Behind the Curve - the flat Earth documentary review
Patricia Steere and Mark Sargent flat Earth documentary preview April 30, 2018
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* "Behind the Curve" is now available on NetFlix *
* https://www.netflix.com/title/81015076 *
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First review ...
Hot Docs review: Behind the Curve, by Norman Wilner...
Unlike a few other films about people who hold questionable beliefs, Behind The Curve is a remarkably clear-eyed look at the Flat Earth movement, in which people around the globe (but mostly in America) labour to convince the rest of us that our planet is flat – more like a terrarium, really – but sinister forces have gone to elaborate lengths to keep it quiet.
It’s a literal conspiracy theory, and one spun out over and over again by the likes of Mark Sargent and Patricia Steere, who’ve become superstars in the Flat Earth YouTube community over the last few years. They don’t offer real answers, just innuendo and suspicion – Steere loves referring to “The Powers That Should Not Be” – but that’s what keeps people coming back, of course.
Documentarian Daniel J. Clark interviews them, and a few other believers, and lets them tell their version of reality – but he also speaks to astrophysicists and psychologists who efficiently debunk their beliefs and explain how people might have come to hold them. (The Dunning-Kruger effect, or the dumber you, are the more confident you are that you're not actually dumb; in which people convince themselves they know everything about something while actually knowing very little, is brought up fairly early on, along with confirmation bias, which keeps people focused on evidence that supports their existing beliefs rather than evidence that challenges them.)
While there’s entertainment value in watching the clown show of fringe weirdos drawn to the movement – one especially enthusiastic dolt swerves from terrarium theory to anti-vaxxer and Young Earth talking points in a matter of seconds – Clark also offers a compassionate view, hoping that the brighter ones might be talked back to an acceptance of reality. I want to believe he’s right.
https://nowtoronto.com/movies/reviews/hot-docs-behind-the-curve/
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Review: Behind the Curve, by Maurie Aioff
Excerpt:
A movie-loving Monty Python fan, Mark believes we are living in something like a terrarium, or a film set. He feels like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, conned into thinking a fake reality is real. Above the clouds, there is a “display system.”
The mysterious “controllers” at the top of “the grid” want to keep everyone ignorant. The NASA con job is somehow connected to various bugaboos: dangerous vaccines, chem trails, GMO foods, and a “transgender push in the media,” as one young guy puts it. The controllers might be Masons, the Vatican, or Jews.
http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/review-behind-the-curve
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REVIEWS FROM THE 15TH ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FESTIVAL, by Peter Wong.
Excerpt:
A far more satisfying if ultimately troubling portrait of strange behavior comes in the Daniel J. Clark documentary “Behind The Curve.” The film’s eccentric subjects believe that the Earth is actually flat and there’s an ongoing conspiracy to conceal this “truth.” What was once the province of harmless religious cranks has become something far more dangerous in the age of anti-vaxxer idiocy.
Clark’s portraits of his various Flat Earth advocates doesn’t go for the cheap shot of ridiculing them by highlighting their eccentricities. Instead, he shows how utterly normal in some ways they are. Several of his subjects love their cats. One demonstrates remarkable hand eye coordination. Another has built a beautiful motorbike with a hardwood exterior.
It’s even mildly touching seeing how some subjects have become emotionally attached to the Flat Earth conspiracy theory. Principal subject Mark Sargent treats believing in Flat Earth as a personal paradigm shift and other Flat Earth believers as part of his found community. A more evangelical subject sees accepting Flat Earth as opening up a whole range of other knowledge which has been derided or “ignored.”
But the illusion that Flat Earth believers are unconventionally helping increase the stores of the world’s knowledge soon gets dispelled. Public disagreements over whether the entirety of Earth’s land mass is housed under an insanely gigantic dome feel more like the staking out of personal turf. Wild character assassination taken seriously, such as Matt Boylan aka Math Powerland’s claims that Sargent is actually a deep cover movie studio executive, discredit Flat Earthers’ alleged intellectual seriousness. Others tie their acceptance of Flat Earth into a distrust of established organizations such as NASA. Most damningly, the aforementioned evangelical subject sees the growing popularity of Flat Earth theory as grounds for publicly re-opening Biblical claims that the Earth is supposedly only a few thousand years old. Sargent may see a growing belief in Flat Earth as a positive thing. But if thousands of people believe a foolish thing, it does not make the thing any less foolish.
