CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’S EDGE
more than
we should have.” As the feeds gained a
following, they attracted media coverage,
and the people who see that often then
search for content directly, making plat-
form recommendations less critical for
success. Now that the movement has mo-
mentum, Sargent says, “we don’t need
YouTube as much. They are taking their
foot off the gas, not hitting the brakes.”
ON THE LAST DAY OF THE CONFERENCE,
organizer Robbie Davidson takes the stage
in the Crowne Plaza conference room to re-
veal the secret celebrity guest: 24-year-old
internet influencer Logan Paul, who rose to
stardom by posting six- second prank clips
on the social- media platform Vine. Since
Vine shut down in 2016, he has favored
YouTube, and by his conference debut, he
has 23.6 million subscribers, many of them
teens and tweens. As Paul hops onto the
stage wearing a T-shirt advertising his brand
Maverick, his film crew trails him. He looks
out at the crowd and smiles beneath a flop
of blond hair. “I’m not ashamed to say: My
name is Logan Paul, and I think I’m coming
out of the flat Earth closet!”
By then, Sargent is on a plane back to
Seattle. He bought a ticket home after hear-
ing that Paul was the featured celebrity. “I
detest this man and will not be seen with
him in the same room,” he explains to me in
an email. In early 2018, Paul sparked outcry
when he traveled to a so-called suicide for-
est in Japan and filmed a victim for his video
blog. Sargent says he has had friends who
committed suicide, and he abhors exploiting
people’s trauma for clicks. Also, he thinks
there is a solid chance that Paul is trolling
the conference, and Sargent doesn’t want to
appear on film when that happens.
In March, Paul released a scripted film
called Flat Earth: To the Edge and Back. In
it, Paul—who plays himself—travels to theDenver conference with his roommate.
Over the course of the film, he becomes in-
fatuated with a flat-Earther, argues with
a friend who happens to be a dwarf, and
runs through the city naked. In a behind-
the-scenes video, Paul claims the project
demonstrates his opposition to the conspir-
acy theory. But the film does not question
the role YouTube played in birthing flat
Earthism—or question much of anything,
for that matter. The romantic subplot even
gives the impression that a convention
might be a good place to fall in love.
Sargent’s instinct about Paul turned out
to be right, but it is hard to know who is the
clear winner—except for Paul’s brand, and
YouTube itself. As of this past July, Flat Earth
has garnered 5.7 million hits. That’s far more
than any actual flat Earth video, but also
more than any educational offerings explain-
ing that the planet is round, making it the
most popular video about the shape of the
Earth, period. In the end, clickbait wins out.“We choose to
go to the moon.”
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