The founder of the Official Flat Earth and Globe Discussion page confronted a NASA scientist in a Starbucks in a bizarre viral video.
Prominent flat-earther, Nathan Thompson, bumped into a NASA scientist in a coffee shop. They appear to have had a polite discussion about Mr Thompson's views on spaceflight, and the scientist even gave him some NASA stickers, before Nathan decided to attempt to talk to the scientist on camera whilst he purchased a coffee.
The flat-earther, whose Facebook page has over 30,000 members, appears to be baffled by how people could drown in space and wants answers from the anonymous employee.
He appears to be referring to the incident in which Italian ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet filled with water on a spacewalk due to a clogged water filter. It began to cover his nose, making it difficult to breathe. Mr Thompson seems to think it is some sort of proof that NASA is lying to people.
"I'm here with a real NASA employee. A legit NASA employee and I asked him. I said, uh, astronauts have almost died in space. Uh, they get water in their suit and they almost drowned and he said it was because of saliva. This guy right here, hang on, I'm gonna wait for him to get to the front of the line, and then I'm gonna ask him some more questions." he tells his viewers in his YouTube video.
Nathan then tries to get the NASA employee's attention, whilst he innocently attempts to buy a coffee. When the NASA employee doesn't respond, Mr Thompson assumes this is because he is asking uncomfortable questions that NASA wouldn't want to answer.
"Look, he was all nice. He was all nice. He gave me NASA cartoon frigging emblems," Nathan said, looking for the word "stickers". "And now he won't talk to me at all."Screen capture from YouTube / Flat Earth Talk.
Mr Thompson then decided to confront the NASA employee, cutting in line to ask his questions. When the man calmly declined to answer his questions, telling him to "have a nice day, OK?" Nathan's line of questioning became more aggressive.
"Come on, you won't chat with me? You hate Americans? Is that it?"
"Excuse me?" the employee replies, taking offense but remaining calm. "How the hell did you get that? Don't ever accuse me of that again. I don't have to chat with you. Step over there, ok? I'm done talking to you."
When Nathan wouldn't stop questioning the man, a Starbucks employee stepped in and ask the flat-earther to leave.
"You're not the boss of me, bro. Ok, I'll leave because you asked me to, that's fine, but NASA's a fraud, bro. They lie about everything."
He then left calmly, before complaining outside to the camera.
"Well I just got kicked out of Starbucks for asking a NASA employee questions, cuz he's LYING. He's a blatant LIAR. What a JOKE that was! Now we're outside. Beautiful America. Man that was ridiculous. I GOT NASA FRIGGING STICKERS FROM THE NASA EMPLOYEE, GUYS! And then I start asking him questions and he told me to go outside of Starbucks; I'm frigging shaking. Oh. My. Lord."
Nathan's video of the confrontation has been viewed over 80,000 times in this YouTube video. Flat Earth conspiracy theorists appear to be on the rise on the internet lately, with groups popping up all over the web. Last week, a video went viral, after a conspiracy theorist and YouTuber took a spirit level onto a plane to “prove” that the Earth is flat once and for all.
Nathan's video has not gone down well on YouTube, with over 4,000 people disliking it and 154 people giving it a thumbs up. The verdict seems to be that Nathan should not have approached a man just trying to have a coffee, and also the world definitely isn't flat.
"NATHAN HE WON'T TALK TO YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A CREEPY PERSON," Haas Franz commented in all-caps. "THE EARTH IS NOT FLAT BY THE WAY. EVERYONE WHO WATCHES YOUR VIDEOS IS LEFT A LITTLE DUMBER. GOOD JOB."
Nathan has since posted an update on his confrontation in Starbucks to his Facebook group, in which he is dressed in a wig with a unicorn horn strapped to his head and claims that the NASA employee was a liar.
In the video, he says he asked the NASA employee, off-camera, "why does 'NASA' mean 'to lie' in Hebrew?” It does not mean this. NASA is simply an abbreviation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.