> it's impossible to have a discussion about concerns like these without everyone retreating to "Their corners" Which means that not only do advanced economies

> it's impossible to have a discussion about concerns like these without everyone retreating to "Their corners" Which means that not only do advanced economies fail to reap the full benefit of the technologies they develop (because people resist them for wrong reasons), but also the people in those societies get harmed by flaws in the technology that could have been addressed if a proper open conversation were possible. This means that conspiracy theories and misinformation ends up doing double damage, making it the ideal weapon of authoritarian regimes which have more control over their country's media and less of a technological advantage (so holding back technology in other countries helps them close the gap). I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to imagine how this might apply to the online discourse around Covid and vaccines, but I'll give a clue about which country might have the most to gain from misinformation about both that topic and about 5G technology: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/factory-lies-russia-s-disinformation-playbook-exposed-n910316 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/factory-lies-russi...