Americans who believe the Earth is flatChinese billionaires (Forbes)
Forbes' count of Chinese billionaires and the share of Americans who believe the Earth is flat, both climbing across the same eleven years. Two trends with no plausible connection except the open-internet-era ability to scale almost any belief or fortune.
Forbes' Chinese billionaires count rose from about 95 in 2011 to over 600 by 2020 as China's tech and property booms minted fortunes, before recent downturns trimmed the list. Belief in flat-Earth ideas grew from a barely-measurable fraction to about 2 percent of US adults in the same window, lifted by YouTube algorithmic recommendation and a small but persistent online community. Two completely unrelated lines sharing a window because the same eleven years scaled both Chinese wealth concentration and a niche American conspiracy belief. Different markets, same era of accelerated formation.
The same decade scaled fortunes and fringe beliefs. Both depended on networks no one designed for them.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Americans who believe the Earth is flat” vs “Chinese billionaires (Forbes)” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
