Given that the belief is straight out off Trump’s climate
change denial playbook, does the belief that 5G causes COVID 19 more dangerous
than the pandemic itself?
By: Ringo Bones
The dismissal of the pandemic as a hoax and questioning of
scientific experts is straight out of President Trump’s, and other right-wing
populist demagogue’s, playbook of climate change denial that got them elected
in the first place. The 5G theory about radio waves transmitting or activating
the virus, for example, is a reworking of long running conspiracy fears about
mind control experiments, subliminal messaging and supposed United States military
weapons projects that has since been a staple of Hollywood’s TV and movie
industry way before the runaway mid 1990s success of The X-Files. Add to that
an utter lack of how science works of most of Trump’s supporters and it is no
longer a mystery that the belief that 5G internet networks causes and spreads
the COVID 19 virus is very popular in the United States.
The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories are particularly challenging
to debunk by normal educated people with a working grasp of science – never mind
tenured government scientists - because they bring together people from very
different parts from the political spectrum. On the other hand, they attract
the far-right Trump supporters who see them as part of a technological assault by
big government and the “rich liberal elite” on the freedom of individuals. On
the other, they appeal to the well established “anti-vaxxer community” who are
often allied with those distrustful of Big Pharma. Getting COVID 19 from 5G internet
networks is probably like someone getting smallpox from lighting a 1950s era
flashlight into their face.
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