to watch,” Johnson replied.

Gabriel then explained that her decision to leave had come on Patrick’s advice, partly due to his prediction of “worsening environmental problems”. She also told Johnson that his father would be proud of his “love and devotion and support” of his own children.

“Dad was right about the environmental problems in Shreveport. Those and other issues are mounting,” Johnson replied. But in the same message, he moved quickly to update her on his rapid rise in Congress: “I’ve been advanced in leadership in record time (currently the 10th ranked Republican!), and God continues to affirm that we are doing what He has called us to do, so that keeps us encouraged.”

Mike Johnson is likely a young Earth creationist due to his association with Answers in Genesis, which promotes this view.

Kyrie Irving's history has been subject to exaggeration and scrutiny for his unconventional views, including his flat Earth theory.

Title:

Content: Kyrie Irving’s Flat Earth Theory Revisited: How Did Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson React to It?

Tonoy Sengupta
|Sun Oct 16 2022

Kyrie Irving has some rather interesting theory on the planet we live on

Kyrie Irving sure is an interesting guy.

Of course, his ability on the basketball is a sight to behold. However, his thoughts and ideologies off it are something the NBA community has had its eye on for a long time too.

Over the years, he has come to be known as the man who is absent from the team for about half the year tending to one cause or another. Though it must be noted that there is a massive amount of exaggeration at play in all the conversations regarding them.

But frankly, his tendency to take holidays off work isn’t exactly weak either.

However, this is Kyrie during his most recent years in the league, a stark contrast to how he was at the start of his career. But it had to have started somewhere, right?

Well, apparently it did. And frankly, fans should’ve known the kind of person they were in for after this little incident was revealed.

Also Read: When Dennis Rodman teared up after his friend North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un met with former US President Donald Trump

Kyrie Irving once believed the Earth is Flat

There are shockingly a whole bunch of Flat Earthers on this planet of ours to this day. And apparently, Kyrie Irving was once a part of that army.

Now admittedly, the original clip of him admitting he believes in the Flat Earth theory can no longer be found. However, there are several clips of him justifying his stance on the matter, one of which is right here, below.

There are also clips of him claiming that he was only joking when he spoke about believing the flat earth theory, so frankly, he may deserve to be cut some slack here. Furthermore, even if he believed it several years ago, there is a strong chance that his beliefs have changed completely.

However, if the man still believes in the theory, that is quite something, isn’t it?

At this point, even most scientists would probably just find themselves chuckling on the matter, rather than be exasperated.

But until Irving announces his current beliefs, one can only speculate.

Neil deGrasse Tyson once shared his thoughts on Kyrie Irving’s backing of the Flat Earth theory

When it comes to scientists, Neil deGrasse Tyson is probably the most well-liked one out there, on the face of this planet.

Whenever he is brought on a show of any kind, he has been asked questions about space, aliens, and even some questions on theoretical physics concepts, such as the Multiverse theory.

But never had he been asked to react to a basketball player in any kind of way. Or at least, that wasn’t the case, until the Kyrie Irving incident.

And here was his reaction.

While he does seem to be speaking facts, and trying to go about this in a logical manner, he does seem a tad bit snarkier than usual.

We can’t imagine Kyrie Irving being the biggest fan of that.

Also Read: Michael Jordan, Who Refused to Back Black Political Candidates, Appreciated ‘Bishop of Brixton’ Jimmy Rogers’ Communal Work

About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

I've always been someone surrounded by sports. At 15 though, Basketball was brought to my attention, and I absolutely fell in love with it. At 21 now, I look to share the joy I feel with the world through my articles.

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What NBA star claimed that the earth is flat?

Kyrie Irving has been scrutinized for his past belief in the Flat Earth theory, although he has claimed to have been joking.

What NBA star claimed that the earth is flat?

"Kyrie Irving has been scrutinized for his beliefs in the Flat Earth theory, with notable figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson commenting on his views."

What NBA star claimed that the earth is flat?

Kyrie Irving, a well-known NBA player, has been scrutinized for his belief in the flat Earth theory, which he has publicly expressed on multiple occasions.

Title:

Content: “Everyone Gets Hit in the Head”: Travis and Jason Kelce Boldly Claim 20% NFL Players Are Flat-Earthers

Samnur Reza
Published

Eight-time NBA All-Star and Mavericks point guard, Kyrie Irving, has time and time again claimed that the earth is flat. Sadly, this belief is widely held around the globe. When discussing the same and if there are NFL players who also call themselves flat-earthers behind closed doors, Jason Kelce and his brother Travis boldly claimed that a good chunk of the NFL locker room actually believes the earth to be flat.

