I don't disagree that people can be stubborn and refuse to accept reality. This whole thread is known as Planck's Principle.
OP asked what "what possible misunderstanding of nature could make current academics look like flat earthers". I think it's implied that they're talking about a scientific consensus today which we later find to be flawed, in which case I don't think that anything would make current academics look like flat earthers. The difference is, literally no flat earther lived in such a time where the scientific consensus said the world was flat; they all became convinced of a falsehood after it was known to be a falsehood, which is orthogonal to Planck's Principle.
So I guess the answer to OP's question is: if an academic becomes convinced of a falsehood with full knowledge of an overwhelming amount of evidence to show that it is false, then they would look like a flat earther. But I don't think that's the situation they've laid out.
I don't disagree that people can be stubborn and refuse to accept reality. This whole thread is known as Planck's Principle.
OP asked what "what possible misunderstanding of nature could make current academics look like flat earthers". I think it's implied that they're talking about a scientific consensus today which we later find to be flawed, in which case I don't think that anything would make current academics look like flat earthers. The difference is, literally no flat earther lived in such a time where the scientific consensus said the world was flat; they all became convinced of a falsehood after it was known to be a falsehood, which is orthogonal to Planck's Principle.
So I guess the answer to OP's question is: if an academic becomes convinced of a falsehood with full knowledge of an overwhelming amount of evidence to show that it is false, then they would look like a flat earther. But I don't think that's the situation they've laid out.
OK this makes sense to me now.