Netflix ‘flat Earther’ arrested after video shows him yelling at school kids in SC
“Hey guys, check this out real quick — space is fake. You’re not on a spinning ball.”
In a YouTube video live-streamed on Feb. 27, a man wearing a “FLAT EARTH” sweatshirt yelled at elementary school students in South Carolina about flat earth theory. It’s been viewed more than 36,000 times.
Two days later, sheriff’s deputies in Greenville County caught up to him.
Nathan Thompson, 34, of California was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, according to a warrant served Feb. 29. Thompson was identified as the man seen yelling at students in the video while encouraging them to take his fliers, the warrant states.
“The teachers then began to evacuate the playground area and retreat back into the school at which point the defendant became very loud and boisterous by yelling at the children about the earth being flat,” deputies said in the warrant.
Thompson is featured in a 2018 documentary on Netflix titled “Behind the Curve” alongside other well-known flat earthers.
The film — which introduces “a small but growing contingent of people who firmly believe in a conspiracy to suppress the truth that the Earth is flat,” according to IMDb — shows Thompson ridiculing vaccines, public schools and “forced sun worship.”
“I just feel like I have an obligation to tell people you don’t live on a spinning ball,” he says in the documentary. “I’ve been telling them for years you didn’t come from monkeys.”
Thompson runs a YouTube channel where he films himself talking to people about the earth being flat — including at a homeless event and with customers at PetSmart, a man at Whole Foods and a church in South Carolina.
He told the Greenville News he travels the country “organizing conferences” and “working to spread his ideas.”
In the latest video, Thompson approached the playground at Hollis Academy in Greenville while walking his dog and started offering fliers. A teacher declined them.
“I can’t give them a flier?” he responded. “Hey guys, check this out real quick — space is fake. You’re not on a spinning ball. They’re going to teach you — listen, guys — they’re going to teach you, you live on a spinning ball. That doesn’t make it true. It’s not real. The floor is not moving 1,000 miles an hour.”
“Are you crazy?” a student asked.
In the nearly eight-minute video, Thompson continued to raise his voice as teachers ushered students away, urged them not to pick up the papers, and asked Thompson not to talk to them.
“That’s how you do it right there,” he said as he walked away.
Thompson later flagged down a motorist and put a flier on a car’s windshield before turning off the video feed.
Greenville County Schools spokesperson Teri Brinkman confirmed the incident with McClatchy News on Tuesday, saying staff notified district officials, who in turn called law enforcement.
Hollis Academy Principal Miki Golden left a phone message with parents before Thompson was arrested, Brinkman said.
“During recess, a man wearing a Flat Earth shirt and recording a video tossed pamphlets over the fence and yelled statements such as ‘You do not live on a spinning ball,’ and ‘Space is fake,’” Golden said in the message. “Teachers immediately moved the children toward the building and away from the fence. No threats were made and the man did not have contact with our students.”
Court documents show Thompson’s bond was set at $260 during his first hearing on Feb. 29.
His next court date is March 31 at 9 a.m. in Greenville County.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 4:48 PM.