During a recent episode of the New Heights podcast with comedian Andrew Santino at the discussion table, the younger Kelce said, “We’ve mentioned on the show that conspiracy theories help bring NFL locker rooms together,” before asking the guest, “What are your conspiracy theories?”

Without skipping a beat, Santino posed the question about what percentage of NFL players actually believe in the Flat Earth theory. In response, Travis claimed that at least 10 to 15 athletes in every locker room are flat-earthers. Jason Kelce, however, added that if someone were to conduct an anonymous poll about it, the number of flat-earth believers could potentially jump up to 20%, equating to approximately 11 players out of a 53-man roster.

“Dude, honestly, there are at least 10 to 15 guys in every locker room; I would imagine,” Travis remarked, followed by Jason adding, “If you took an anonymous poll like nobody had to disclose their name or anything like that, you’re over 15% of an NFL locker room… Maybe over 20.”

This revelation baffled the Ricky Stanicky actor, but Travis consoled him by jokingly saying, “Dude, everyone gets hit in the head.” Nevertheless, while the Kelce duo’s numbers may be somewhat exaggerated, there have been some instances when NFL players have openly admitted believing in the earth being flat.

Darius Slay, Sammy Watkins, and Others Are Flat-Earthers

As per Sports Illustrated, free agent wide receiver Sammy Watkins claimed back in 2017 that the earth is flat. But he isn’t the only NFL athlete on that list, as Eagles CB Darius Slay told Tori Petry of DetroitLions.com back in 2018 that the earth is flat.

“I mean, I think it is (flat), we’re walking flat, so how is it round?,” claimed the All-Pro cornerback.

Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen followed suit just last year and claimed the same thing. “PSA,” Queen wrote in a tweet. “Earth is flat. Thank you. Carry on!!”

The list goes on! Former Texas Tech safety, Tyler Owens, apparently told reporters at the Scouting Combine that he doesn’t believe in space or any other planets. Thus, he finds the Flat Earth Theory ‘interesting’ and ‘valid’.

“Nah, I don’t believe in space…. like, you know, I’m religious, so I think like… we’re on our own right now. I don’t think there’s, like, other planets, and stuff like that. I don’t know,” Owens said, as per DailyMail.

Even Seahawks QB Geno Smith has claimed that the whole thing is still up for debate. Moreover, Jason Kelce once revealed that, out of curiosity, he had asked one of his coaches about the Flat Earth Theory and if anyone believed in it. Right there and then, an athlete nearby said, “I mean how you know it isn’t?”

Despite its absurdity, the debate will rage on till the end of time, it seems. However, there are simple experiments that can be conducted in front of a flat-earther to convince them otherwise, as perfectly demonstrated by Wired.

About the author

Samnur Reza

Samnur Reza, or "Rocky," is an NFL editor for the SportsRush. Although his love for football began with Tom Brady, he’s now a devoted fan of Jalen Hurts and is keeping his fingers crossed for the first ring. When asked how he remains loyal to the Eagles, he channels his inner Jim from The Office and responds, 'On a wing and a prayer.' Much like his love for football, Rocky is a dedicated cinephile with an impressive amount of screen time. He’s also fond of cats and has a furry friend named ‘Eva’.

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What NBA star claimed that the earth is flat?

Mike Johnson's views on climate change are shaped by his evangelical faith and Christian fundamentalism, which is linked to creationism.

Mike Johnson's views on climate change are influenced by his connection to Christian fundamentalist Ken Ham, who believes God would prevent humans from destroying the planet.

The flat Earth conspiracy theory rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and its believers can be found among certain subgroups, including Millennials and Trump supporters.

The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and it has been found to have a conservative preference in a study.

"The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, with a history dating back to ancient times and a modern resurgence through social media and celebrity endorsements."

The flat Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that rejects scientific evidence, including observations of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during eclipses, which is always round.

The flat Earth conspiracy theory rejects scientific evidence of Earth's shape, and has been promoted by individuals and organizations who mix it with conspiracy theories about secret groups controlling the world.

Al-Ma'mun astronomers disproved the flat Earth theory by measuring the height of the polar star and demonstrating that the Earth is a sphere.

Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, born in 973 AD, is credited with disproving the flat Earth theory by calculating the Earth's circumference using a triangulation method.

Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni calculated the Earth's circumference using a trigonometric equation based on triangulation.

Neil deGrasse Tyson provided a logical response to Kyrie Irving's Flat Earth claim.

The torus Earth theory was first proposed by Dr. Rosenpenis in 2008 on the Flat Earth Theory forum as a joke, but it was taken seriously by some flat Earth supporters.

What do flat-Earth proponents believe about the shape of the Earth?