"The appeal of the belief that unseen, malevolent forces control the world isn't restricted by racial, gender, or class boundaries. Blaming personal failings on the misdeeds of an unseen cabal has an obvious emotional appeal, reliving a person of taking responsibility for their own problems. It's also a simple way to explain a complex world. Rather than accept that random, chaotic, deadly events can happen out of nowhere, the believer can simplify the world by blaming tragic events on a conspiracy."
— Will Sommer
"The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos."
— Stephen Jay Gould
As much as Billy's belief that the world is flat seems obviously ludicrous and absurd, most people cling to beliefs just as baseless and empirically inadequate that do not comport to reality. If this cartoon made you laugh, remember that there's plenty of laughter to go around. The only explanation (excuse?) today for being woefully ignorant is intellectual laziness.