There are multiple explanations, that's all I'm saying. Occam's Razor can't be applied to a fraction of a model; both the possibilities I referred to would have other consequences throughout the earth, it isn't an assumption meant for just one situation.
The evidence for the conjecture is the assumption that the Earth is flat. Find that as unlikely as you want, but to develop a working (and so testable) hypothesis, that's a necessary starting point.
You say there are multiple explanations, but assuming for a moment that the footage is real, what do you think is the simplest, with the most evidence behind it?
By the way I thought zetetic method didn't hold with hypothesising, isn't that true?
Aren't you supposed to take direct evidence only? And unless you go to the location in the videos yourself, surely video is the closest thing to first hand experience?
Or you you have trouble trusting video in general? Do you accuse your friends of fakery when they show you video of last summers bbq or any event you weren't physically present at?
I'm a scientist. The zetetic method still requires a question to be asked: my current question is if the Earth is flat, what rules would have to govern it? I then perform tests to work out whether that makes sense.
The zetetic method and scientific method aren't so different. Round earthers often seem to present a completely irrelevant idea in its place (the idea of trusting only direct observation), which has nothing whatsoever to do with the zetetic method. Zeteticism is about relying on evidence over a hypothesis: it doesn't preclude hypothesizing, it simply means a hypothesis shouldn't be taken as fact, and experiments should be performed without an aim to prove or falsify: they should just be performed. Skepticism and open-mindedness ask also that we be prepared to consider alternatives.
Regardless, I am first and foremost a scientist.
On a conspiracy, the question is motive. Friends would have little reason to pretend they had a bbq, while there are motives from the theological and philosophical, to the financial and political that could theoretically motivate a conspiracy for a flat Earth. Note that I am not saying this is the case, it is only one possibility out of many (and not the one I favor).
At no point have I ever made the claim I trust only that which I see firsthand. All I have said is that
if the Earth is flat,
then it is
possible the video footage may be faked. I don't see why this is a controversial statement.
My favored hypothesis relies on unification. Of the four fundamental forces, there is known to be a connection between electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. Fundamentally, they are aspects of the same force: the electroweak force. Unification is a holy grail of scientific research and is commonly held to be possible, the details are just unknown. My model posits that a reason for this is that they work under the flawed notion of a round earth.
If the strong nuclear force is modelled as a heightened form of gravity acting on quantum objects (that is: small objects), then we would have matter capable of attracting and repelling photons, in much the same way magnets work. The ice wall, as a refractive object, would likely be able to exert a great force and would alter the path of light.