the flat earthers are gaining ground.
Indeed. Flat-Earthism is actually still around, although less common than the more mainstream Creationist anti-evolution view. I view Flat Earthers as only slightly more stupid than Young Earth Creationists. Just slightly.
It takes a special kind of moron to hold on to your beliefs when the sum total of all empirical evidence, and what you can directly observe with your own eyes on a day to day basis directly contradicts those beliefs.
Addendum: It's really funny if you read the Flat Earther sites (caution - you will kill some neurons doing so). One of their major arguments now is that the world only LOOKS spheroid from space because of the lenses that are used in cameras. Lol.