Seeing as we are not supposed to have discussions the Media forum I bring this here:
I think the point is that they were not exactly out to document the community and try to find the best representatives to explain or defend it critically. To do so would be political and career suicide, not to mention only "entertaining" to a select few, which is why none of us should expect any such main-stream source to provide one. Like the socialist's feel of Bernie running for president, it sucks he's not really socialist... but at least he's raising the brand! I feel the same way about this "documentary". They could have done much better, but it raises the brand.
They found what they found, they documented what they documented. No one learned anything, everyone went home thinking "those lonely deluded idiots, how sad" and went back to their daily grind. To the average viewer, the existing prejudice that flat earth supporters are stupid ("Behind the curve") and suffering from psychological malady will be further solidified.
What would you expect them to find? While we will probably never know what was left on the cutting room floor, I think it did a decent job of sharing the thoughts of the FE community and did go to the biggest wigs in that community. The FE and RE paradigms are different in the extreme, and I don't think there is room for any kind of spectrum so one group or the other has to be stupid, deluded idiots. Or the same ides expressed in politically correct terms, if such dribble cranks you mojo.
I did really like the fact that it encouraged, in several scenes, the "learned" to reach out and engage with flat-earther's as opposed to immediately ostracize and deride them. This stands in harsh juxtaposition to the only clips of experimentation and/or critical evaluation of flat earth being used to demonstrate to the audience that the flat earther's are incompetent, misguided, and deluded.
Like I sad, one group or the other is incompetent, misguided and deluded. They both can't be logical, rational and intelligent if they view the same universe and come up with such polarized views. As for one group reaching out to the other. Well, there are many around here that employ far more 'political correctness' and moderation of temperament than I do, or even could in this case, and have tirelessly engaged this FE community with reason, intelligence and consideration only to be insulted and dismissed out of hand by people that don't even bother to try to understand.
What do you guys think about the laser gyroscope? I had misremembered something and thought it was all garbage/hoax especially because the scene is SO HOKEY, but it turns out Michelson-Morley did end up detecting the rotation of the earth, just not it's motion in any direction through space/ether.
Ring Laser Gyroscopes are a thing. A very accurate instrument for measuring rotation about their axis. They were specifically developed for and have been employed for decades in the navigation of aircraft. At least some of those in the show were knowledgeable enough to know what it was telling them. However, they seemed to want to 'manufacture' yet another hokey nonsensical explanation, like the rotation of the sky influencing the RLG, a concept they have to be formulating for the FE community exclusively. However, the very fact they knew the reality, but wanted to devise a lie for their own community really tells us a lot about their intellectual honesty, doesn't it?
Anyway, do you guys think the laser gyroscope (or any gryoscope, pendulum) proves that the earth is rotating around a center point? Is this really a problem for the flat earth concept?
Yes on both counts. You can easily find information on how these work. It would, by the physics inherent in it, have to detect the rotation of the earth.
Especially since one could argue that the laser gyroscope (interferometer) also proves that the earth is not moving through space which would be a major monkey wrench for the heliocentric model and a hell of a lot more.
How on earth does a RLG prove that the earth is not moving through space? You'll need the explain that, because this in not what its physics tells us.