Off the Edge follows the conspiracy theory of a flat earth. “Where did this idea come from? Weill draws a straight line from today’s conspiratorial moment back to the early days of Flat Earth theory in the 1830s, showing the human impulses behind divergences in belief.”
This book covers the history of Flat Earth how it began, and those effects, all the way to today's world of the internet, YouTube, and even how some conspiracy theories unfold.
I enjoy conspiracy and psychology of them and how they affect the world and people's lives. This book was an up and down for me, I liked many parts; the history and how it mentally plays on people. However, I feel there are a lot of Trump mentioned in this book; kinda felt like they wanted more word count and so they tossed him in and things he believes. Over than that, I feel that Kelly did a good job explaining things, I never was confused.
The psychology, sociology, and conspiracy culture is fascinating. It's something I enjoy learning about. Learning how people can believe in things that I find wild is interesting to me.
If you ever wanted to learn the history of Flat Earth or a dash of conspiracy culture this might be a read for you

Off the Edge is about those who believe that the Earth is flat. But they aren’t the only ones Weill discusses. She discusses QAnon as well. And how they overlap. And how it’s hard to change their minds. It seems to be a cult-like experience when she goes to the Flat Earth conferences. But I learned that Flat Earth believers have a long history starting in early 19th century in England. Though for every argument made had a scientific counterargument, they just didn’t care. It’s in interesting look into a growing group of conspiracy theorists.

“Tomorrow morning, the sun will rise according to our various models, and the day will come again. Either way, at least for now, we’ll have to share it.”
——
There were many times I thought about putting down this book. I just wasn’t sure how this was helping my life other than make me embarrassed to be from Wisconsin or of my fellow believers in Jesus. I finished though and that last chapter made me feel better about the whole thing.

“Conspiracy theories help us feel safe by providing an explanation for things that feel incomprehensible and beyond our control.”

I was frustrated to learn flat earth believers have even changed a familiar hymn to fit their belief.

“A familiar Zionite song that went “Let every kindred, every tribe,/ On this terrestrial ball,/ To him all majesty ascribe,/And crown Him Lord of All” was rewritten as “Let every kindred, every tribe,/On this terrestrial plane,/To Him all majesty ascribe,/And praise His Holy Name.”

Flat earth believers believe that humanity has been brainwashed by science into the round earth theory. They also believe the moon is transparent. When NASA took pictures on space missions of our round planet they claimed that the government wanted us to believe the moon landing and that is was fake to distract us from losing the Vietnam war.

Overall I am glad I read this, I learned a lot about what people believe and the author did a great job wrapping this one up.

Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill

255 Pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: February 22, 2022

Nonfiction (Adult), Science, Earth Studies, Conspiracy Theories

The author is a journalist and investigates the roots behind the Flat Earth Theory. She attends a Flat Earth Theory convention and speaks with many attendees. From their perspective, she makes connections to other conspiracy theories. She discusses past events including the Holocaust, moon landing and space travel, and JFK assassination. From there, she moves to more recent event like 9/11 and a shadow government, Sandy Hook mass shooting, anti-vaccines, COVID pandemic, and the 2020 election and the people that speculate their veracity (e.g. Alex Jones and Donald Trump).

When I first started reading this book, I stopped and reread the description as nonfiction. I thought I was reading a Sci-Fi novel. I restarted reading it and fell down the rabbit hole. I was unaware people still believed the earth was flat. After finishing this book, I conducted my own research and was amazed at the history and the people following this claim.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. While the subject of this book was super interesting, the presentation in the beginning was VERY dry. It was your typical historical outlay of information, and I struggled to make it through to the analysis of the modern day conspiracy community. I think this could have been an article instead of an entire book, but I did learn a lot.

Kelly Weill is a reporter for the Daily Beast, a legitimate left-leaning news source, and her beat is extremist movements and conspiracy theories. The beginning of the book is the history of the Flat Earthers, dating to the early 19th century, backfill for her contemporary research on the modern movement. Members believe that governments and scientists are selling a “global lie” in order to control the world by tarnishing religious teaching. One guy told her that they want people to be confused when the aliens land, mistake Jesus for an alien and then kill him. She says, “Conspiracies theories are a way to construct order and meaning in times of uncertainty. They let us shape our fears into something we understand.” A “stolen election” and a world-wide pandemic was the perfect storm.

She attended FE (Flat Earth) conferences, ultimately making friends from some of the followers. The early movement would have died out for lack of interest, but enter social media which is like pouring gas on a fire. The FEers fell in bed with the Truthers that Trump gave birth to, and of course with the stolen election and MAGA group. Believe it or be ostracized - Very cultish. Don’t be afraid to check the authors facts. Mike Adams really did generate a ton of money selling subscriptions to untruths about Y2K creating world-wide panic.

“When I read back on my first published interview with the Flat Earth Society, I can acknowledge that its premise was a silly joke that probably gave the society unwarranted publicity. But other passages read like warnings from the future.” We are in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this new work.

I really enjoyed this book. The topic is fascinating to me --- and I was very excited to get the chance to read and review it.

This was extremely well-written and highly engaging. This feels like a book that everyone "should" read now to help understand the current world we live in. I highly recommend this. I look forward to other books from this author. The author did a terrific job with the research to help us understand the past.

This book still needs some editing but overall I found it quite fascinating and a story that is worth reading. As a school librarian part of my work is to teaching students information literacy and this is a book that I definitely want on our bookshelf.