International Flat Earth Research Society

Rowbottom gained followers, who called themselves Zetertics, which means Seekers of the Truth.

He founded the Universal Zetertic Society in 1881, which later became the Flat Earth Society.

They have published books, magazines, newsletters and websites to promote the Flat Earth theory, and claim to have more than 500 members worldwide.

Some flat earthers have even tried to prove their theory by conducting their own experiments, such as launching rockets, flying in planes, or sailing to the edge of the world.

And so the flat earth theory is less of a theory about what the earth is and more of a theory about, hey, this is the areas that they've lied to us in.

And if a consistent liar has lied to you in the past, why are you going to trust them and put your faith in them when they're showing you something in the future? And what the slippery slope is, is between 2015 and 2020, when the Flat Earth movement had the resurgence and we had the big conferences, the Flat Earth International conferences, there was meetups happening.

It really blew up.

A whole bunch of documentaries got attention on Netflix.

We left the planet, allegedly.

Now, the modern Flat Earth Society was founded right at the dawn of the space age.

So in 1956, a man named Samuel Shenton founded the International Flat Earth Research Society in England.

And barely a year later, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

Now, you have to appreciate the logic here because it's kind of the same move.

Rowbotham's canal supposedly proved that the Earth was flat, and then Wallace did a better experiment and proved that it was round, and then the experiment was considered rigged.

And now there are, you know, basically NASA saying like, "Hey, we have the whole planet." And then you have the same people from the Flat Earth Society being like, "No, this is a lie." So every single time there's a new way to prove that the Earth is round, the movement kind of invents a new reason to not believe it.

And then the evidence keeps on getting bigger and bigger, and so then the conspiracy required to explain it away also gets bigger.