Kelly Weill
Off the Edge
Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything
Algonquin Books, 2022
What's inside?
The web revived a theory that the Earth is flat by amplifying this conspiracy-laden lie and many others.
Recommendation
Kelly Weill offers a history of the improbably durable belief that the Earth is flat, and thereby illustrates how conspiracy theories spread. Flat Earthers argue that a conspiracy keeps the true shape of the flat world secret from the misguided masses. Other outlandish conspiracies also appeal to Flat Earthers, and the internet amplifies these fabrications, Weill warns. But the web alone can’t explain or eliminate the tendency to conjure conspiracies. Human imagination enables people to make good discoveries as well as bad assumptions. Rather than debating Flat Earthers, says Weill, empathizing with them might be the best way to guide them back to the spherical world.
Summary
About the Author
Kelly Weill is a journalist at the Daily Beast covering extremism, disinformation and the internet. Previously, she reported on culture for Politico.
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