As ridiculous as FE seems, prima facie, until it's proven false, I keep my mind open to plausible explanations for why:
A) the moon landings were all fake and we've never "been back"
B) there are no actual photos of the entire earth from space (unless you believe the sizes of the continents are changing by 30-60% every decade or so)
C) the only people on earth that we give billions of dollars to, to go to space, are faking any, let alone much (or all) of the footage, using green screens, parabolic "zero gravity" flights, actual hair spray to make their hair stand up, underwater studios (unless you believe in air bubbles in space)
You might say "but these items have better explanations than FE". Well let's hear those theories also. Let's not shoot down those who are proposing an outlandish, yet mostly comprehensive, theory, one that explains these anomalies as well as a plethora of others, like how did they use radio frequencies that don't even purportedly bounce off the ionosphere to communicate hundreds of miles during WWII, how can the horizon be seen above an item whose entirety should be hidden behind it, why is Antarctica, aside from a tiny portion, entirely off limits to most civilians, how was Felix Baumgartner able to slowly float up to nearly 30 miles without drifting a thousand or more miles because of the earth's rotation, etc.
Suggestions that these things are not even worthy of discussion, on a forum dedicated to conspiracy theories, have to be disingenuous.
Original Research
Let's not also forget that FE researchers are literally the only conspiracy theorists doing original research. These people will buy lasers that cost thousands of dollars, cameras, etc., and go to some large body of water (large lakes, bays, etc.) where they can test their hypothesis with an actual experiment. Everything else I see on here is pure speculation, or videos of interviews involving various professionals with dubious backstories (Malone, etc.).
Does it Matter
Pertaining the "would it even matter" argument, you honestly don't need a lukewarm IQ to imagine how much it would matter, if FE was real.
Principles
Most of us are here because we couldn't speak freely elsewhere, because "hate has no place on our platform" type communist bullshit. Now we're going to make the same kind of rules, especially banning arbitrary content that is desired by a clear majority, on a platform with already-existing mechanisms for getting rid of low quality postd (downvoting, hiding)? If FE posts are banned, this place is no better than TGA, and don't even pretend to be pro constitution when you can't even stand up for free speech about a conspiracy theory in a conspiracy theory forum.
I'm out of here, for good, if FE is banned. Aside from spam, illegal, doxxing, banning has no place on our platform.
If you don’t understand that FE is a stand in for honing critical thinking skills, then you don’t.
People today possess so little empirical knowledge. I find that its a vital tool in learning to discern what is ‘known’ from what YOU know, and why that matters.
I laugh whenever I see hostility toward the idea - People shouting at the internet, imploring others to accept ‘the facts’ at face value; Unless you’ve been to space, please just fuck off and shut up. You’re as bad as anyone on Reddit.
Let people learn and grow. Discussion is healthy. Suppressing thought is not.
And how critical thinking skills could be honed by continously spamming same stupid videos, pictures and links without a single attempt to think out a single new idea about their theory? I never saw anything new in FE since 90s when it was just a joke circling in early internet to laugh on.
"You are not a doctor, so fuck off and shut up". Heard it, saw it, didn't gave a fuck about it.
And I perfectly know, how it will end - "It's a lens on your camera!!!111", "You faked your spaceflight!!!1111", "You are Putin shill111!!!" and so on.
For a long time people of the Earth have an unlimited access to cameras on geostationary weather satellites that continuously transmit shots of whole Earth everybody could receive without any third party between and check everything, from rotation, season changes, and so on to cloud patterns over your home. And all that FE could tell about it - "NASA lies!!!111", even not suspecting that most satellites have nothing to do with NASA at all. None of them ever tried to recieve that signal and tried to think out a reasonable explanation in margins of their theory. Only insults, cries, lies and reposting of old shit.
Do you, flatearthers, underestand that it is not your theory expose you, but your behaviour? Your behaviour is exactly the same as behaviour of all that woke influencers, LGBTXYZ+ activists, BigPharma shills and so on.
Why you need your uninteresting and old theory everybody know about for a long time and already laughed on long ago, to be continously present in huge amounts in every place where people discuss something that is outside of some official narrative? Could you ever answer that question? Or you will just fall into butthurt and insults instead of answering simple question, as usual?
PS: yeah, I know, all that questions above are rethoric. FE guys will never directly and honestly answer them.
Im not a flat earth supporter. I believe in freedom of choice. Im introducing no arguments for or against the topic per se. only the freedom to choose freely that which I consume. All wounds regarding this topic must be considered self inflicted.
I guess I'm confused by your language then.
Are you saying you don't have critical thinking skills, since you don't support FE, or are you saying that FE is a replacement for critical thinking.
Either makes sense, really...