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Is Mark Sargent a believer or a grifter?

Friday 27 September 2024

My guess is that flat Earth belief is an especially clear example of holding onto ideas that are untrue but serve a convenient purpose for those who hold them.

Arguably, the most famous proponent of flat Earth belief is Mark Sargent. The introduction of the video below highlights just how much airtime he has received.

It may seem straightforward to debunk the core claim of flat Earth theory—that the Earth is not a sphere but flat.

Mark Sargent carries around a flat Earth model that he claims is correct. His model relies on the Azimuthal Equidistant Projection, with the North Pole at the center and Antarctica forming the perimeter.

Testing this map alone would be enough to disprove the flat Earth theory, given that it severely distorts both size and distance. However, flat Earthers deny the accuracy of the measurements we accept as correct.

Believers in flat Earth theory claim that everything we think we know is part of a conspiracy to hide the true shape of the Earth. Even airplane pilots are allegedly forced to lie about the routes they fly, how much fuel they need, and so on.

This illustrates how difficult it is to argue against flat Earth belief. Every fact we think we know is, according to flat Earthers, either faked, a lie, or a distortion of the truth.

Given Mark Sargent’s fame, I’ve often wondered why some wealthy individual hasn’t simply offered him a trip on a private jet. They could fly him around the world so that he could witness firsthand that his map doesn’t hold up. For example, it only takes about 14 hours to fly from Sydney to Buenos Aires across the Pacific and near Antarctica, while according to Sargent’s map, you’d have to fly over Russia and North America.

To my knowledge, Sargent has never received such an offer.

Recently, however, Sargent received a different offer, one somewhat less comfortable than a private jet trip: an invitation to stay at the seasonal Union Glacier Camp in Antarctica, organized by Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions.

The primary goal of this all-expenses-paid trip is to show several flat Earthers that during the Antarctic summer, the Sun does not set—a phenomenon that directly contradicts the flat Earth model (and Sargent’s preferred map).

Sargent declined the offer for several reasons:

There are counterarguments to all of these points, but they won’t change Sargent’s mind. The objections seem like excuses. You’d expect someone whose life goal is uncovering the truth about the world to be more open to such opportunities.

This raises the question: Is Mark Sargent truly a believer, or is he a grifter? Or perhaps he’s somewhere in between—partly believing, but also motivated by the income and social status his work brings, unconsciously trying to protect that?

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