The affability and sociability displayed by Sargent and subject YouTube broadcaster Patricia Steere makes their spouting of this ridiculous conspiracy theory particularly hard to stomach in the early parts of the film. Their belief in Flat Earth may be less vile than, say, a bigot freely spouting racist comments. Yet their commitment to this utterly wrong idea compels them to reject anything resembling scientific authority in favor of unfounded claims that reinforce their personal biases. Playfully calling their visit to a public NASA visitor facility as “entering enemy territory” isn’t that far removed from blunter Flat Earther paranoiac declarations that “NASA Lies.” What ultimately damns them is their rejecting any self-reflective doubt about their beliefs or their chosen community after some slanderous attacks concerning Sargent’s integrity and Steere’s alleged ties to the CIA.
Sargent’s mother may believe the air of authority displayed by Flat Earthers such as her son suggests “there might be something” to Flat Earth belief. But the so-called authority being displayed is actually the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action. That effect describes a person’s falsely inflated belief regarding the superiority of their thinking ability and their depth of knowledge. Sargent, for example, boasts about relying on “common observation” and not mathematics to conclude the Earth is flat.
In the eyes of people like Sargent, the public changes in previously accepted scientific consensus shows that science as practiced professionally is error-prone and even dogmatic. That belief, though, is based on a fundamental misunderstanding about how the scientific process works. Science is not a process of creating answers set in stone. It’s a process of finding the best possible explanation at the time for all the phenomena observed and the data gathered. If someone can successfully prove to other scientists that their explanation for observed phenomena and recorded data is more plausible than what’s currently understood to be true, then their explanation might eventually be adopted as current wisdom. Contrary to Sargent’s (unsupported) claim that scientists are “threatened” by Flat Earthers, it’s more likely that astrophysicists and the like haven’t bothered responding to Flat Earthers because they haven’t presented any anomalous information that would spark a re-think of currently understood knowledge.
Flat Earthers do not help their claims to credibility by rejecting the possibility of error in their theoretical assumptions. Late in the film, a group of Flat Earthers obtain an incredibly accurate $20,000 gyroscope that they feel will prove the truth of their theory. When the gyroscope confirms that the Earth is indeed round, the Flat Earthers do not even consider for a moment that their theory is wrong. Instead, they conclude some outside force is interfering with the gyroscope’s functions. Yet accepting the possibility of theoretical error is a fundamental part of the scientific process’ DNA. Without that acceptance, what the Flat Earthers are doing is practicing pseudoscience.
The above thoughts are not intended to dismiss the idea of conspiracies ever happening in the world. Such events as the GOP’s REDMAP plan to control state legislatures and the eventual overthrow of Salvador Allende show that conspiracies do occur and reach fruition. But surely the resources deployed to make a conspiracy succeed needs to give the conspirators a plausible concrete benefit. The Flat Earthers are perfectly entitled to believe that NASA lies to the public. But they’re not entitled to claim a NASA conspiracy exists without demonstrating what concrete benefit to NASA flows from such alleged lies.
Equally importantly, the Flat Earthers’ alternate model of the Earth falls apart once enough detailed questions are asked. If a half-dome encases the Flat Earth, who constructed it and when? How can both meteorites land on Earth without damaging alleged dome integrity? What mechanical or biological mechanism generates a breathable atmosphere for the living creatures living under this alleged dome? How can a Flat Earth generate the rotational energies needed to create hurricanes and other severe atmospheric phenomena dependent on rotational energy? Hand-waving may be good enough to make a domed world scenario work in a science fiction story. But trying to explain real world phenomena requires a level of plausible technical detail that the Flat Earthers seen here seem incapable of providing.
“Behind The Curve” suggests that the Flat Earthers’ adherence to their beliefs is based more on emotion than hard evidence. Without the celebrity of being a public advocate for the Flat Earth idea, Sargent would be an apparently unemployed middle-aged man living with his mother. Clark does fall a little short in probing the roots of Flat Earthers’ hostility to scientific authority and what information sources Flat Earthers are willing to trust. As the subjects seen onscreen definitely don’t appear to be polymaths, it seems that the echo chamber of fellow conspiracy theorists provide one of their main sources of authority or expertise.
