FE Meme
Spreading Around the Disk: CNN Morons
#143: CNN wrote that flat-Earth belief is "spreading around the globe", but flat-Earthers say it spreads around the disk, exposing mainstream media ignorance.
The Meme
Top: CNN headline screenshot "The flat-Earth conspiracy is spreading around the globe…" with news-desk photo. Bottom: reaction face with yellow text "It's spreading around the disk, you CNN morons".
Why It Spreads
Catching CNN using "around the globe" while reporting on flat-Earth belief feels like a self-own to audiences who already distrust cable news. The reaction-face template turns a news headline into an instant dunk by swapping "globe" for "disk" as if journalists accidentally admitted the shape.
What It Gets Wrong
The split meme quotes CNN's "The flat-Earth conspiracy is spreading around the globe…" then retorts "It's spreading around the disk, you CNN morons." "Around the globe" is ordinary English for worldwide reach, not a formal geodesy endorsement, and swapping "disk" for the idiom does not test curvature or southern flight durations. Media coverage documents a social phenomenon; it is not a substitute for horizon math, survey geometry, or time-zone mechanics. TestTheGlobe's Map Distortion Does Not Matter and TestTheGlobe's Flight Path Comparison walk through the observations and predictions this image skips.
The Debunk
Great-circle southern routes and longitude-based time zones predict geometry that fits a spheroid regardless of how journalists phrase reach. Swapping "around the globe" for "around the disk" in a CNN headline screenshot is inconsistent with any curvature, flight-duration, or star-field test. Use TestTheGlobe's Flight Path Comparison to compare the meme's claim with a measurable prediction.
- TestTheGlobe's Flight Path Comparison shows scheduled southern routes match great-circle distance on a sphere, unrelated to CNN's choice of idiom.
- TestTheGlobe's Time Zones Are Fake page addresses the real geometry behind longitude-based time, which a "disk" punchline never tests.
- "Around the globe" in the CNN headline is figurative language describing reach, not endorsing WGS-84 or rejecting it.
- TestTheGlobe's Flights Only Make Sense On A Flat Map: mocking CNN's wording does not answer independent curvature checks, southern star trails, or measured flight durations.