Off the Edge

Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything

By: Kelly Weill

Narrated by: Xe Sands

“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.

How? Why?

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. This psychology doesn’t change. But with the dawn of the twenty-first century, 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 nineteenth-century grifter who first popularized the theory, as well as the many modern-day Flat Earthers Weill herself gets to know, from moms on vacation to determined creationists to neo-Nazi rappers. We discover what, and who, converts people to Flat Earth belief, and what happens inside the rabbit hole. And we even meet a man determined to fly into space in a homemade rocket-powered balloon—whose tragic death is as senseless and absurd as the theory he sets out to prove.

In this incisive and powerful story about belief, Kelly Weill explores how we arrived at this moment of polarized realities and explains what needs to happen so that we might all return to the same spinning globe.

Coherent analysis

Narration is more slowly paced than that needed to prompt attentiveness.

Content is well organized, persuasive, and truly describes abuse and disregard for ethics and fair play.

Interesting But Not What I Thought

The description implies the book covers different radical or conspiracy theories and the reasons how and why people fall into these ideals. It really only covers Flat Earth with little on other topics. The book covers some of the “how” but it’s surface level only.

Important topic

Interesting information on the history of the flat earth movement, with developments leading up to the present day.

The author points out that unfortunately, attention from "globe earthers" has inadvertently helped to propel the flat earth movement. People will dispute it, mock it, imitate it in jest, make documentaries about it, and that will just lead to more people joining the movement. But the author points out that it's still important to discuss, to make people aware of these false beliefs and the movements behind them.

In addition to such accidental publicity, social media has really helped to propel the rise of conspiracy theories in the modern era. Social media loves attention. They need eyeballs to sell ads. And guiding people down rabbit holes of conspiracy theory videos, or encouraging them to join more and more extreme groups, is a good way to do that. Some people would spend many hours each and every day watching conspiracy videos.

Also interesting notes about how easily conspiracy theorists get tricked by con artists, despite their intense paranoia of scientists and governments.

Interesting read.....

Its sad to see how so many people are duped by religion and charismatic assholes. Too bad we have 30 % of America choosing Fox news, Trumpism, & religion over basic science, logic, and reason.
It's extremely sad👎🏻

Weill treated Flat-Earthers as real people

I grabbed this book thinking it would be a light listen, something fun listening to stories about nutjobs.

Weill surprised me. She treated the subjects empathetically, as real people, not clowns. And in the process, she explores why people fervently believe in bizarre, illogical conspiracy theories, even at the cost of family and friends and respectability.

Weill argues that these flat earth true believers, like others in QAnon, Heaven's Gate, anti-vaxxer groups and other cults, often follow similar paths. They are not necessarily stupid, crazy, mean or delusional, but they often follow similar paths. Do listen if you want to be challenged, whatever your own beliefs,. Pass on it if you only want arguments for or against flat-eartherism. This is a book about people and psychology, not theories, and is so much better for that.