One scientist speaking at an informal public outreach event talks of finding better ways of reaching out to Flat Earthers to nudge them away from their mistaken beliefs. This is a noble and necessary aim. Yet such an effort would need to find what emotional needs are satisfied by believing in Flat Earth before making any sort of informational argument based on current knowledge. The clock is certainly ticking as one Flat Earther happily mentions having grandchildren inculcated in Flat Earth belief.
http://beyondchron.org/reviews-from-the-15th-another-hole-in-the-head-film-festival/
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'Behind the Curve' (review), by David Landman
Excerpt:
Pardon me for a moment while I give a huge head nod to Daniel J. Clark, who directed this fine piece of documentary filmmaking.
In today’s world, where the rejection of objective reality is so prevalent Clark tells the story of Flat Earthers with dispassionate distance.
I couldn’t have done it.
I could not have followed these people around and been in a room with them for months and months without breaking and screaming something to the effect of, “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS!!??!!”
Daniel Clark did an interview in GQ during the run up to the film which is dripping with compassion and thoughtfulness. He didn’t want to make fun of these people.
Generously showing their point of view without judgement or overt objection Clark gives us a long look into the Flat Earth subculture and its leader, Mark Sargent. Sargent is the orbital center of the film. Clark doesn’t mock him in any way, but their is no other way to describe the man than sad.
Everything about Sargent is depressing. His mother’s kind sweetness is dampened by her disappointed expressions as she talks to the camera. Mark Sargent has a podcasting partner named Patricia Steere and their relationship seems to be this strange chaste romance that is really awkward to watch. Sargent and Steere visit NASA and their obtuse and clueless observations are painful to listen to.
It’s in these moments that Clark and his editors were so brilliant. Sargent adamantly tries to activate a simulator at the Johnson Space Center by repeatedly tapping a screen. It doesn’t work and Sargent goes on a meandering stroll of fallacious logic to indicate the simulator not functioning was proof that everything NASA does is fake. He and Steere giddily walk away and the camera gently pans to the start button on the console next to where Sargent sat. Clark powerfully says, “THESE PEOPLE ARE UNSPOOLED,” without actually saying it.
The real value of this documentary is the brilliant scientists that provide commentary. In the context of flat earth listening to actual scientists discuss scientific methods. They give detailed and applied explanations of some really important concepts. They talk about testing hypotheses, confirmation bias and recency bias. They give really important applied explanations of cherry picking data and ignoring evidence. As a society we face the rejection of objective reality on a daily basis so to watch a documentary film make plain the dangers of that rejection can actually give us hope.
Everything about this documentary is well done. Watch it. You won’t be disappointed.
https://www.forcesofgeek.com/2018/12/behind-the-curve-review.html
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HOT DOCS 2018 REVIEWS: DANIEL J. CLARK’S BEHIND THE CURVE TAKES AN EMPATHETIC AND CIVIL LOOK AT THE PEOPLE INHABITING THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY, by Miguel Cima
Excerpt:
Well, it’s 2018, and here we are, actually entertaining a cultural movement which believes that the earth is flat. Until the last 15 or so years, telling someone they believed this scientifically-proven fallacy was a cliché means of insulting one’s intelligence. Now we’re in an era where celebrities are speaking out in the name of this “theory” and Very Responsible People – some of whom are in the STEM field in one way or another – are lending legitimacy to this wholly unreasonable position, debunked using basic geometry over two millennia ago. And it’s a very hard thing to understand. So along comes documentary filmmaker Daniel J. Clark to turn his lens on this tenacious subculture to try to understand – how in the hell do intelligent folks buy into this nonsense? Behind the Curve is an incredibly fair and non-judgmental look into this world which really does make sense of this phenomenon. It’s also an enthralling and entertaining journey to an alternate planet which we happen to share with a lot of people we may vehemently disagree with.
Full disclosure: I’m not a scientist. I haven’t done the theorem which proves the curvature of the earth. I just do what a lot of people do – I make a decision about which experts I will choose to believe. And that’s exactly the Flat-Earthers do, too. Because as the film clearly shows, members of these various societies aren’t really being scientific about their approach. Patiently, Clark lets them tell their own stories. Most of the focus is on two true believers – Mark and Patricia. Getting to know them in a very organic way during the course of the film reveals a great deal about what it takes to get people to believe some very strange ideas. They are nice people. They keep regular jobs. They are trained in their disciplines. But something else is going on, and yes, Behind the Curve shows us what that is.
