Flat earth conspiracy is not widespread and is not growing. It’s a thing that’s primarily on the internet. On the grand scheme of things there’s bigger things to worry about than what a tiny fraction of people think.
I think it’s more widespread than you might think. Flat earth and similar conspiracies play on distrust in academia, which is absolutely flourishing right now.
And they're right to distrust Academia. Anti flat -earthers play on trust of academia.