@Nomore_lockout According to this video, it isn’t really a matter of intelligence. It’s a messy combination of primal instinct, need for order, and adrenaline. Anyone without enough knowledge and self-awareness is susceptible to it.
I used to believe all those “stupid” people who believe and spread stupid things that people talk about were just caricature people made up for comedy. Then I met someone who is a living, breathing caricature. They believe in every conspiracy coming their way, even after being proven wrong time and time again. They are also easy to fall prey for scams. The last time I met them, they were speaking passionately to me about some kind of business looking suspiciously like a pyramid scheme where “inspirational people” taught about the most obvious things using the most flowery words possible. And this isn’t a brain-dead idiot either. This person has a college degree, topped their math class, and loves to talk about money investment.
Ironically, the only way to avoid conspiracy theory is to have enough self-awareness to know that every single one of us is susceptible to believe in conspiracy at one point in our life. I used to believe a ton of conspiracy theories. When I was new here, I even asked a question about whether aliens existed using photoshopped images on the Internet. I have since wisened up now.
But to answer your question, since you already know flat earth movement has been around for a long time, I think it’s a fad. People get hooked up in crazy movements all the time. Remember the anti-vaxxers? The reason why we don’t hear about them these days isn’t because the vaccine thing has been debunked, but because people simply moved on to the next crazy stuff to be outraged about. People need their quick fix of excitement.