Unter dem Tellerrand

I feel like a lot of the reviews here are coming from the viewpoint that this is a documentary about why the earth is flat. The reality is that this is a documentary about the people who hold and share this belief.

It doesn't explicitly, in-your-face tell you that these people are misguided. Through its editing of following the flat earth believers and cutting to real knowledge from both scientists & psychologists it helps to build a better understanding of why these people are the way that they are.

I would say this is half a documentary about the flat earthers themselves, and the other half is about building an understanding of why people in general can manage to hold any such belief about conspiracies. It explains how their minds work and why it works that way, while following a real group who operates within those parameters to illustrate it.

I was thoroughly entertained, this doc allowed the Flat Earth folks to completely explain away their theories and let you decide just how MISLED they are. Getting Scott Kelly to add his two cents was icing on the cake. Seeing flat earthers prove themselves wrong then still deny the truth was an amazing thing to watch, which was also expertly explained by actual psychiatrists of why it happens. Anything without sufficient proof (FE, religion, ghosts, etc) there has to be some true mental gymnastics performed for these things to stay true to believers, and that is also expertly explained in a "loving" way. Highly recommend

Came into this hoping to hear rational perspectives on flat-earth theory. What we get instead is an inside view of how cultists think and behave.

They believe they have discovered some grand truth that nobody else can see. Then they prescribe to the idea with such reckless conviction that they either outright reject any evidence that disproves their theory, or they contort it until it fits into their distorted view of reality. They then point at the rest of society and say that the truth will be revealed to us as long as we adopt their view of reality. And anyone who refuses to believe them suddenly becomes the enemy. At one point, they even go so far as to claim "it is a battle between good and evil." This all shares stark similarities with other cults, like Scientology.

This film makes it easy to see why some people fall prey to cults, it's a mechanism by which they can cope with their crushing feelings of insignificance in the world. Suddenly they belong to something "exclusive," something that brings them closer to other human beings (which is a struggle that many people face.) This is especially effective with flat-earthers since, by adopting this view, we all become the center of the universe.

I applaud Netflix for not outright ignoring or censoring pieces centered around pseudoscience. But at the same time I'm disappointed because, as is evident in this film, these folks feed off publicity like vultures and use it as a weapon to trap others into their cultist views. Notice how satisfied their "leader" gets when he realizes the media is actually giving attention to one of their conventions; and the way his eyes light up when he sees that a couple brought their kid to said convention was just downright disturbing.

The only thing I gained by watching this film was a stronger distaste for cults.

No it's not... LMAO. I thought it was documentary but after half an hour I realised that this is actually comedy!

I have mixed feelings about his documentary. On the one hand, it is pretty clear that these folks are being presented as what they are - well meaning but maladjusted individuals who have bought into a down the rabbit hole idea with zero scientific support.

OTOH, it is also unfortunate to give exposure to such utterly bogus ideas. That is probably a disservice to the the rest of humanity.

As for me, I have been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years and can think of at least a half dozen simple tests that prove that the earth is indeed very round. Of course, presenting these to flat earthers would be a wast of time - if they cared about evidence, they would not be what they are.

In the end, the whole idea that such folks with such ideas even exist just made me sad.