Why do some people believe the earth is flat?

I certainly don’t think the government is your friend and there’s probably tons of stuff they don’t tell us. I try to keep an open mind, and quesrion stuff. But this whole flat earth thing is just bizarre.

In short, there are flat earth societies who believe that we are being lied to by NASA and science.
●The earth is a disk surrounded by a wall of ice.
●Gravity does not exist, and the earth is not in motion.
●Science is not as advanced as we think. (there are no satellites, no space exploration)
●Cameras and telescopes are rigged so we see everything as round. (as in, horizon lines)
●The sun and moon aren’t as far away from us as is commonly believed.

Well, the list goes on. The big problem I have with this is that they can never prove any of this. If there is a wall of ice, it means someone has seen it. Why are there no photos of it? If these people are bold enough to create a society and post a bunch of videos on YouTube with irrefutable proof, then post the damn wall. And how would they just know all this? I understand it to be a theory, and I myself have no way of knowing if what NASA says about the earth being round is true, but so far what science offers is still a lot more substantial than any flat earth stuff. (who also often spend a lot of time insulting general science, not very pragmatic yo)

As well, if science isn’t that advanced, then how the hell did NASA ever manage to rig every telescope and camera to make us see something false?

They never explain anything as far as I can see, they just say that’s that and expect folks to believe it. Granted, I’ve not made exhaustive research on this.

But what’s the point of this? Why would we be lied to about the earth and space? What do “elites” even gain from this? And who ARE these elites?
There is a fine line between free thinking and just being ridiculous. Making stuff up just to be a black sheep doesn’t make one a free thinker. Videos showing a map of Norway with a bunch of numbers leading to Sweden isn’t much proof to me, especially not when using rules belonging to the very science they’re trying to refute.

Why is this a thing? Anyone on Fluther believe in the flat earth theory? If so, why do you believe this?

What am I missing? Again, I don’t trust the government but this just seems like total science fiction.