really? sorry but instantly trying to avoid the question, quickly followed by attempts at diversion, then completed by a tirade of belittling, is not what I'd call a discussion, especially a 'better' discussion than globe earthers who state facts, follow up with evidence, then ask matter of fact questions related to the topic
unless you're talking about another site, because it's difficult to even get an answer out of ANY flat earthers on here
(minus JRoweSkeptic, at least he tries)
Except that's not what often happens. Sure, some FEers evade, that's the main thing REers generally don't do (though it does happen, you'd be amazed how easy it is to find an account of FEers who ask a direct question only to see it go ignored). But REers are by far more guilty of belittling and tirades of insults than FEers.
Plenty of FEers do answer, it's just buried among the countless posts and threads made on the exact same topic, who can blame them for being tired of repeating themselves to people who often haven't even read the FAQ? Generally you find the only longer-lasting threads are on FE topics rather than RE, because it's typically only the FE topics that haven't been done to death.
REer posts, sure, you get some questions. Sometimes they're not relevant to the topic, it's very common for a separate thread to be brought up in an entirely irrelevant topic just because they want to claim victory in an argument (there was an old user called Jadyyn who used to paste an argument about equatorially aligned telescopes everywhere for no discernible reason, and AaK wanted to bring up a tired old denpressure argument I got tired of repeating myself on in a thread with no relationship to denpressure, for the most obvious examples). Then there are users like Inquisitive who pop up, ask one question (often the exact same question), and then vanish when answered, only to reappear again and ask the same question without refuting the given answer. And then there are the ones that just don't read the answer: already in this thread origamiscienceguy has asked pretty much the same question twice.
More often than not the evidence is claimed, but not actually provided. Sure, sometimes maybe it's common sense, but it's always worth sourcing, particularly if you want to demonstrate there's no conspiracy at play.
Some REers discuss, sure, just as some FEers do, but it's hardly universal. There are some idiots on both sides, it just tends to be that when an REer's bad, they're far worse than FEers because they get that extra helping of self-righteousness and ego along with it. There was LogicalKiller whose hobbies included calling everyone peasant and claiming a PhD in physics he definitely didn't possess (and on a related note, physicsteacher who definitely didn't understand physics), and FlatBrainer who was likely logicalkiller's alt and the moment a FEer blocked them they went off on a tirade of copy-and-pasting a huge rant into countless posts rendering the thread unreadable and annoying basically everyone. There was AusGeoff whose probably Papa Legba. One standout example there was a discussion with JRowe: geoff asked for a map. JRowe made a fairly long post explaining the problems with such a request. Geoff's response? Either a) a similarly reasoned rebuttal of the arguments made, or b) lol, you didn't provide a map. See if you can guess.
Whereas I've had plenty of good discussions with people like Sceptimatic and John Davis, who're the only prominent FEers I can think of still posting. i don't count the mods because I've seen the chaos behind the scenes, and you can't expect them to get as involved in discussions as everyone else because they have to moderate this site, and if you look how quickly people (especially REers) will resort to calling people retarded or suggesting people lock themselves in a vacuum chamber and suffocate, or create threads dedicated to "How can anyone believe this? You're stupid," without actually making an argument... Well, it's a hell of a job.
The issue is, REers are right, so we naturally overlook errors. However, "The Earth's round stupid," and repeating the exact same questions without taking on board the answers, and inherently thinking that they know better... It happens a lot, and it's terrible way to discuss. Plus often REers can't do any more than use stock arguments. There are plenty of classics, but once the debate moves on to a point where they have to defend the argument, or deal with a response, only a handful of REers can manage to go that far. The rest either vanish, resort to insults, or repeat the dealt-with form of the argument.
Watch whenever someone posts something in FE Q&A, you can bet that a user will likely pop up to say "It can't work, the Earth's round." How is that a good debate? it's not providing the existing FE explanation and refuting it, it's not putting any effort in to demonstrate there is no explanation... It's just asserting and insulting.
And yet you never see FEers making a one-sentence post like that. "The Earth's flat idiots." Doesn't happen.
As far as stating facts goes, that's questionable. Sometimes the facts they state are things that are under debate, so actually they need to prove the facts. Stating is a pointless thing to do in any debate.
Yes, some FEers can be frustrating to talk to, but I'm naturally more sympathetic to them because they have to put up with being far outnumbered by a crowd who rarely do much beyond insult, and who often can't debate. REers are the ones that are in the best position to debate, and yet they're the ones who resort far more easily to tirades of insults.
Critical thinking and the kind of mental flexibility required to not only tolerate but benefit from entertaining an absurd or even abhorrent point of view are rare traits in people in general. It's hardly specific to round earthers or flat earthers.
Would the world be a better place is everyone possessed critical thinking? I think so.
Is that a reasonable expectation? I'm not so sure.
Common among mathematicians
