5G And The Phone-y Conspiracies

“Outrageous” “Absolute and utter rubbish” “ dangerous nonsense”- Just some of the imaginative words used by officials of and by the UK government to describe what can be called the second most horrible pandemic after the coronavirus. Conspiracy theories -voted “definitely true” by absolutely no one have been the bane of organizations worldwide trying to make sense of the global threat that has consumed us for the past two years.

With the WHO chief calling out the infodemic to be more devastating than the actual pandemic, it’s important that we get to the bottom of these wildly crazy ideas being churned out by the conspiracy theorists. The wildest thing about baseless theories is that they’re barely part of the story-they’re just the latest headline. With technology making it easier for people to engage in bad research and spread it more widely than ever before, it’s not surprising that fake, cooked up stories are gaining popularity over the years.

One of the more popular theories is that the coronavirus was in fact a bioweapon developed for biological warfare. An idea that has spread so much that we might have heard them ourselves quite often. There are claims of a lab leak in a “particular” country or the monkeys being experimented on escaped, when a truck transporting them collided with a dumpster on a highway. There could not have been a more dramatic way for lab monkeys to escape and start a global pandemic. It gives - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, a new meaning.

One of the more popular theories is that the coronavirus was in fact a bioweapon developed for biological warfare. An idea that has spread so much that we might have heard them ourselves quite often. There are claims of a lab leak in a “particular” country or the monkeys being experimented on escaped, when a truck transporting them collided with a dumpster on a highway. There could not have been a more dramatic way for lab monkeys to escape and start a global pandemic. It gives - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, a new meaning.

The easiest victim for the conspiracy theorists was the rollout of 5G. With these two global phenomena happening simultaneously, the speculation about the link between them was quite natural. Radio waves spread computer viruses. Not biological viruses. The theory got so much traction that widespread destruction of the 5G infrastructure was reported at multiple locations worldwide. Quite ironically, one of the protesters spit on a London network engineer who was later believed to have contracted the coronavirus.

Another such crazy idea revolves around our friendly neighborhood Microsoft guy- Bill Gates. All the billionaire did was fund a global vaccine research out of public goodwill and what he got in return was a custom curated theory on his secret goals to control the world through microchips in the vaccine. Quite the - Thank you Mr.Gates for your contribution. Here’s a theory on how we think you are the evil Lord trying to create your own ‘Storm troopers’ via the vaccines.

These theories are just the tip of the iceberg. Given the nature of the problems that the world is battling today, such beliefs are extremely disastrous and dangerous as they take the spotlight away from actual concerns that need to be addressed. The crux of a conspiracy theory is that it appeals to the human tendency to believe that huge and era-defining events need to have a much bigger dramatic cause.

It’s good to know that multiple social media platforms are doing their fair bit to limit the damage. However it’s impossible for them to regulate the amount of content coming out of them. It is up to us to look beyond the imaginatively creative theories and examine them to ascertain its factualness.

The simple questions like - is there a plausible reason , has it been in line with the scientific evidence , and how practical is this- can allow us to separate reality from fiction. Given the enormity of the situation , there’s a pressing need for us to become “truth detectives” and try to sort propaganda from reality. Despite everything ,the credit goes out for the person who came up with the monkey theory . It’s simply ingenious.

-S Likhith