This is not the first time Flat Earthers have gone head-to-head with Elon Musk.

After bonding during a sold-out convention, it didn’t take long for the society to once again come together – albeit this time via keyboards from around the globe to attack Musk and Musk’s “believers”.

But why?

Well, last Tuesday, when SpaceX’s launch, and return, of the Falcon Heavy was a success, the rest of us were given a gift: a live-stream of ‘Starman’ driving Musk’s red Tesla convertible in space.

View from SpaceX Launch Control. Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth. pic.twitter.com/QljN2VnL1O

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2018

We were stoked. Musk had packed David Bowie, a crash-test dummy and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy into a roadster that would be floating through the universe.

But people were also quick to use the opportunity as evidence to dunk on Flat Earthers – Twitter going so far as to make a moment called “Did Elon Musk just shut down the Flat Earth conspiracy?”.

After all, the clear image of Earth as a round ball in the background presented the perfect opportunity.

However, Flat Earthers weren’t all that impressed – at all – reports VICE.

Some hit back by saying the stunt was “actually made to distract people from the fact that Tesla filed their biggest ever quarterly loss recently” and others claimed it’s “all part of an evil Illuminati plan”.

It always has something do with the Illuminati, hey?

Many took on the landing-on-the-moon conspiracy, saying that the “entire production was computer generated” or it was “filmed in a studio”:

It’s already been reported that the Flat Earth Society was upset with Musk for the stunt they described as “a good car ad.”

In a tweet—the society actually has a pretty good Twitter game—they stated: “people who believe that the Earth is a globe because ‘they saw a car in space on the Internet’ must be the new incarnation of ‘It’s true, I saw it on TV!’ It’s a poor argument.”

“Why would we believe any privately-held company to report the truth?”

But there’s so much more:

Like many other, shall we say, niche communities, Flat-Earthers have found a home on YouTube and have created video after video “debunking” the launch. In one incredibly perplexing video that has 20,000 views, the commentator connects the Eagles winning the Super Bowl to the “flight of the falcon,” relates the term Saturn to Satan, says the rocket is shaped like a Satanic “penis,” sees Illuminati pyramids in the roadster, and uses the fact that the video was shot on a fisheye lens as proof it’s a fake.

Take a look for yourself:

Want another? Too easy.

Musician and newly converted Flat Earther Delano Edwards, who has half a million followers on YouTube, made a video called “FLAT EARTH PROOF (ELON MUSK SPACEX FALCON HEAVY WAS FAKE)!!!!”.

It lays out several points, like “where the f*ck the stars at?” “why ain’t it spinnin’?” and “where the f*ck the satellites at?”

He goes off:

“You gotta be a retarded person to believe that this shit is real. Wake the f*ck up.”

And the forums aren’t lying down, either:

On the Flat Earth Society forum several of the topics of conversation are all related to the SpaceX launch. One of them goes for a ridiculous 150 messages with the posters bitching about Musk and putting their heads together to try and prove how the launch was either fake or actually proves Flat Earth theory.

There are users in the forum pushing back on the Flat Earthers, who are then disparaged by the true believers as “muskbots.” Like all online activity, most of the threads quickly turn into flame wars.

“Cursing Elon, gimme a break. We are laughing at you and the Elon fanboys. I think (it) is funny that you boys believe that his Tesla is flying in space,” reads one such message written by a user named Hoppy.

“You are so brainwashed that you believe anything NASA tells you, and now you believe Elon. It is pitiful and funny at the same time.”

Yup, there it is.

Of course, Elon doesn’t give a single eff, something that is all too clear in this adorable celebration of Falcon Heavy’s success, as seen by National Geographic:

“Holy flying f*ck, that thing took off” – Elon Musk, 2018

Still wondering about the first time Musk interacted with the Flat Earth Society? Well then:

It’s only a pleasure.

[source:vice&nationalgeographic]