A pastor from Colorado named Will Duffy embarked on a trip to Antarctica with a group of prominent flat earthers. Duffy's goal was to use the mere existence of Antarctica, a focal point of many flat earth theories, to dispel many of the conspiracy theorists' beliefs with some literal cold hard facts -- and it mostly worked.
Duffy created a YouTube channel called "The Final Experiment" with the express intent of ending the flat earth debate. His latest video, titled "It's Midnight in Antarctica!," represents the culmination, or at least a culmination, of years of work trying to debunk one of the most persistent, and easily disprovable, conspiracy theories out there.
He brought along some prominent flat earthers so they could see some of their theories being disproved right before their eyes.
Antarctica is at the center of several flat earth theories. Some flat earthers refuse to believe Antarctica even exists. Even though we've known of Antarctica's existence for centuries. And you can book a flight to Antarctica and even get a tour of Antarctica on a cruise ship.
Despite this, some flat earthers believed the mysterious powerful people ruling the world made it impossible to visit Antarctica because then you'd be able to see the edge of the world for yourself. For them, the plane simply touching down on a continent their conspiracy theory led them to believe didn't even exist was probably more than enough to convince them otherwise.
Others had more nuanced, but still incorrect, conspiracies that were dispelled, at least partially. Some believed in Antarctica's existence but also believed that since the earth was flat, there was no way the sun could not be visible for 24 hours during the summer solstice. This is because if you believe that the earth is flat the sun would always rise and fall every single day. It would be impossible for the sun to shine for 24 hours straight anywhere on Earth. Thanks to this trip, many of them got to see Antarctica's 24-hour summer solstice sun for themselves.
The trip yielded some fascinating results. Many of the flat earthers are captured on camera fully admitting that their theories are wrong and that they were wrong. One flat earther, a YouTuber by the name of Jeran Campanella, was a firm believer in the "no 24-hour sun" thing mentioned above. After witnessing it in person he said, "Sometimes you are wrong in life," and "I honestly believed there was no 24-hour sun. I honestly now believe there is."
Others, like flat earther Austin Whitsitt, reluctantly accepted some of the evidence but downplayed it. He argued that dispelling the idea that there is no such thing as a 24-hour sun is only a "singular data point" and does not offer conclusive proof of a spherical earth. But even after conceding just one point, while continuing to believe the broader theory that the earth is flat, was enough for some of Whitsitt's fans on Twitter to go apeshit and accuse him of faking the whole trip.
It appears his most impassioned followers are having a hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that a person can change their mind even a little bit after being presented with irrefutable evidence. Cognitive biases are hard to shake!