A Flat-Earther? GOPer from Georgia Regresses Back to the Medieval Era

By David Starr

 

While this is a silly thing to write about, it does show how low the Republicans have lowered the intellectual bar to where it’s almost touching the ground. There is a Republican in Georgia who at the least implies the Earth is flat, but after claimed she’s not a Flat-Earther. 

 

Georgia GOP Chair Kandiss Taylor has a podcast with the immature name, “Jesus, Guns, and Babies.” And that is par for the course for the right. They are obsessed with conspiracy theories, out-of-touch policies, and just plain ignorance. 

 

Taylor goes all out with her belief, based on religious fanaticism, that the Earth is flat; reflecting the mentality of someone out of Medieval Europe. With two Flat Earthers on her podcast, David “Flat Earth Dave” Weiss and Matt Long, Taylor was quoted in Salon magazine by Tatyana Tandanpolie, which shows Taylor’s gross ignorance: “The people that defend the globe don’t know anything about the globe. If they knew a tenth of what Matt and I know about the globe they would be Flat Earthers.” The trio based their claim biblical “proof.” 

 

Taylor, then, launched into a nonsensical rant about seeing too many globes: “All the globes, everywhere. I turn on the TV, there’s globes in the background. Everywhere there’s globes. You can see them all the time, it’s constant. My children will be like ‘Mama, globe, globe , globe’–they’re everywhere.”

 

Taylor continued: “And that’s what they do to brainwash. For me, it is not a conspiracy. If it is real, why are you pushing so hard everywhere I go? Every store you buy a globe, there’s globes everywhere. Every movie, every TV show, news media–why?”

 

As a result of her unintended silliness, Taylor got major feedback from various individuals. For example, Ryan Bort wrote in Rolling Stone that Blaire Erskine–a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live–went on Twitter to do an imitation of Taylor, spoofing her and her comments; and justifiably so. Erskine joked that in a flat Earth scenario, God flips the Earth upside down to change from day to night.

 

 

Taylor wasn’t amused, and in turn responded on Twitter. She went off, expressing a series of insults against Erskine; like saying, that Erskine was a “radical, liberal, psychotic girl.” Taylor also wrote, “I understand why acting hasn’t worked out for you.” Erskine pushed back, writing, “I understand why winning an election hasn’t worked out for you.”  This was in reference to Taylor’s failed attempt to become governor in Georgia’s 2020 election. But Taylor in response used a typical Trumpian excuse: the election was rigged against her.

 

Like other GOP candidates, Taylor is obviously not qualified to hold office. In the 2020 election, she only got 3.4 percent of the vote. (But 73.7 percent went to the winner, Brian Kemp, a Republican whose qualifications are questionable.) GOPers, or more accurately, MAGA followers, are so hell-bent on using the excuse that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden. “Stop the Steal” has been a slogan expressed dogmatically by the right, repeating it over and over. But it’s not based in reality. Rather, the “Big Lie” is used, and repeating it so much makes it become believable within the masses. 

 

The Republican Party has gone so far to the right, the word “fascist” has become an applicable term to use on them. They probably know they can’t win elections fairly so voter suppression is what they do, and in the most insidious of ways. The Republicans want to take the U.S. back to the 1950s, or even the 1890s. But it goes further back in time. Taylor is a symbol of Medieval Europe with her flat Earth illusions. (And just as worse, yet, there is the example of the Michael Knowles Show, where the host actually wants to go back to the 1220s!)

 

Taylor made a clumsy attempt to deny she was a flat-Earther. After strongly implying that the Earth was flat, and after being pegged with the flat Earth title, Taylor contradicted herself, no doubt to save face. She must have realized that most people, being intelligent, would not fall for her crazy claim. 

 

It is silly situation, and it is not worth taking Kandiss Taylor seriously.