So, how are things with you? Hmm.. that’s a mixed bag, isn’t it? As for me, I’m back at work, with UMC1 and UMC2 returning to school this week. Suffice to say, they are not too happy about that. Would you like to know some other people that are not happy? Flat Earthers.

But why are Flat Earthers unhappy, because we all know they’re such an upbeat, positive, open-minded, tolerant community. The answer is in the title because they are losing their collective minds over the Final Experiment.

Let’s do the responsible thing, and not let our friends use Comics San and go over what the Final Experiment was all about. To quote a somewhat lazy writer, “The Final Experiment is an observational showdown/trip between Team Globe (people who accept and understand we live on a globe) and Team Flat Earth (people who believe that the Earth is flat and deny reality).

It was created by Will Duffy, a pastor in Denver, Colorado, USA. It involves the concept of settling the argument about the shape of our planet, by inviting people to travel to Antarctica, this December, to confirm whether the 24-hour Sun exists or not.”

To the best of my understanding of the Flat Earth community, there is no official Flat Earth model, however, one of the most popular and beloved is the Alexander Gleason map. This map represents the planet on a 2-D surface, with the Arctic in the middle, with the other land masses centred around it.

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This of course means that on this map, Antarctica is not a massive continent at the bottom of the globe, but rather land that runs along the edge of the Earth, the so-called ice-wall. I know, I’m a Game of Thrones fan as well.

One of the many, many issues with that map, is the explanation of the Midnight Sun or the 24-hour Sun. Basically, on a Flat Earth, a Midnight Sun is only possible in the Arctic, as you can imagine, but impossible in Antarctica.

So imagine the idea, that you could travel to Antarctica in December; because remember, a Midnight Sun is only visible during Summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and you could witness it. This would either prove the existence of a Globe Earth or a Flat Earth. Simple enough, isn’t it?

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If we’re up to speed, let’s discuss the Final Experiment. Will Duffy and a mixed group of Globe Earthers and Flat Earthers travelled to Antarctica in December 2024, which is where Flat Earthers said you were not allowed to visit.

I think Duffy paid for three people to go, while the others crowdfunded to pay for the trip. I mean, it’s not like you’re travelling to the other side of a large city.

Because the Antarctic Midnight Sun only allows for a small window of time to witness it, the expedition was organised so they could arrive in time for the event. And so, what happened? I’ll give you a clue, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happened.

No, it wasn’t a penguin turf war, but a 24-hour Sun. Wow, but a surprise. Here is a time-lapsed tracked view of the Midnight Sun in Antarctica, by Dave McKeegan, who went on the Final Experiment expedition.

But the point of this blog post is not to discuss that all of the observational and investigational science was correct, because of course it was. Oh no, the point is to discuss the fallout and aftermath to the Flat Earth community.

In a previous blog post about the Final Experiment, I hypothesised about what the Flat Earth community might say or do, pending the observations of the Midnight Sun. These included:

1.) Some people will believe and accept the images and footage presented to them by fellow Flat Earthers of a Midnight Sun to be real and accept the truth, that the world is a globe and not flat.

2.) Some people will believe and accept the images and footage presented to them by fellow Flat Earthers of a Midnight Sun to be real, but will deny that it proves the shape of the planet, one way or another.

3.) Some people will deny the evidence of the Midnight Sun, and of the Globe. This will be because they weren’t there to confirm the validity of the claims, but images and footage can be changed, so why would they believe anything? The photos are fake, the footage is CGI, and the Flat Earther participants are lying and can’t be trusted.

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I’ll be honest here, I do feel like a terrible human being, and I’m a little ashamed of myself, because I’ve taken great delight in the Flat Earth community’s desperate responses to explain the Final Experiment, and they have not let me down.

In some cases, it’s like a civil war has broken out within the community because they don’t know what to do. Some of their responses and conspiracy theories have included and are not limited to:

• The footage is genuine, but it was previously filmed in the Arctic, six months earlier. (This conspiracy theory falls apart concerning the live-streaming.)
• The footage is genuine and live-streamed, but it was not filmed in Antarctica, but on location somewhere else. (This conspiracy theory falls apart because even if it wasn’t filmed in Antarctica, a Midnight Sun should not be possible on a Flat Earth in December.)
• The footage is fake and edited because you can’t travel and visit Antarctica because of the Antarctic Treaty. Antarctica is guarded and protected by the world’s military. (Where do I even begin with this?)
• The footage is fake and edited because it was filmed in a studio in front of a green screen. (This conspiracy theory is destroyed because of the live-streaming.)
• All Globe Earthers are not to be trusted, because they are all liars. (The response does not help or promote the Flat Earth model.)
• The Globe Earther participants in the Final Experiment lie for a living, and the Flat Earther participants are sell-outs, so it’s all lies. (So everybody involved in the expedition are liars because they said they went to Antarctica?)
• Analysing the footage and deciding that different angles of shadows and their length, prove it was staged and fake. (This has been debunked by images of non-Antarctic regions.)
• The absence of the participants’ breath, proves they were not in a cold environment like Antarctica. (Footage has shown people’s breath as they exhaled.)
• Someone caught vaping (It’s been called Vapegate) on live-stream, proves they were trying to mimic breath, so the whole project is fake. (Dave McKeegan does an excellent job of explaining this.)
• Flat Earthers are complaining about the lack of footprints because it proves the snow is CGI; there are too many footprints, which proves it’s filmed on a set, and the Sun changes shape, which means it’s CGI.
• One Flat Earther built a working Flat Earth model to explain the Midnight Sun in Antarctica, by having some sort of sky that is fluid. (The problem is that nearly every other natural phenomenon fails in this working model, like rainbows and solar eclipses).
• One Flat Earther said the footage was filmed at Amazon Studios LED Wall Virtual Production Stage. (They have no real evidence apart from an AI voiceover).

This is my favourite conspiracy theory though:

Two of the Flat Earthers that went on the expedition have had their faces scanned by other Flat Earthers. The conclusion is that these two men have female skulls, which means that they are female; or at least transgender. The implications are that if these two men can not be truthful about their identity and gender, then they can not be trusted to tell the truth about the Midnight Sun. (So if they are transgendered, and everything they have said about the Midnight Sun is a lie, then everything they said before the expedition, about the Flat Earth model, was a lie as well?)

It’s also interesting that some Flat Earthers like to dabble with other conspiracy theories about the trans community as well.

After everything they have responded to, the consensus of the Flat Earth community regarding the Final Experiment seems to be, that yes, the participants did travel to Antarctica, and yes, they did witness a Midnight Sun.

However, witnessing the Midnight Sun in Antarctica is a single observation. It happened, but it doesn’t mean anything. The existence of a Midnight Sun does not prove the geometry of the Earth. It’s just an observation, like seeing rain clouds or a rainbow; it doesn’t mean or prove anything to them.

To quote Creaky Blinder, everyone’s favourite Welsh YouTuber, regarding Flat Earthers dismissing evidence:

You all ignore any piece of evidence that’s presented to you unless it backs up what you already believe.

As I said previously, the results of the Final Experiment would cause some Flat Earthers to abandon their crusade, namely Jeran Campanella, but not all of them. Being a professional Flat Earther means you’re a grifter, whether on purpose or by accident, so players are going to play, haters are going to hate, and grifters are going to grift. This is how they make their living, it’s their job. A real Flat Earther would never let evidence stop them from grifting.

What’s been your favourite response from the Flat Earth community about the Final Experiment? As always, please let me know.

That’s another blog for another week. Thanks again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, remember that #FactsMatter and I’ll see you next week, where I’m going to be discussing the Last Son of Krypton.

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