Belief in the 5G/Coronavirus connection: A study of a world gone mad

This is a recent article I was quoted in about some of the most demented conspiracy theories involving COVID-19. There is an especially strong focus on the claims of a link between 5G technology and the virus, something I'm certain most rational people can't quite wrap their minds around. As I had written in the previous post, the idea of cell-phone radiation having anything to do with a respiratory infection spread by saliva droplets is so ludicrous that it should barely be addressed. Except a growing subculture of the paranoid out there are willing to believe it and there are unscrupulous charlatans all across cyberspace who are more than willing to profit off of telling them what they want to hear.

So check out the article for more of the 5G craziness and other COVID-19 theories. Like the link between testing for the infection and the Mark of the Beast...

And the prize goes...

To the 5G-Coronavirus-link conspiracy theories for the most moronic of all the conspiracy theorizing oozing through the Internet.

The idea that a respiratory illness could be caused by low-frequency cell tower radiation is almost on par with the Flat Earth theories and the QAnon theories. It is so absurd that skeptics really needn’t waste any time even answering them. It is a theory so irrational and illogical that they make the claims that a vast, global Satanic child abuse ring run by Hollywood’s top celebrities out of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor sound sane.

And then you have people in England setting 5G towers on fire!

So check out this article where a medical director for NHS England and an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading do have to take the time to explain why the idea that there is any sort of a connection between COVID-19 and 5G radiation is “absolute and utter rubbish.” Basically, if your computer were to be infected by a virus after you had perused too many disreputable web pages—say web pages purveying particularly deviant pornography—would you suddenly get nervous that you, too, might get sick? You woudn’t now, would you? So the idea that an illness spread by droplets of saliva should have anything to do with cell phone radiation is just as deranged.

If one wants to worry about any unscrupulous parties having a hand in exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic, they should pay attention to the article’s points about Russian disinformation campaigns playing a part in the spread of conspiracy theories. As it writes, “some state and state-backed actors seek to exploit the public health crisis to advance geopolitical interests.”

A much more realistic bit of food for thought than then 5G secret weapon of the Illuminati New World Order, isn’t it?

"Conspiracy theories as dangerous as the Coronavirus itself..."

Check out this piece in the New York Times that perfectly hits the nail on the head about why people believe in the most patently ludicrous conspiracy theories, especially in times of crisis. As I had written here before, it’s one thing to let the imagination run away on occasion and indulge in oddball speculation about global cabals and secret societies orchestrating all of the world’s major events. Sure, the Illuminati communing with aliens from secret lairs underneath Denver International Airport sounds like harmless X-Files fun. And then the world is facing a once-in-a-century crisis and people are dying. And then the conspiracy theorists turn their talents for spinning creative fantasies to telling the fearful, the insecure, the unsophisticated to put their lives in danger by ignoring the advice of medical professionals and scientists.

The virus being caused by 5G cell towers, anyone? Had a novelist come up with a plot where conspiracists are able to make people believe such an idiotic theory, he would be told that such a story could never be published because no readers would ever believe it.

As the article details, there are enough scared people out there that they are willing to believe in the most absurd theories in an attempt to give them some sense of control over the unknown.

And there are enough unconscionable, sociopathic monsters out there willing to tell those scared people exactly what they want to hear. That, as the article concludes, is as dangerous as the Coronavirus itself.