4 ms·

Honest question: does anyone really think that 5G is related to Covid, or is this a story planted in the media to also make legitimate criticism of 5G look like

Honest question: does anyone really think that 5G is related to Covid, or is this a story planted in the media to also make legitimate criticism of 5G look like fringe lunacy?

felixgallo 6y ago
https://www.cnet.com/health/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-sees-77-mobile-towers-burned-report-says/ https://www.cnet.com/health/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory...
- new2628 6y ago
  Exactly this type of articles raised my suspicion. It says that people have burned various towers in protest of 5G, and that there are crazy conspiracy theories linking 5G and covid, but it gives no evidence that the two are connected. What percentage of those pissed at 5G are believing this conspiracy theory? 10%? 1%? 0.01%?
  - felixgallo 6y ago
    Occam's Razor tells us that given that there's a bunch of facebook troll nonsense going around about 5G causing covid (which is trivial for you to find yourself, directly), and since that coincides with an upswing in both tower destruction and also threats of violence (often with assertions of causing covid) towards workers, it's probably mostly that. Why are you interested in minimizing this or finding a media-based conspiracy to overreport?
    - mistermann 6y ago
      > Occam's Razor tells us that Occam's Razor may suggest something, but the actual truth of the matter remains unknown. > Why are you interested in minimizing this or finding a media-based conspiracy to overreport? An even better question is: why/how has your mind chosen to frame his words in a specific manner that is not actually contained within what he wrote, as well as assume (without evidence) a specific intent/motivation? Was this purely conscious and deliberate, or was it more instinctual?
ketamine__ 6y ago
It's a very active conspiracy. I have seen anti-5G stickers around town. https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-possible-5g-conspiracy-arson-protest https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-po...
- new2628 6y ago
  Again, it could be that being anti-5G is a reasonable stance, even if it is silly to claim that it is related to Covid. The linked article does exactly what I was suspecting: it conflates legitimate criticism with crazy criticism, trying to discredit both. Suppose someone started a bonfire in front of your house, and as you protest against it, they would spread the message that you claim that bonfires cause covid.
dr_dshiv 6y ago
https://scientists4wiredtech.com/what-are-4g-5g/resonance-beings-of-frequency/ https://scientists4wiredtech.com/what-are-4g-5g/resonance-be... I'm generally interested in the subculture
mistermann 6y ago
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/either-or https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/either-o... > used to refer to a situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible The actual state of affairs is that both are occurring. One example is this recently popular story on Reddit: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4aydjg/somehow-this-wild-hoax-bill-gates-anti-vaxx-video-doesnt-violate-youtubes-policies https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4aydjg/somehow-this-wild-... > A bonkers hoax video about Bill Gates has been making the rounds on social media — and it’s setting the anti-vaxx conspiracy world on fire. > The video claims to show Gates briefing the CIA in 2005 about a vaccine to immunize religious fanatics. The video, which is obviously faked, is getting gobbled up by online conspiracy theorists who’ve latched onto the Microsoft co-founder as the mastermind behind the coronavirus pandemic. A lovely narrative, but if one actually bothered to read the article with critical thinking skills engaged (as would be the case if the article was written by conspiracy theorists, rather than written about conspiracy theorists), it would be obvious that the author didn't even make an attempt to provide any evidence that substantiates the claim that this story is "setting the anti-vaxx conspiracy world on fire". This is very typically the case with articles about conspiracy theorists, which insinuate (usually without saying explicitly) that all(!) conspiracy theorists believe <x>, and the "evidence" for these claims, if any is provided at all, is almost without exception a simplistic narrative, or another article of the exact same form. An example of just such an article was even provided as evidence to answer a question in this very HN thread! [1] If one was to actually do the most basic of fact checking on such articles (the vice.com one above for example), they would frequently encounter posts like this one[2] where the author, rather than "gobbling up the obviously faked video", instead clearly points out the obvious propaganda techniques used by the MSM. You'd think someone would eventually catch on and say something about this obviously recurring technique in news reporting, but such exposes would occur you know where...in a conspiracy theory community, and you know [3] what they say about conspiracy theorists! [1] https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-possible-5g-conspiracy-arson-protest https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-po... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/gpj202/bill_gates_hoax_video_talking_at_dod/ https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/gpj202/bill_gat... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conditioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conditioning

