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Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything Online ePUB PDF by Kelly Weill

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“A deep dive into the world of Flat Earth conspiracy theorists . . . that brilliantly reveals how people fall into illogical beliefs, reject reason, destroy relationships, and connect with a broad range of conspiracy theories in the social media age. Beautiful, probing, and often empathetic . . . An insightful, human look at what fuels conspiracy theories.” —Science Since 2015, there has been a spectacular boom in a centuries-old delusion: that the earth is flat. More and more people believe that we all live on a pancake-shaped planet, capped by a solid dome and ringed by an impossible wall of ice. In Off the Edge, journalist Kelly Weill draws a direct line from today’s conspiratorial moment, brimming not just with Flat Earthers but also anti-vaxxers and QAnon followers, back to the early days of Flat Earth theory in the 1830s. We learn the natural impulses behind these beliefs: when faced with a complicated world out of our control, humans have always sought patterns to explain the inexplicable. But something else has shifted. Powered by Facebook and YouTube algorithms, the Flat Earth movement is growing. At once a definitive history of the movement and an essential look at its unbelievable present, Off the Edge introduces us to a cast of larger-than-life characters. We meet historical figures like the historical figures who first popularized the theory and the many modern-day Flat Earthers Weill herself gets to know. We discover what, and who, converts people to Flat Earth belief, and what happens inside the rabbit hole. In this incisive and powerful book, Kelly Weill explores how we arrived at this polarized moment and explains what needs to happen so that we might all return to the same spinning globe.

Details of the book :

Author : Kelly Weill
★★★★☆ 4.3 from 5 stars (255 Reviews)
Langue : English
ISBN-10 : 1643753371
File size: 14 MB

Support format : PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Audio HTML, RTF, TXT, MOBI.
Compatible device : Android, Apple, iPad, iPhone, PC, and Amazon Kindle.


4/5The author did a better job than most at getting you hooked to the book. This paragraph in particular produced a sort of innate desire to learn the truth of flat earth theory, despite it never being something i was very interested in."The truth is that, by at least the fifth century BCE, Greek astronomers and mathematicians had already determined that the earth was round and had popularized the formulas that proved their calculations. By Columbus’s day, the globe model had been the default for centuries. (In fact, we can credit the Columbus Flat Earth myth to “Rip Van Winkle” author Washington Irving, who seems to have more or less invented it in his heavily embellished Columbus biography in the1820s.) " Conspiracy theory is defined by the author as a theory that is " an unproven allegation of a secret, deliberate, and malevolent plot, like a scheme to conceal the true shape of the world. Conspiracies theories are ways to construct order and meaning in times of uncertainty. They let us shape our fears into something we understand."The book goes on to present reasons while people turn to conspiracy theories. One reason people turn to conspiracy theories is that they believed in another theory or idea wholeheartedly and it ended up being wrong. As a result, they assume that there must be various commonly held theories that are wrong, such as the Earth being round.The author proceeds to present the "figureheads" of this movement and how they contributed to it. It was interesting to learn that there was once an entire town that was governed by one of these figures, and that he held so much power and influence to where he was able to dictate what was taught in local schools (flat earth theory). The author did an excellent job of showing how each figureheads contributions led/contributed to the next person in line's success.Lastly, I love how deep the author ventured into this topic. I was shocked that this book would go as far as to detail flat Earth theories transition into the internet age and detail in depth what flat earth believers have to endure for their beliefs. This book was a mixture of informal/storytelling in that sense, there were times when i wanted to take notes and other times when i wanted to cry. What i stated previously is a reflection of Kelly's experience as a writer, journalist, and reporter.Lastly, it was interesting to learn that anti-Jewish sentiment is commonplace among conspiracy theories...and that conspiracy theories are often, in part, formulated to place blame on Jewish individuals, even in areas where the Jewish population is minimal.Cons:1. The biggest Con for me was the fact that this book didn't have any diagrams or graphs. Most of us reading this book have little to no experience with flat Earth theory, so attempting to visualize a breakdown of how said flat Earth patriarch visualized the Earth is very difficult.2. This was another one of those books where the first half was noticeably more entertaining than the 2nd half...I didn't even read the last chapter because the book got to a point where it just wasn't as interesting and eye-opening as it was before.3. There needed to be a more balanced blend between personal stories and informal/interesting factual breakdowns regarding flat Earth theory. Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything Online ePUB PDF source If you have ever wondered where the idea of a flat earth came from and why so many people believe it today, this is the book to read. If you want to see how conspiracy thinking works and how one conspiracy theory tends to attract and connect to others, this is the book to read. If you want to see how even something as seemingly benign as believing the earth is flat can ruin relationships and even one's peace of mind, this is the book to read. While I got this book because the subject seemed quirky and ridiculous, it eventually turned into a much more serious matter. PDF Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything download online free Before my review, a rant: While reading this history of a specific conspiracy theory, I was dismayed that there were no citations of sources backing up the narrative; sure, this all hangs together but the author could have made it up out of whole cloth, I thought. So imagine my surprise, when I reached the end of the book, to find that every chapter was bolstered by extensive notes detailing original sources after all! I read this in e-book form and there were no indications of footnotes in the text, so one would have to somehow remember to check for notes on every page. This is an extremely terrible choice on the part of the publisher; I apologize to the author for thinking badly of her because of their decision….That said, this is actually a very engaging story about how the concept of a “flat earth” evolved from its beginnings in early 19th Century Britain through to its resurgence via internet wormholes in modern times. Ms. Weill also discusses the merging of conspiracy theories, showing how, for example, many (though by no means all) flat earthers also subscribe to antisemetic ideas of world domination by the Jews, and how Trump and his acolytes built on the ready-made audience of conspiracy theory adherents to try to overthrow a legitimate election via new conspiracy theories ever-more divorced from reality. I would note that describing one early flat earth proponent’s action as being a “buzzkill” was highly anachronistic; on the other hand, the flat earthers’ decision to call the rest of us “globe earthers” is just lovely! Recommended; but demand that the publisher fix that citation problem mentioned above! ePUB Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything ebook gratuito How is it that in the 21st century there are people who believe things counter to observable facts or things that present clear and present danger? The Covid epidemic and the Age of Trump created a perfect setting for such beliefs, and Kelly Weill presents a convincing and compassionate explanation. Download (PDF) Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything Kelly's style of writing makes this informative book very readable. I have been following the conspiracy culture via youtube videos for some time now but the author has much that I didn't know, particularly about the early days of the flat earth movement. It is interesting that the arguments for a flat earth haven't changed much over a 100+ years. The one star reviews are amusing as not one of them shows the Verified Purchase label and from what is written I doubt any of them have actually read the book. Kelly doesn't have footnotes in the text but she does have 214 notes at the end giving sources for the information in each chapter. Kelly has said that she probably won't return to the flat earth but will continue to investigate the conspiracy culture.This is a well written, informative, and readable book and I recommend it for both those who follow conspiracy culture as those who are curious and want an introduction to find out what it's all about.