I am a parent of four young adults.

Yet, I remember when they were all 9 year old's. Yes, they did dumb shit.

Now, I want to introduce the reader to a specific 9 year old, who did some dumb shit.

To compound their dumbness, this 9 year old dropped out of school at the tender age of nine. Which begs an important question.

Where the hell were this kids parents?

Who am I speaking of?

One Samuel Rowbotham of London England.

Rowbotham would eventually become convinced, or at least claimed he was, that not only was the Earth flat, but that everything we see in the heavens is actually only a few thousand miles from the Earth- stars and all.

While his ideas were absurd for an incredible number of reasons, even given the technology and scientific knowledge of his era, what Rowbatham had going for him was he was reportedly incredibly quick on his feet in debates and an extremely charismatic speaker, able to twist the words of even the best academics.

It didn’t matter if he was actually right or not, only that he was better at convincing laypeople than the academics he regularly debated, or at least good at creating reasonable doubt.

Besides making a small fortune public speaking, he also wrote various works including a book aptly titled Earth Not a Globe.

Rowbotham ultimately created the Zetetic Society, which, besides advocating for a flat Earth, also advocated that only facts one could prove themselves could be accepted as true.

On the side, Rowbotham also began going by “Dr. Samuel Birley” and making money selling people on cure-alls and life extenders of his own invention, among other such activities.

In other words, a "snake oil" salesman.

To 21st century flat earthers.

Your belief is based on an uneducated, misguided 9 year old, who grew up to become a snake oil salesman.

A relevant fact that most flat earthers will never acknowledge or own up to,