A.) Can any flat-Earthers give me a version of your belief that does not involve a conspiracy of people trying to conceal the truth? If so, I'm all ears, but if not, let's go on to part B of this question:
B.) How on earth (flat or round) could such a conspiracy possibly work? There are so many problems with the mechanics of it.
1. It requires perfect collusion from every space agency. Public or Private, they all have to be in cahoots on this, and for no clear reason.
2. How do they know everybody they need to silence? It seems like it would be very easy for any plane pilot, balloon hobbiest, sailor and countless others to see the vast wall of ice that keeps the world in place, or recognizes some other point of proof for FET. Yet they're all silent. How do the conspirators know who has seen the truth? How do they communicate with them to negotiate their silence? They can't be killing them all, because there are just way too many people who claim to circumnavigate the globe and live to tell the tale, so those people all have to have been bribed somehow.
3. How much money does the conspiracy cost? I mean, let's just think of some basic logistics here. They have to somehow monitor the entire planet, personally reach out to anybody that sees the truth, and then somehow silence them. Even assuming they aren't having to pay these people off, how much money does it cost to run the vast infrastructure that protects the secret? We're talking huge agencies with thousands of employees at minimum; maintaining the veil has to be their primary means of employment, and they have to do it all in total secrecy. Do banks not notice these sums of money? The IRS? Every politician in government? Every watchdog group that keeps a tight eye on national budgets?
4. What is the motive for the conspiracy? Like, if the whole of the scientific community and every world leader came out tomorrow and said, "You know what? The Earth is actually flat. We're sorry we've lied for so long, but you need to know the truth."
Then what? Kinda nothing. I mean, people would be mad and ask lots of questions, but the one question I don't see being answered anywhere is: "Why keep it a secret?" We didn't invent it to compete with the Russians, because the idea of a round earth pre-dates the space program by literal centuries, if not a millennium. Where did the need to lie about this first spring up? Who would give two craps if the world were actually flat enough to attempt to lie about it for hundreds and hundreds of years, spanning multiple generations and literally every planet on earth? What is so frightening about this knowledge to make it worth concealing?
Would love to hear your thoughts.