Through a series of convoluted dissertations, dubious experiments, half-considered assumptions, and, well – conspiracy theories (which these folks themselves call it) – the audience gets a glimpse into the special flavor of system justification which rules these human minds. Never mind that their experiments fall flat (sorry). Never mind all the scientists who try to explain the reality of physics. What stands out in the film is just how much the flat earthers simply need to believe what they believe. It’s kind of like refusing to believe that OJ was guilty or maybe even letting go of the Santa Claus myth. The characters in the film are all too familiar. They’ve chosen to attach their identity to this belief system, and it means everything. It means friends, social connection, self-validation and even romance. Truly, it’s a religious fervor. And without even a hint of indictment, Clark lets the protagonists explain themselves on their own terms. It’s left for us but to watch. By sparing viewers from an advocacy position, we can pretty much see the dramatic arc of the films’ subjects for what they are: fallible, emotional, needing to belong, needing to have something to have faith in. Clark encapsulates it all in a single interview question to Patricia: “What source do you trust?” Unironically, Patricia responds: “Myself.” At bottom, she’s just like the rest of us in that regard. Sure, she, Mark and all the other characters we meet might be nuts, but there’s a little bit of them in all of us, and plenty of room on this spinning globe to share with them.
https://festworks.com/2018/06/14/hot-docs-2018-reviews-daniel-j-clarks-behind-the-curve-takes-an-empathetic-and-civil-look-at-the-people-inhabiting-the-flat-earth-society/
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Newsweek – Culture
‘BEHIND THE CURVE’ ENDING: FLAT EARTHERS DISPROVE THEMSELVES WITH OWN EXPERIMENT IN NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY, by Andrew Whalen
https://www.newsweek.com/behind-curve-netflix-ending-light-experiment-mark-sargent-documentary-movie-1343362
Excerpt:
"One of the more jaw-dropping segments of the documentary comes when Bob Knodel, one of the hosts on a popular Flat Earth YouTube channel, walks viewers through an experiment involving a laser gyroscope. As the Earth rotates, the gyroscope appears to lean off-axis, staying in its original position as the Earth’s curvature changes in relation. “What we found is, is when we turned on that gyroscope we found that we were picking up a drift. A 15 degree per hour drift,” Knodel says, acknowledging that the gyroscope’s behavior confirmed to exactly what you’d expect from a gyroscope on a rotating globe.
“Now, obviously we were taken aback by that. ‘Wow, that’s kind of a problem,’” Knodel says. “We obviously were not willing to accept that, and so we started looking for ways to disprove it was actually registering the motion of the Earth.”
Despite further experimental refinements, Knodel’s gyroscope consistently behaves as if the Earth is round. Yet Knodel’s beliefs seem unchanged when discussing the experiment at a Flat Earth meetup in Denver. “We don’t want to blow this, you know? When you’ve got $20,000 in this freaking gyro. If we dumped what we found right now, it would be bad. It would be bad. What I just told you was confidential,” Knodel says to another Flat Earther in attendance."
etc.
Please read the article in full.
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Bob Knodel of Globebusters has mentioned that his personal business and finances has suffered negatively because of his appearance in the "Behind the Curve" documentary.
GLOBEBUSTERS – An End of an Era? A Personal Message to Flat Earthers, by Globebusters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ihZY_KNVDg
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Behind the Curve review by prominent Globe Earth supporters:
Behind The Curve - Flat Earth Netflix Documentary Review, by Respect Your Intellect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULzKBZ07T8
The People "Behind the Curve"— A Review, by GreaterSapien
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMrYo9CrxNI
Behind the Curve - A Flat Earth Movie Review, by Team Skeptic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPJ-WOJ25o
Flat Earthers Jeranism and Bob Debunk Themselves || Behind the Curve Review, by Godless Engineer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMG5P1LRHYU
What is Truly Behind the Curve?, by SciManDan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqQeDiK6iuc
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Dear Readers,
Our lovely planet Earth is a beautiful blue round globe, spinning once every 24-hours on an axis, and orbiting the Sun.
