Ridiculous Things People Actually Believe

A sharp, funny, and thoroughly researched tour of the beliefs that should have died in the Dark Ages but somehow have Wi-Fi now.

From flat earthers who use GPS to drive to conferences where they explain why GPS is a lie, to parents giving their children industrial bleach because someone on Facebook said it cures autism, to people who think the British Royal Family are shape-shifting lizard aliens. Richard Lowe documents 18 categories of spectacular human intellectual failure and exactly why otherwise intelligent people fall for every one of them.

This is not a compassionate exploration of why misinformation happens. There are plenty of those, and they are very polite, and they have not fixed anything. This is a direct examination of specific beliefs, why they are wrong, and how people manage to hold them while surrounded by evidence of their wrongness.

Forty-five years in technology taught Lowe one thing above everything else: there is a hard difference between things that work and things people want to work. Watching grown adults spend real money on psychic hotlines and crystal healing and manifestation coaches does not just baffle him. It makes him angry. Some of these beliefs are harmless entertainment. Some of them kill children.

The book covers the full spectrum. Flat earthers and hollow earth believers who have rejected basic geography. Seven flavors of medical misinformation, from homeopathy to urine therapy to MMS advocates who convinced themselves that pool chemicals cure cancer. Celebrity death hoaxers who have decided that Elvis, Tupac, Paul McCartney, and Michael Jackson all faked their deaths rather than simply died. Secret societies, reptilian overlords, moon landing denial, time travel, financial fantasy, historical revisionism, weather warfare, QAnon, manifestation culture, social justice overreach, and the alpha male mythology that convinced a generation of men that female attraction works like a stock market.

The final chapters step back from the specific beliefs and look at the machinery underneath — the logical fallacies, the cognitive biases, and the social media dynamics that turn individual delusion into organized movements with merchandise, conferences, and YouTube celebrities.

By the end, you will have a complete picture of how ordinary human brains get weaponized against their owners. And you will never look at a contrail the same way again.

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Welcome to our grand tour of people who used their textbooks as coasters and their science classes as naptime. This chapter explores humans in 2025 who can order pizza with their phones, livestream their breakfast to strangers, and navigate using satellites they claim don’t exist, yet have convinced themselves that our planet looks like a dinner plate or contains underground civilizations with better Wi-Fi than most apartment complexes.

We’re diving into three spectacular examples of weaponized stupidity: the modern flat earth movement (for people who think thousands of years of astronomy was elaborate performance art), hollow earth beliefs (our planet is a geological Kinder Egg), and ice wall conspiracies (Antarctica is Earth’s cosmic pool fence, installed by celestial HOA officials).

These people perform Olympic-level mental gymnastics while using GPS to drive to conferences where they explain why GPS is a lie. They argue that water doesn’t curve while booking round-trip flights on routes that only work because Earth is round. Picture someone insisting rain isn’t wet while getting soaked in a thunderstorm.

The psychology involves confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and the intellectual equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” at physics. Strap in. We’re about to watch thousands of people convince themselves that basic geography is the world’s most elaborate practical joke.

Modern flat earthers claim our planet is a flat disc with the North Pole at the center and Antarctica forming an ice wall around the perimeter, like the world’s worst lazy Susan. The sun and moon are small, local objects (pizza-sized) circling above this disc like the universe’s most disappointing mobile.

They believe gravity doesn’t exist because the invisible force keeping your coffee in your mug is too mainstream. Instead, the flat Earth disc accelerates upward at 9.8 meters per second squared, explaining why things fall down. They think our entire planet is a cosmic elevator accelerating upward for billions of years without reaching its destination.

The most prominent voices: Mark Sargent, Patricia Steere, and Daniel Shenton, who spread these ideas through YouTube videos and conferences with the evangelical fervor of people selling extended warranties for toasters.

They claim NASA, world governments, and scientists engage in a massive conspiracy to hide the “truth” about Earth’s shape, though they’re vague about why anyone would bother. Nothing says “efficient conspiracy” like requiring every airline pilot, ship captain, and physics teacher to keep the same secret for generations without spilling the beans on TikTok.

The modern movement traces back to Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816–1884), who peaked during his “questioning everything” phase and never moved on. He published “Zetetic Astronomy” in 1849 under the pseudonym “Parallax.” Nothing says “I’m definitely not crazy” like using a fake name to publish revolutionary geographic theories.

Rowbotham based his ideas on his 1838 Bedford Level experiment, where he stood by a canal, squinted at some boats, and concluded Earth must be flat because he couldn’t see curvature. This is like looking at your kitchen table and concluding all furniture is rectangular.

The movement gained momentum in the 2010s through YouTube personalities like Mark Sargent, who discovered flat earth theory online and thought, “This seems legit.” The internet is known for reliable geographic information, after all.

The flat earth model can’t explain seasons, time zones, or why different constellations are visible from different latitudes. If the sun were a local spotlight doing donuts above a flat disc, people in Australia and Canada would see the same stars, and everyone would experience seasons simultaneously.

