Rapper B.o.B Defies Logic, Science, And Neil deGrasse Tyson To Declare The Earth Is Flat

One wouldn’t think that in 2016, Neil deGrasse Tyson and other scientifically-minded people would have to defend an idea that has been (supposedly) accepted as truth for centuries: the Earth is round. Enter rapper and part-time conspiracy theorist B.o.B, who spent the weekend blowing minds and telling his 2.29 million Twitter followers that we’ve all be lied to.

The Earth, B.o.B vehemently insists through various diagrams, conspiracy videos (including one called “Dissecting the Flat Earth Theory”), and photos, that the Earth is flat.

Throughout the weekend, B.o.B — otherwise known as Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. — inundated his Twitter feed with supposed proof that his flat-Earth theory is the truth, and everyone, including the government, NASA, and your kindergarten teacher, have been lying to you, MTV News reported.

Of course, that the Earth is round was proven by Pythagoras and Aristotle and has been further bolstered by those plain-as-day pictures of the planet and its curvature as taken from space. But one doesn’t even need to shoot into space to find proof that the Earth isn’t flat, as Vulture noted: Just watch airplanes flying across the sky to see proof of a subtle curve in the Earth’s surface.

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But B.o.B. isn’t having any of it.

Among his creative arguments: “Why is the horizon always at eye level?,” “Why aren’t planes constantly flying into space?,” and “Why can you see Philadelphia from New Jersey?” And why doesn’t the rapid spin of the Earth screw up our hair-dos and the government keep us from vacationing in the North and South Poles? (as reported by BET).

Apparently it all began with a picture of B.o.B. tweeted of himself standing in a wintry landscape, asking the curious question, “The cities in the background are approx. 16miles apart… where is the curve? please explain this,” according to Billboard.

But he wasn’t really looking for explanations — the rapper already had his mind made up. He offered numerous textbook-style facts, accompanied by telling photographs, to support his flat Earth theory.

He posted an 1892 picture of the globe and photos of clouds and stars. He posted a picture contending that certain flight paths, like from Australia to Chile, don’t exist. By this logic, “wayward detours” across the Northern Hemisphere make “no sense” on a spherical planet but do on a flat one because those flight paths actually form straight lines.

B.o.B. also offered lots of city skyline photos as proof. Like the one of Anchorage, where Mount McKinley can be seen 130 miles away. But if the Earth is a globe, this reasoning goes, the mountain should be “leaning back away.”

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don't try to back me into the "conspiracy theorist" corner… don't be fooled. I speak from personal experience.

— B.o.B +1 404-236-6129 (@bobatl) January 22, 2016

Not convinced? Neither was one Twitter user, who in response to the tweet featuring B.o.B standing in an icy landscape and questioning the placement of two cities behind him, educated the rapper, “16 miles is 0.06% of the earth’s circumference. You can’t expect to see the curvature of earth in that distance.”

He wasn’t the only one to come to the defense of logic and science. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (of course) piped in.

“Flat Earth is a problem only when people in charge think that way. No law stops you from regressively basking in it. Duude — to be clear: Being five centuries regressed in your reasoning doesn’t mean we all can’t still like your music.”

B.o.B still wasn’t swayed, writing, “You can regurgitate force fed information all day…, still doesn’t change physics. Don’t believe what I say, research what I say.”

The scariest thing about this entire flat Earth debate is the fact that B.o.B has more Twitter followers than many news organizations, as Gawker pointed out, and so his out-dated ideas were given a wide and sometimes completely convinced audience.

But don’t worry. The rapper (who has six Grammys, by the way) assured his fans that he’s not nuts and all his ideas (which also include a secret center that clones celebrities and his contention the moon landing never happened) will be explained in his music.

[Photo by Paul A. Hebert/AP]