‘The earth is flat, believe me:’ The anatomy of consumption myths and alternative facts.

This paper investigates the structure of a consumption myth in which ‘flat Earth’ proponents aim to convince consumers to discard scientific evidence in favor of an account in which the Earth supposedly is flat as opposed to round. Data constitute a netnography of flat-earthers focusing on the speech and video explanations introducing their beliefs. The analysis focuses on the rhetorical strategies that validate and authorize the flat earth myth as factual, because the structure of the myth is isomorphic to the narrative, which means that the myth is discoverable ‘within’ the account. The results show the anatomy of a mythos in which flat earthers curate the instructions for how to read their account as the truth. The discussion conceptualizes consumer myths as narratives of selective coherence, first appealing to the postmodern incredulity towards authoritative statements, second vetting what facts are allowed into the myth, and third instructing the audience ‘to do their own research’ via naïve empiricism.