Given that the belief is straight out off Trump’s climate
change denial playbook, does the idea that 5G internet networks causes COVID
19 more dangerous than the pandemic itself?
By: Ringo Bones
The dismissal of the COVID 19 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, and related Trumpism hoaxes, 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 polio from FDR's old flashlight by shining it into their face - seriously?