There are no errors in the science that proves that reality. Flat Earth advocates are promoting their conspiracy for a variety of reasons. It's good for you to understand what motivates that thought stream.
Of the thousands of flat Earth supporters, the majority of them reside in the United States.
Here is where they live:
United States = ................................53%
United Kingdom = ............................16%
Canada = ...........................................5%
Australia = ..........................................4%
the other 191 countries combined = 22%
The United States has the highest percentage (by population) of flat Earth supporters in the world, simply because Evangelical Christians make up over ¼ of the total USA population. Evangelical Christians are the leading flat Earth advocates.
Who are these Flat Earth people:
75% are:
Evangelical Christians. For them if you believe in God, you must also accept the literal world view according to the Bible.
They point to scriptures that say…
The Earth is stationary and does not move
The Earth is the center of everything.
Because of their religious belief Evangelical Christians must dismiss SCIENCE as untrue, because it sometimes contradicts the personal mental world view that they have created for themselves.
Some have said, science is an abomination to God.
So they blame grand conspiracies for deliberately hiding God and the true shape of the universe.
According to them, who is hiding the flat Earth?
Illuminati
Bilderberg’s
Jesuits
Free Masons
Trilateral Commission
Vatican (the current Pope has mentioned that the Big Bang is possible)
Zionist
NASA
This all started around the year 1610 when Galileo used his telescope to observe the moons of Jupiter. The four moons revolving around Jupiter clearly displayed that the Earth was not the center of the universe. He begged the Clergy to look thru the telescope and see for themselves, but they refused. He was later forced to recant his statements upon threat of death.
Then around 1838 in England, Samuel Rowbotham conducted the famous Bedford Canal level experiment, where he claimed the Earth was flat.
After Rowbotham’s death Lady Elizabeth Blount established The Universal Zetetic Society also in England. Every meeting was started with Bible scripture readings followed by prayer.
Later in the middle of the 20th century Samuel Shenton created the International Flat Earth Society.
When NASA came out with space pictures of Earth in the 1960’s, he claimed that they were all fake.
Various flat Earth societies exist today.
The advent of YouTube, Facebook, and the other social networks available today has suddenly pushed flat Earth into the spotlight. The latest growth spurt started in 2015.
This year 2017 saw the first International Flat Earth conference in the USA. England is planning a conference for 2018.
So now there is real money making opportunity in it.
The financial sponsor of the Flat Earth International Conference 2017 was Ralph Joseph Riehl, the CEO of Metatron Inc.
He approached Patricia Steers and Mark Sargent a few years ago looking for a new business plan; how to monetize and make money on YouTube channels. He claims to be a flat earth agnostic, so he does not support or deny a flat Earth.
He made a lot of money creating mobile apps for Eckert Tolle and others.
iMobile
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There is no flat Earth theory. For a theory to be useful in the scientific sense, it needs to be able to explain evidence and be able to help make predictions. The notion of a flat Earth can do neither beyond what you might need to use when looking out the back window of your house.
It is easier to make people doubt a subject, when you make them believe their basic instincts are right, and that which others are telling them is a lie. If the flat-Earthers would have appealed to logic and science, no one would have been convinced in the first place.
They give the appearance of being scientific to people who have had limited exposure to science, but are based on logically fallacious arguments. They use the common man’s lack of faith in the government and traditional systems.
It's easy to go from believing that NASA faked the moon landing, to accepting that the Earth is flat. But the moon landings (true or not) do not prove a flat Earth.
Some of the major flat Earth channels are getting about $1,500 each month in donations from supporters. There is an attempt to do videos full time with a livable salary.
25% are:
stupid and ignorant people
people in it only for the money
people with no science training making up all kinds of crazy theories.
people inventing new laws of nature and forces that don’t really exist.
Truthers – those that believe the government and public education is meant to keep people as if slaves. They profess to be the only ones that know the truth.
They distrust almost everything.
Matrix theory
Truman Show theory
etc.
We noticed that these folks were part of a cultural phenomenon of discontentment with life. They want to blame government, big business and big money, anyone but themselves.
Thanks for coming and reading this article.
Published on – April 27, 2018
Discussion at - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ipUKERU0tzYFxALJBli4A/discussion
Our home page all articles - http://flatearthlunacy.com
kind regards, JonahTheScientist
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