Topics: Conspiracy Theories, Space, Science
Once upon a time, everyone believed the world was flat.
A lot has obviously changed since then, but while most of the world has moved on, thanks to huge advancements in research and technology, there are still many people who believe in the Flat Earth Myth, like conspiracy theorist Flat Earth Dave.
Dave, who runs his own podcast, The Flat Earth Podcast, regularly interviews people on the subject, but last year he found himself on an entirely different podcast, and it's fair to say, he did not have a good experience.
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During the show, titled 'Professor Dave Humiliates Flat Earther David Weiss', the professor and the Flat Earther launched into a debate about the shape of the Earth, with Flat Earth Dave arguing that theories about the shape of the Earth came from astronomers who Professor Dave 'doesn't know'.
"You've never met these men, you don't know anything about these men other than the stories that the controllers of this world tell you," Flat Earth Dave argued.
The conspiracy theorist largely had an answer for everything, but he found himself struggling to come up with a response to a point raised when the pair talked about the Earth's movement within space.
Arguing that the Earth couldn't possibly be moving on an orbit, Flat Earth Dave said: "You think that we're spinning at 1000 miles an hour, and we don't feel it? And we're changing directions?
"How is that possible? How about when the Earth comes around towards the Sun in the winter, it's speeding up and taking its sharpest turn, and we don't feel any of those forces?"
Professor Dave described this particular argument as being one which he finds 'hilarious', and encouraged Flat Earth Dave to join in as he offered a bit of background to the point.
The conspiracy theorist acknowledged that it takes a year for the Earth to travel around the Sun; a fact that didn't work in his favour when Professor Dave presented his argument.
He said: "Why don't you go ahead and get in a car, and do a 360 turn and make it take a year. Are you going to feel that?
"Let's break it down, 360 degrees, 365 days, that's about a degree a [day] right? Why don't you get in a car and drive for 24 hours, and over 24 hours veer by one degree. Are you going to feel that?"
After previously hitting back immediately with responses, Flat Earth Dave appeared momentarily dumbfounded as he considered Professor Dave's response - questions that quite possibly could have left him questioning his entire existence.
Those involved in the Zoom burst out laughing at his lack of an answer, and while Flat Earth Dave attempted to make a comeback by claiming he was 'trying to think of the easiest way to describe it', it was too late.
I'm not sure he had any credibility to start with, but whatever he did have was well and truly lost in that silence.