The logistics of maintaining such a conspiracy would require every airline pilot, ship captain, GPS satellite operator, astronaut, government official, physicist, and geography teacher to be in on it. That’s millions of people keeping the same secret for decades without a credible whistleblower. Meanwhile, these same people can’t keep celebrity divorces secret for five minutes.

The December 2024 “Final Experiment” expedition took flat earthers to Antarctica, where they witnessed the 24-hour sun (impossible on their model). Even prominent believers had to admit their model was wrong. The community’s response? They declared the expedition fake and accused their own believers of being government agents.

I’m not sure what’s more baffling: that people believe this nonsense or that they’re so confident they’ll argue with rocket scientists while using devices proving them wrong. We can watch live streams from space, track satellites with phone apps, and send up weather balloons to see Earth’s curvature. Yet thousands have convinced themselves that their inability to see curvature from the Walmart parking lot trumps centuries of scientific observation.

The flat earth movement is what happens when someone mistakes being contrarian for being intelligent. Real critical thinking involves examining evidence, not reflexively rejecting anything challenging your preconceptions while yelling “FAKE NEWS!” at physics textbooks.

Here’s the kicker: flat earthers use GPS devices (working because Earth is spherical) to navigate to conferences where they explain why GPS is a government conspiracy. They book flights following great circle routes (only making sense on a sphere) to attend meetings where they discuss why sphere Earth is impossible. Picture using a ladder to climb up and give a speech about how ladders don’t exist.

Hollow Earth Beliefs

Hollow earth proponents claim our planet contains vast hollow spaces with underground civilizations having better urban planning than most surface cities. The popular version suggests Earth has a hollow interior accessible through large openings at the poles, often called “Symmes Holes.”

More elaborate versions propose multiple concentric spheres within Earth, each harboring ecosystems and inhabitants, like Russian nesting dolls designed by someone who failed geology. Some blend hollow earth with UFO theories, suggesting flying saucers come from inner space, not outer space. Even aliens prefer basement apartments.

The theory has a distinguished scientific pedigree, making its modern persistence embarrassing. English astronomer Edmond Halley proposed it in 1692. Other brilliant mathematicians like Leonhard Euler got involved, because even geniuses can have wrong ideas about where we live.

We have extensive seismic data from earthquakes showing Earth’s internal structure: thin crust, thick mantle of hot rock, core of iron and nickel. Seismic waves travel at predictable speeds based on materials they encounter. If Earth were hollow, these waves would behave completely differently.

We’d have detected hollow Earth through gravitational measurements. A hollow Earth would have less mass and less gravitational pull. Your bathroom scale would give different readings and NASA would have recalculated every satellite orbit. Our gravity measurements match perfectly with a solid planet.

Hollow earth theory is charmingly delusional, like a geological fairy tale. We literally have X-ray vision for the planet using seismic waves. We can peer into Earth’s interior with the precision doctors use to examine broken bones. Yet believers act like the planet’s interior is an unknowable mystery, like they’re living in the 18th century when the most advanced earth-scanning technology was a big shovel.

If there were massive polar openings, wouldn’t airlines have noticed? Do they think pilots are terrible at their jobs, or that everyone who’s flown over the Arctic is part of a conspiracy of geographical incompetence?

Ice Wall Conspiracies

Ice wall conspiracy theorists claim Antarctica isn’t a continent but a massive ice wall surrounding the edges of flat Earth, like the universe’s most expensive pool fence. This wall prevents oceans from flowing off the edge and hides whatever lies beyond.

They claim the 1959 Antarctic Treaty prevents people from discovering this ice wall. NASA and world governments patrol this barrier with elite ice guards whose job includes “preventing tourists from discovering our planet is dinner plate-shaped.”

Antarctica is not a wall. It’s a continent. A big, cold, thoroughly mapped continent with interior regions, mountains, research stations, and all the features of a landmass existing in three dimensions. We have detailed satellite imagery and thousands of researchers who’ve worked there.

The Antarctic Treaty doesn’t prevent civilian visits. Thousands of tourists visit annually through organized expeditions, posting Instagram photos. You can Google “Antarctic cruises” and book a trip right now.

The December 2024 “Final Experiment” took flat earthers to Antarctica, where they witnessed the 24-hour sun (impossible on flat Earth). The community rejected the results and accused their own members of conspiracy.

The ice wall conspiracy might be the most easily debunked belief in this book. Believers claim the Antarctic Treaty prevents access while being oblivious that you can book Antarctic cruises online like ordering pizza. Either this conspiracy is run by the most incompetent secret organization in history, or Antarctica is exactly what scientists say: a cold continent at the bottom of our spherical planet.

These believers carry GPS devices working because Earth is spherical while believing satellites are fake. They use evidence against their beliefs to navigate to meetings where they discuss how that evidence doesn’t exist. Picture using a ladder to climb up and give a speech about how ladders are impossible.

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