My only question is, why? Although i've never come face-to-face with a Flat-Earther, I know they're incredibly stubborn. Unable to be open to new ideas. I've seen others try to reason with them, but in the end fail. Today I am not here to argue with any FEs, but to ask a question, why? Why do you think that the Earth is flat? No society nor government has any reason to lie about the shape of a planet. There is literally no reason whatsoever to lie about the SHAPE OF A PLANET. I know that no amount of stone cold facts I state will ever change any minds, so i'll leave it at that.
I agree, the idea that every country with a space program (United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, South and North Korea, Iran, Canada, ect...) are all spending trillions of dollars to fool everyone into thinking the earth is round is just crazy. There is no benefit, what do they gain from it? Or are they just doing it so they can have a good laugh?
The one and only reason I've heard is that these governments (or the United Nations, more broadly) believe that there are other livable areas out beyond the great ice wall - and that they want to exploit these areas for their own gain.
I don't claim that all FE'ers believe this - I'm sure they don't - but it's one quasi-plausible explanation that I've heard stated on these forums.
To my mind, this fails. People who navigated by the stars over long distances have been around since at LEAST the 1500's - and they would have had to have known that the Earth was flat - if indeed it is. Since all of their navigational instruments, books, charts and tables claim that the Earth is round, the conspiracy to hide the true nature of the Earth would have to be at least as old as that - and carried through multiple government agencies and commercial companies for at least 500 years without a single mistake, deathbed confession, or other clue that they were hiding this. People such as pirates would have to have been "in" on it - and what their motives might be is anyone's guess!
The failure to explain WHY this gigantic conspiracy could have been possible over such an incredibly prolonged and world-wide extent simply boggles the mind.
Even today - it doesn't suffice to simply hide information and fake pictures - these governments must somehow build, fund, crew, provision that fleet of ships, planes and drones that prevent us civilians from exploring deep into the Antarctic. Hiding that cost - pulling the shipyards, aircraft factories, fuel-providers into the conspiracy - preventing the crews from blabbing to the media - keeping the secret so well hidden that WikiLeaks and a host of others never found it...
This conspiracy would be so vast that there would be more people involved in keeping it than there are people that it's being kept from!
And still no credible motive.