Honest question: does anyone really think that 5G is related to Covid, or is this a story planted in the media to also make legitimate criticism of 5G look like fringe lunacy?

felixgallo 6y ago

https://www.cnet.com/health/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-sees-77-mobile-towers-burned-report-says/ https://www.cnet.com/health/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory...

new2628 6y ago
Exactly this type of articles raised my suspicion. It says that people have burned various towers in protest of 5G, and that there are crazy conspiracy theories linking 5G and covid, but it gives no evidence that the two are connected. What percentage of those pissed at 5G are believing this conspiracy theory? 10%? 1%? 0.01%?
- felixgallo 6y ago
  Occam's Razor tells us that given that there's a bunch of facebook troll nonsense going around about 5G causing covid (which is trivial for you to find yourself, directly), and since that coincides with an upswing in both tower destruction and also threats of violence (often with assertions of causing covid) towards workers, it's probably mostly that. Why are you interested in minimizing this or finding a media-based conspiracy to overreport?
  - mistermann 6y ago
    > Occam's Razor tells us that Occam's Razor may suggest something, but the actual truth of the matter remains unknown. > Why are you interested in minimizing this or finding a media-based conspiracy to overreport? An even better question is: why/how has your mind chosen to frame his words in a specific manner that is not actually contained within what he wrote, as well as assume (without evidence) a specific intent/motivation? Was this purely conscious and deliberate, or was it more instinctual?

ketamine__ 6y ago

It's a very active conspiracy. I have seen anti-5G stickers around town. https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-possible-5g-conspiracy-arson-protest https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-po...

new2628 6y ago
Again, it could be that being anti-5G is a reasonable stance, even if it is silly to claim that it is related to Covid. The linked article does exactly what I was suspecting: it conflates legitimate criticism with crazy criticism, trying to discredit both. Suppose someone started a bonfire in front of your house, and as you protest against it, they would spread the message that you claim that bonfires cause covid.

dr_dshiv 6y ago

https://scientists4wiredtech.com/what-are-4g-5g/resonance-beings-of-frequency/ https://scientists4wiredtech.com/what-are-4g-5g/resonance-be... I'm generally interested in the subculture

mistermann 6y ago

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/either-or https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/either-o... > used to refer to a situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible The actual state of affairs is that both are occurring. One example is this recently popular story on Reddit: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4aydjg/somehow-this-wild-hoax-bill-gates-anti-vaxx-video-doesnt-violate-youtubes-policies https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4aydjg/somehow-this-wild-... > A bonkers hoax video about Bill Gates has been making the rounds on social media — and it’s setting the anti-vaxx conspiracy world on fire. > The video claims to show Gates briefing the CIA in 2005 about a vaccine to immunize religious fanatics. The video, which is obviously faked, is getting gobbled up by online conspiracy theorists who’ve latched onto the Microsoft co-founder as the mastermind behind the coronavirus pandemic. A lovely narrative, but if one actually bothered to read the article with critical thinking skills engaged (as would be the case if the article was written by conspiracy theorists, rather than written about conspiracy theorists), it would be obvious that the author didn't even make an attempt to provide any evidence that substantiates the claim that this story is "setting the anti-vaxx conspiracy world on fire". This is very typically the case with articles about conspiracy theorists, which insinuate (usually without saying explicitly) that all(!) conspiracy theorists believe <x>, and the "evidence" for these claims, if any is provided at all, is almost without exception a simplistic narrative, or another article of the exact same form. An example of just such an article was even provided as evidence to answer a question in this very HN thread! [1] If one was to actually do the most basic of fact checking on such articles (the vice.com one above for example), they would frequently encounter posts like this one[2] where the author, rather than "gobbling up the obviously faked video", instead clearly points out the obvious propaganda techniques used by the MSM. You'd think someone would eventually catch on and say something about this obviously recurring technique in news reporting, but such exposes would occur you know where...in a conspiracy theory community, and you know [3] what they say about conspiracy theorists! [1] https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-possible-5g-conspiracy-arson-protest https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/11/five-telecom-towers-torched-po... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/gpj202/bill_gates_hoax_video_talking_at_dod/ https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/gpj202/bill_gat... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conditioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conditioning