It's a happy coincidence that we get to experience both total and annular solar eclipses. It wasn't always so, and it won't always be so. There was a first annular eclipse, and there will be a final total eclipse.

There’s a fascinating documentary, Behind the Curve. It talks about how, for a lot of these people, it began with the thrill of having some secret knowledge that others don’t, and then found they had a community and felt included for the first time in their lives (for some of them). That sense of community is really important to humans, so now, just like religion, there is more binding people to the movement than just the hidden knowledge.

(If I’m remembering correctly. I may be conflating it, it’s been a while since I watched it.)

I mean it's almost the size of that apartment building in the back.

(Or is it fore? Never quite grok'd any of that perspective stuff...)

I had lots of cars the size of burgers though, when I was a little child

😂

Flerfs can't understand scale, they can't understand 3d space, they can't understand distances, they can't understand pretty much anything. The world is scary for them, they deserve our pity AND scorn. If only they paid attention in school

They certainly deserve our pity. They’re lonely people who were never great in school and now get to think they’re smarter than others AND have found a community that accepts them.

Unfortunately the very pressures that made them susceptible to the flat earth movement and other conspiracies are the same pressures that keep them from accepting that they’re wrong. “Scorn” probably isn’t a useful tool, even if it feels like the right one (and they absolutely deserve it).

The Socratic method would be far more effective. Continue to ask them questions, accepting as a given that they’re intelligent people and treating them as such. Innocently interrogate them, with genuine interest, about the things they are saying until they reason themselves out of their positions.

But this will only work if they’re someone you know, most likely. Otherwise they’re likely to shun you the first time they come across a question that truly shakes their position.

I was surprised to see that they dug a verse from the Book of Enoch. It's not even considered to be canon within Christianity or Judaism.

I was curious about this too. From random web searching (Syfy.com), the sun is 200,000 times brighter than the moon in the visible light region of the electromagnetic spectrum.