Oof: 34 percent of Millennials aren’t sure the Earth is round

No wonder Democrats want these people to vote in numbers as large as possible. They’ll believe anything – unless it’s true. My 17-year-old son, who assures me he’s a round-earther, thinks Kyrie Irving might have something to do with it. It wouldn’t be the first time my son was convinced a major societal phenomenon had its roots in the NBA, and I can’t say definitively that he’s wrong. But really, what to make of this? YouGov, which took the poll, tries to make it about religion:

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When you get most of your news from sources like Trevor Noah, Vox and the Huffington Post, it’s no wonder you’re so susceptible

I don’t know if any respondents claimed to have found “evidence in Scripture” that the Earth is round. It doesn’t exist, the Revelation reference to the “four corners of the earth” notwithstanding. (That’s not what the four corners refers to.) If half the flat-earthers are “very religious” and half are not, it seems to me that might not be a controlling variable. More likely, it’s simply about them being young and skeptical of things their elders have told them to just accept as fact. Young people do that all the time. Take a look at young people’s opinions on everything from police-involved shootings to restaurant tipping to gun control. They’re very convinced of their own wisdom, and exceedingly lacking in the depth of understanding that might cause them to reconsider some of the things they believe. When you get most of your news from sources like Trevor Noah, Vox and the Huffington Post, it’s no wonder you’re so susceptible to notions that make the rest of us raise our eyebrows and shake our heads. You’re a stranger to serious information, but you think you’re a genius. Shaquille O’Neal is hardly a Millennial, but maybe he’s the one to blame for this:

Shaq now claims he was kidding. I certainly hope so. Look, I’m all for skepticism, and for not just accepting what people tell you. I’m all for independent-mindedness. But if you’re going to think for yourself, you have to think rationally, and not reject solid information just for the sake of skepticism. A truly independent-minded person doesn’t choose a side and then defend that side right or wrong. So if The Man is telling you the sky is blue, you neither believe nor disbelieve the information reflexively. You check it out for yourself. Otherwise you’re letting The Man control you just as much as if you believed everything he says. The good thing about being young is that you’ve got plenty of time to recover from your foolishness.

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