New Book About the Flat Earthers

CNN’s “Reality Check” has a brief video on why people still believe the earth is flat. It is undated, but probably dropped some time yesterday or this morning (4 March 2022), as I’m sure I would have glommed onto the “headline” before now. (I’ve been checking the main site perhaps twice/day in my fixations on the current shit show that is the world [Ukraine, Jan 6th, Brexit, covid …].)

The video is a light interview with Kelly Weill, a journalist for the Daily Beast, whose new book on FErs was published a week or so ago.

Weill, Kelly. 2022. Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything. Algonquin Books.

The interview and the book’s blurb on Amazon both emphasize this book as an investigation of conspiracy theories and their appeal, with a heavy nod to Q-Anon. Neither even hint at the role of religion in driving flat earth beliefs.

So now I have to buy the book and find out whether this fear of religion is a public pose or if the author really is unwilling to criticize religious belief. Ho hum. Expect an update/review soon.

p.s. blogroll image from Shirtoid.