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 anyone who has researched enough to find this excellent hidden forum and then virtue signal the most hypocritical thing to censor a CONSPIRACY THEORY!
Freakin name shaming them calling them stupid. really? You are just like all the rest. Making them feel like they can't voice their thoughts.
I am not a flat earth believer but people lack of self awareness amazes me everyday more.
FE isn't a conspiracy theory.
A conspiracy is a clandestine operation performed by a small group which is intentionally hidden from the larger population.
If FE is true, then not only is every government on earth complicit, governments going back 500 years are complicit. As well as those who developed and use the principals of light, orbital mechanics, navigation, astronomy and all the way down to basic triggonometry; all of which are in opposition to FE.
FE is a "conspiracy" in the same way as The Patriarchy is a conspiracy; everyone would have to be in on it to the point that you may as well call it a "troll".
But it isn't governments claiming this.
It's the math, and objective observation.
I put forward a proof yesterday, in another thread, that showed the sun cannot go below 10° from the horizon from the furthest point of observation, as per the FE model where the sun spins over the equator (and much higher for points closer to the equator). I have personally observed the sun dropping below where it should be able to go, and anyone else could as well. The math was something I learned in grade 10; not complicated.
To say "the government is hiding the truth about FE" is to say that the government (all governments) have falsified basic math (in which case we wouldn't be able to use it for anything else) and/or created a fake sky that they control (in which case, why not just make it look like it should, according to FE?).
I'll also point out that we know what a global government conspiracy to hide the science looks like: Covid.
They could barely keep that under wraps for three years, many scientists came forward, and the whole thing is falling apart.
We're to believe that the government has the capability to hide the shape of the earth for 500 years but they can't hide the origin of a virus in the most controlled country in the world?
It's not a conspiracy.
It actually delegitimizes real conspiracies, like Covid, because if the "government" could hide FE, then the entire Covid operation must have been intentionally leaked because we know they could have hidden it.
Not just hidden for 500 years, ancient Greece calculated the diameter of the earth millennia ago, and was surprisingly accurate.