Ridiculous Things People Actually Believe
A Tour of the Indefensible
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I am interested in the destination, not the journey BUY FROM INGRAMSPARKAMAZONKOBOREAD A CHAPTERTABLE OF CONTENTS 298 pages · Paperback ISBN 978-1-946458-44-5 · ebook ISBN 978-1-946458-70-4 |
| 298Pages | 18Chapters | 1Lucky shirt owned by the author | 0Journeys validated |
I am interested in the destination, not the journey
This is a direct examination of specific beliefs, why they are wrong, and how people manage to hold them while surrounded by evidence of their wrongness. I am not interested in validating the journey. The destination is usually embarrassing and occasionally catastrophic.
Each chapter takes a category. The flat earthers. The medical quacks. The celebrity death hoaxers. The secret society watchers. The space conspiracy crowd. Each follows the same shape: here is the belief, here is where it came from, here is why it is wrong, and here is my honest reaction. The honest reaction is rarely charitable, which is deliberate.
The last chapters step back to the machinery underneath. The logical fallacies. The cognitive biases. The social media dynamics that turn one person’s delusion into an organized movement with merchandise.
I am not claiming immunity. I have owned a lucky shirt. I have knocked on wood. The difference is that my irrational thinking has never killed anyone, and that bar turns out to be higher than you would expect.
What is inside
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The classics
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Bigger claims
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The machinery
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Underneath it
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Who this is for
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Worth your time if
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Not for you if
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Why me
Richard Lowe, the Writing King
Thirty-three years in enterprise technology taught me to check claims against evidence, because a system does not care what you believe about it. I have written extensively on logical fallacies and cognitive bias. This book is what happens when that habit meets the internet.
Questions people ask
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Ordinary brains get weaponized against their owners
Knowing the machinery is the only reliable defense.
BUY FROM INGRAMSPARKAMAZONKOBOREAD A CHAPTERTABLE OF CONTENTS
Paperback and ebook.
A chapter
Ridiculous Things People Actually Believe
Welcome to our grand tour of people who used their textbooks as coasters and their science classes as naptime. This chapter explores humans in 2025 who can order pizza with their phones, livestream their breakfast to strangers, and navigate using satellites they claim don’t exist, yet have convinced themselves that our planet looks like a dinner plate or contains underground civilizations with better Wi-Fi than most apartment complexes.
We’re diving into three spectacular examples of weaponized stupidity: the modern flat earth movement (for people who think thousands of years of astronomy was elaborate performance art), hollow earth beliefs (our planet is a geological Kinder Egg), and ice wall conspiracies (Antarctica is Earth’s cosmic pool fence, installed by celestial HOA officials).
These people perform Olympic-level mental gymnastics while using GPS to drive to conferences where they explain why GPS is a lie. They argue that water doesn’t curve while booking round-trip flights on routes that only work because Earth is round. Picture someone insisting rain isn’t wet while getting soaked in a thunderstorm.
The psychology involves confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and the intellectual equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” at physics. Strap in. We’re about to watch thousands of people convince themselves that basic geography is the world’s most elaborate practical joke.
Modern flat earthers claim our planet is a flat disc with the North Pole at the center and Antarctica forming an ice wall around the perimeter, like the world’s worst lazy Susan. The sun and moon are small, local objects (pizza-sized) circling above this disc like the universe’s most disappointing mobile.
They believe gravity doesn’t exist because the invisible force keeping your coffee in your mug is too mainstream. Instead, the flat Earth disc accelerates upward at 9.8 meters per second squared, explaining why things fall down. They think our entire planet is a cosmic elevator accelerating upward for billions of years without reaching its destination.
The most prominent voices: Mark Sargent, Patricia Steere, and Daniel Shenton, who spread these ideas through YouTube videos and conferences with the evangelical fervor of people selling extended warranties for toasters.
They claim NASA, world governments, and scientists engage in a massive conspiracy to hide the “truth” about Earth’s shape, though they’re vague about why anyone would bother. Nothing says “efficient conspiracy” like requiring every airline pilot, ship captain, and physics teacher to keep the same secret for generations without spilling the beans on TikTok.
Table of contents
Ridiculous Things People Actually Believe
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Flat Earth and Hollow Earth
- Chapter 2: Medical Miracles and Dangerous Delusions
- Chapter 3: Celebrity Immortality Club
- Chapter 4: Secret Societies and Shadow Governments
- Chapter 5: Space Conspiracies
- Chapter 6: Time Travel and Parallel Universes
- Chapter 7: Financial Fantasies
- Chapter 8: Historical Revisionism Gone Wild
- Chapter 9: Weather Wars and Climate Control
- Chapter 10: Internet Echo Chambers
- Chapter 11: Supernatural Marketplace
- Chapter 12: The Power of Positive Delusion
- Chapter 13: Social Justice Buzzwords Gone Wild
- Chapter 14: Red Pill Reality and Alpha Male Mythology
- Chapter 15: Logical Fallacies That Fuel Ridiculous Beliefs
- Chapter 16: The Echo Effect of Social Media and Fast Communication
- Chapter 17: Cognitive Biases Behind the Madness
- Chapter 18: Conclusion: Why We Believe the Unbelievable