Colinxy: The Myth of Medieval Flat Earthers — And the Modern Politicians Who Repeat It

In 2012, the then–U.S. President Barack Obama mocked his Republican opponents as “Medieval Flat Earthers.” It was meant as a clever ad hominem — a way of dismissing dissenters as ignorant without engaging their arguments. Ironically, the phrase revealed a certain ignorance on his own part. He repeated a similar line in 2013, this time dropping the “medieval” but keeping the caricature.

The problem is simple: the idea that people in the Middle Ages believed in a flat Earth is a modern myth. It’s been a convenient rhetorical prop for decades, especially in popular culture. Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise famously portrays Christopher Columbus as a lone visionary trying to convince a benighted world that the Earth is round — a theme Obama echoed. It makes for good cinema, but terrible history.