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.
I agree. Huzzah! FE really gets us thinking about what we believe and WHY we believe it. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s true or you follow mainline cosmology, the ability to entertain an idea keeps us thinking and reasoning together.
Why can’t we question mainstream science? Why would we want to accept anything they say blindly with all we’ve seen just from the C19 scam?
Here's the irony, and the best argument for banning FE: Flat Earthers are incapable of questioning.
If you notice, they never ask. It's always statements of fact: "globe earth is impossible because x", "no one has pictures from space", "the moon landing is fake" etc.
On top of this, they will never admit evidence against their viewpoint. Anytime you refute a point, the response is either "you don't understand FE" or "you worship the government".
Usually I don't like to generalize an entire group, but in this case it's appropriate because, if it weren't, they wouldn't beleive FE. FE can be disproven in about a million different ways, and has been. There's obviously stuff like flight plans, observed angles of the sun at different places, pictures from high altitudes (as low as tops of buildings) but even if all that is controlled by the globe earth conspirators, it's refuted by basic physics and even geometry.
They're here solely to push an agenda, for whatever reason. They add nothing to the debate except links to videos that use predictable tricks and logical phallacies to persuade, rather than convince.
No one here is accepting anything said by government blindly, that's a red herring. What's happening is that FEers are denying anything said by government blindly, then trying to justify it after the fact.
This isn't the act of rebellion they think it is, all this does is muddies the waters.
"antivaxxers are incapable of questioning"
It's the same logic. banning the discussion of a conspiracy as a whole is overzealous and undermines the very foundation of this forum. What we should be doing is endeavoring to ban all bad faith discussion, which is a lot more difficult for sure.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Lots of “no”s - very few “here’s what could work instead”
it's definitely a tough one, but banning whole conversations is not the right answer.
I suppose one step would be to make the posting of ad-hominem a bannable offense. For example:
Person's A and B would be fine, as they are engaging in legitimate discussion. person C brings nothing of value to the discussion and only serves to stir emotions. person C, in my opinion should receive a warning or a ban.