[deleted] #dunning-kruger reddit.com
People that belittle the Flat Earth community are just as damaged as Falt Earthers themselves.
I wager that the Flat Earth debunking community is just as emotionally charged as the Flat Earth community, and is potentially worse, as they often just resort to bullying. In addition, many people that actively engage in Flat Earth debunking are potentially just as dumb as the flerfers they constantly belittle.
You have likely seen the Netflix documentary "Behind the Curve", or perhaps "In search of a Flat Earth" by Dan Olson. Both are excellent exposés of the obvious flaws of the theory that the earth is Flat.
Neither touched upon the equally silly, but somewhat sinister counter-community of Flat Earth debunkers.
By Flat Earth debunkers, I don't mean Netlfix or Dan Olson, I mean subreddits such as r/flatearth and an assortment of youtubers that spend tremendous amounts of time belittling Flat earthers.
In "Behind the Curve" we see that a large number of Flat earthers are invested in the idea for the sense of community, and the emotional support and friendship. While the Flat Earth debunking community would have you believe they are arbiters using science and fact, they seem to often deliver their facts and science in a demeaning manner, and often in an emotionally charged way.
For many of these people, I think they get off on a perceived superiority. Because they know the earth is a globe, they perceive they have an immediate intellectual superiority over flat earthers, for free. We can see this through the way many debunkers will address flerfers as almost subhuman. They are the adult version of a year 12 bully picking on a year 9 kid. It's not debunking, it's closer to emotional and verbal abuse.
sure, flerfers believe some very stupid stuff, but for many it's emotionally driven, as they like the community. this is why, as the flerf movement is fading away, many are, as Dan Olson said, "moving to Q".