I have noticed that some flat earth believers are perfectly capable of applying critical thinking to discussions as long as it does not conflict with their preconceptions, but then completely reject critical thinking when it hits too close to home.
This is my favorite example from YouTuber Mike Helmick:
Starting at 0:43, Helmick takes on a south-pole centrist. The South Pole centrist notices that flights from Moscow to Anchorage take a very long time, but fails to notice that the flights are not non-stop and in fact make multiple stops.
There is 1 minute of the south-pole centrist speaking, and then starting at 1:44 you have this:
- 1:44 Flat earthers are all on the same team, and South-centrists should team up with North-centrists and even concave earthists
- 3:44 Actual analysis of the moscow to anchorage route problems including:
- "When you hate somebody, when you have that spirit of anger, you're going to miss the obvious. The obvious is to find a route that is non-stop and find out how long that takes."
- 4:21 he finds non-stop flights from Moscow to Los Angeles, and points out that the route makes sense on both the north-pole centric map and the round-earth map.
- "It's not about being right all the time, it's about sharing information."
Then, my absolute favorite - he goes on to try to debunk Globe Earth by finding southern hemisphere flights - AND HE DOESN'T LOOK FOR NON-STOP FLIGHTS.
- 5:45 - Johannesburg to Sao Paolo with a stop in London
- 5:56 - he's looking at a webpage that states "2 non-stop flights are operating from Johannesburg to Sao Paolo today" and focuses on the fact that London is the most used stop for such flights. He spends MINUTES analyzing flights with stops and how it doesn't line up with globe earth.
- Skip ahead to 13:44, because he gives many minutes of unrelated stuff.
- 13:44 - he shows southern hemisphere routes on the north pole map and says it's a trick because NASA controls Australia's ATC system.
All of this boils down to asserting that no flat earth map exists and we don't really know where things are.
BUT - he just used the same technique to debunk a south-pole centrist. He's perfectly willing and able to find non-stop flights when it suits him, but forgets about it just a few minutes later.
Please, everyone on all sides of this issue, make sure you aren't blinding yourself - if you are using critical thinking in one discussion, don't throw it out in the next sentence.