We discover what, and who, converts people to Flat Earth belief, and what happens inside the rabbit hole. 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. Powered by Facebook and YouTube algorithms, the Flat Earth movement is growing.Īt 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. But with the dawn of the twenty-first century, something else has shifted. 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. 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. 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. Since 2015, there has been a spectacular boom in a centuries-old delusion: that the earth is flat. An insightful, human look at what fuels conspiracy theories.” - Science Beautiful, probing, and often empathetic. 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. “A deep dive into the world of Flat Earth conspiracy theorists.
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