As rapper B.o.B. continues to raise money to prove the Earth is flat, astronauts roast him on Twitter, telling him to save his money or even better -- donate it to a noble cause.
In case you're out of the loop on this one, last week we reported the hilarious and yet depressing campaign started by rapper B.o.B. Like disturbingly many people, he believes the Earth is flat and the entire world is in on a conspiracy to hide it. Yes, science illiteracy really is running rampant. But B.o.B. wants to take it to the next level. Not with his own money, of course, but with other people's money. He started a GoFundMe campaign to send "one, if not multiple, satellites as far into orbit as [he] can" in order to "find the curve." As in the curve of the planet, which he doesn't believe exists, because he believes the Earth is flat. Somehow, that's supposed to make sense.
NASA astronauts, of course, are having none of it. As one of the very few people who has actually seen the Earth from orbit, Terry Virts (who boarded the International Space Station as commander of Expedition 43) stepped in. If the Earth would be flat, Terry's definitely one of the people you'd want to ask.
I can save BoB a lot of money- The Earth is round. I flew around it. https://t.co/F7qAovPEng @bobatl @BBCWorld
— Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) September 27, 2017
Next in line was the legendary Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two people to walk on the Moon (spoiler alert: the Moon also isn't flat).
I did too. It's called an orbit: the curved path of a celestial object around a star, planet, or moon. https://t.co/h8GQJadfxD
— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) September 27, 2017
But the cherry on the cake was definitely this reply from recently retired Scott Kelly, who spent a year above Earth. Not only did he post a beautiful timelapse highlighting the Earth's curve (real planets have curves), but he struck back at B.o.B., asking him to put his money to better use -- like helping the people of Puerto Rico, who are struggling to recover after one of the most dramatic hurricanes in recorded history.
Show you the curve? Here you go @bobatl! One full orbit around Earth. Maybe donate funds raised to #PuertoRicoRelief https://t.co/bhJSXfwYXL pic.twitter.com/rFAysS2clc
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) September 27, 2017
However, B.o.B. was unphased by all this. In passive-aggressive fashion, he wrote:
"People usually discourage you from doing something when they have something to hide."
Let's step back for a moment and contemplate the sheer insanity of all this. We're talking about people trying to prove the Earth is flat. In 2017. The Spanish Inquisition was saying the same thing 500 years ago and burned people who said otherwise. Thankfully, that isn't the case anymore, but the fact that we're still discussing this is embarrassing. But let's try to take something from this, because there's an important bit to be learned here.
Within this crazy affair lies the key to knowing if your belief is a pseudoscience. If your belief would imply that the world's researchers and experts are in on a big conspiracy theory, then it's almost certainly pseudoscience. Simple as that.
