Many thanks to all the people on the internet who let me know about this story. Makes me wonder who’s going to read this now, of course…
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In an absolutely stunning example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, rapper B.o.B. has unleashed a twitter storm evangelizing his listeners to the Flat Earth Theory. That’s right, he thinks the Earth is flat. Nevermind that we have GPS that relies on satellites in orbit of the very spherical Earth, that we’ve had people orbiting the very spherical Earth for over fifteen years nonstop, that you can buy a plane ticket yourself to fly around the very spherical Earth, or that if you call someone during the day on the other side of the very spherical Earth it will be night there. Nevermind any of that, because we’re all the victims of the greatest, most singularly pointless conspiracy in the history of history. Just look at the evidence!
https://twitter.com/bobatl/status/691630923851436033/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
My personal astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson tried to explain…
@bobatl Earth's curve indeed blocks 150 (not 170) ft of Manhattan. But most buildings in midtown are waaay taller than that.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016
But nonsense! The world is flat, and all the world leaders, all the astronauts, all the astronomers, all the rocket engineers, every person who has ever designed or run a satellite, every physicist, every pilot who has passed the international date line, all of them: they’re all part of a conspiracy to trick the rest of us into thinking the world is round. Except…
Step One: Create the most intricate conspiracy in the history of the world to convince everyone (well, everyone not involved) that the world is round.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: Profit!
Me: WHY?
Anyway, this guy isn’t having any of it. Apparently he’s challenged NDT to a rap battle.
*long sigh*
So anyway, here’s my advice: First, go read this post about ten ways that you, too, can know that the world is round. From climbing a mountain to see farther to admitting the existence of time zones, they’ve got a nice little list. Second, watch the video below, in which John Cleese explains precisely why people like rapper bob even exist.
Three: listen to this rap response by Steve Tyson — it’s a Very Good Thing.
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Richard Ford Burley is a writer and doctoral candidate at Boston College, as well as an editor at Ledger, the first academic journal devoted to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In his spare time he writes about science, skepticism, feminism, and futurism here at This Week In Tomorrow.