The flat-Earth conspiracy is spreading around the globe. Does it hide a darker core?
By Rob Picheta, CNN
Updated 11:17 AM EST, Sun November 17, 2019


(CNN)"I don't want to be a flat Earther," David Weiss says, his voice weary as he reflects on his personal awakening. "Would you wake up in the morning and want everyone to think you're an idiot?"

But Weiss is a flat Earther. Ever since he tried and failed to find proof of the Earth's curve four years ago, he's believed with an evident passion that our planet is both flat and stationary -- and it's turned his world upside down.

"I absolutely freaked out," Weiss tells CNN in a phone interview. "It literally whips the rug out from underneath you."

Now, Weiss finds it tedious to associate with the majority of people -- though he "unfortunately" still has some friends who believe in a round Earth. "I have no problem with anybody that wants to believe we live on a ball. That's their choice," he says. "It's just not something I resonate with."

Weiss' preferred community is those who share his life-altering belief.

And that community is vast.

This week, the businessman attended the third annual Flat Earth International Conference, held at an Embassy Suites hotel in suburban Dallas, Texas. Organizers told CNN that about 600 others went too.

Previous conferences have taken place in Raleigh and Denver -- while Brazil, Britain and Italy have also held flat-Earth conventions in recent years.

The event's schedule resembled any corporate conference, with some fairly noticeable twists. Speakers gave presentations including "Space is Fake" and "Testing The Moon: A Globe Lie Perspective." Awards for the year's best flat Earth-related videos were handed out. And believers reveled in an opportunity to meet several of the movement's most influential minds.

"We've all been communicating online (but) this brings us together so we can shake hands and give each other hugs," says Weiss. "We can collaborate, we can make new friends. Because guess what, our old friends... we lost a lot of friends."

On a clear day, the curvature of the Earth can be seen from an airplane window. But remarkably, the hundreds of flat Earthers at the Dallas gathering were just a small portion of the movement.

Read more
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/flat-earth-conference-conspiracy-theories-scli-intl/index.html

sinaj:
Part of me believes its flat

sinaj:
Part of me believes its flat

On a clear day, the curvature of the Earth can be seen from an airplane window. But remarkably, the hundreds of flat Earthers at the Dallas gathering were just a small portion of the movement.