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Yooooo - People actually believe "5G is a government brain washing trick?!" This isn't just an internet meme?

Skel1ingt0n

Skel1ingt0n

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,809
Bought my mom an iPhone 12 mini at launch, to replace her aging previous model. She was thrilled to get it - very thankful - and I told her I was gonna have to upgrade our AT&T plan to support 5G - and to let me know if she runs into any issues in the next couple days. Thread twist: my mom was 100% on board and took no issue :)

Fast forward to the holidays, and she was discussing my aunt (her sister), and how said aunt made fun of my mom's new phone, chastising her for buying a "5G phone." At first, I assumed that it was commentary on the price or the unnecessary need. Nope, turns out, my aunt SINCERELY believes that 5G is some government... I dunno... brain washing tech? ... tracking tech? Something else? ... but that she bought a phone a few months ago and purposefully sought out a non-5G (so 4G/LTE) phone.

I asked all the obvious questions: "Why is it 5G specifically?" ... "Do you know how 5G works?" "Even if it WERE true, wtf do they care about you?" And my mom, telling me the story, just nodded and agreed and said that supposedly her sister thinks that in some weird, twisted-ass way, this is marching us toward the "end times."

My aunt isn't super old. She's in her 50s. Has three kids. Each with kids of their own. Each college educated. She lives in a normal area - nothing backwoods or anything. Drives a new-ish Rav4. Owns plenty of other tech - cell phones, wifi, HDTV, etc.

I just... can't. I haven't seen my aunt in a year (due to COVID and just getting older with my own family, etc.), so not like it really affects me. But while I'm SUPER thankful my mom was rolling her eyes with me, now I feel I have to stay vigilante to ensure she isn't sucked down a rabbit hole by her sister...and it's just asinine to me that this is a real, legit thing.

Feel like I'm being Punk'd.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever™
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,521
Somebody just detonated an RV bomb in Nashville because they believe in 5G. Peoples' belief in that bullshit is extremely real.
 
DeliciousSunnyD!

DeliciousSunnyD!

Member
Oct 31, 2017
9,637
First, it is not a "legitimate" thing, it's fucking insanity.

But yes, people believe it because the internet is the most powerful propaganda instrument ever made.
 
Damaniel

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,541
Portland, OR
We just had a guy literally blow up an RV outside of a AT&T building (at least partially) because of this conspiracy, so yes, people legitimately believe this.
 
MrCibb

MrCibb

Member
Dec 12, 2018
5,349
UK
I wouldn't even know what to say to that. Fuck me. I understand how semi-believable conspiracy stuff gets spread around, but stuff like this is so bat shit insane I don't even get it. How do you read that and believe it?
 
GoldenEye 007

GoldenEye 007

Roll Tide, Y'all!
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,833
Texas
Conspiracies that used to be on the fringes have been supercharged with the ease of access and sharing of social media. Communication, organization, and action all done because social media companies promote it as much as possible.
 
bsigg

bsigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,593
Facebook groups (the ones people can participate in without the posts being made public/showing up on your timeline unless you share it specifically) are the biggest spreader of conspiracy theories we have ever seen. She probably spends hours a day on Facebook talking about vaccines and 5G.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,491
Kinda nuts how the internet becoming more accessible just made us worse as a species. Human nature is a bitch.

I remember reading Wired in the early days and all the optimism.

To be fair, the internet has done many great things too, but missing the misinformation thing was a huge error.
 
TheBaldwin

TheBaldwin

Member
Feb 25, 2018
8,304
Yes, although the conspiracy changes. Many people I saw believed 5G was causing the Covid spread and was a government conspiracty to 'purge the earth'.
 

Deleted member 46493

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 7, 2018
5,231
It's widespread and wild. Really the ONLY remotely "negative" thing that can be ascribed to 5G is that it will make automation of jobs happen faster.
 
Boondocks

Boondocks

Member
Nov 30, 2020
2,686
NE Georgia USA
Yo'ure not being punked, you have been brainwashed. Your aunt is thinking clearly. What we need you to do is hide the 5G phone we send in your aunt's house. We'll take care of the rest. Afterwards we will wipe your memory of this incident.
 
jml

jml

Member
Mar 9, 2018
4,783
There are legitimate flat-earthers out there too in case you were thinking that was just a joke.
 
Boy

Boy

Member
Apr 24, 2018
4,589
entremet said:
Kinda nuts how the internet becoming more accessible just made us worse as a species. Human nature is a bitch.

I remember reading Wired in the early days and all the optimism.

To be fair, the internet has done many great things too, but missing the misinformation thing was a huge error.
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Yeah it can be very dangerous with misinformation. Kinda like that one mom who was told by that anti-vaxxer facebook group to give her child elderberries instead of medication when he had the flu, and he ended up dying.
 
Mobius 1

Mobius 1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,172
North Point, Osean Federation
Before the internet, people still held unfounded and outright stupid beliefs. Since it was harder to find large groups of of like-minded imbeciles, most of the time these ideas stayed isolated. Now that social media allowed them to find each other, and some organizations have weaponized it for their own gain... we're fucked. I honestly don't know how we recover from this.
 
Mivey

Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,877
1F47zAv.gif
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,491
Mobius 1 said:
Before the internet, people still held unfounded and outright stupid beliefs. Since it was harder to find large groups of of like-minded imbeciles, most of the time these ideas stayed isolated. Now that social media allowed them to find each other, and some organizations have weaponized it for their own gain... we're fucked. I honestly don't know how we recover from this.
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I don't think we're fucked long term.

But this stuff has been in the making for ages. Soundbite culture helped perpetuate.

Coupled that with lack of real scientific thinking in most folks mental toolkit and you have this.
 
NetMapel

NetMapel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,454
Everybody spent the last year stuck indoor and bored and browsed around the internet a lot, I guess. People don't get to go outside much and interact with other people to fact check their spirals down the internet rabbit hole. I got a feeling 2020 is the start of crazy conspiracy movements that may be hard to turn back.
 
My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Banned
May 19, 2020
4,828
the internet is fulfilling its purpose supporting a free flow of information, it's just the absolute garbage kind of information. this was always the endpoint of news/information as entertainment
 
Red

Red

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,763
Ponyboy said:
remember about a decade ago when people did this with 4G?

oh wait...
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There were real media outlets that enflamed fears over cell phone use in the late 90s and early 00s. Usually that it would cause cancer or reduce sperm counts when kept in pockets or whatever. Radiation has been a boogeyman for a long time. In that sense, this isn't new.

Gets around quicker now though. It's easier to have a patina of authority when the conspiracy comes from a professional-looking website and not that one dude you know who is one bender away from raving in the subway.
 
RadzPrower

RadzPrower

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 19, 2018
6,057
Yeah, I got reactivated my Facebook just after the election to lurk because I know everyone I used to know on there were Republicans and I just wanted to see their reactions.

...I was not prepared for what I saw. People I thought were not necessarily the sharpest tools in the shed given their upbringing and demographics, but they were generally smart enough to get out of the rain as it were. Not so anymore. They've gone off the deep end talking about conspiracy theories, civil war, insurrection act, and even building a guillotine in the square and watching leaders' heads roll.

I always thought conspiracy theorists were quacks, but I have now come to the conclusion that conspiracy theorist is now a full-blown mental illness.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,143
There was a terrorist attack 9 days ago because of the 5G conspiracy.

People legit think that coronavirus is fake and it's 5G poisoning your brain.
 
hiredhand

hiredhand

Member
Feb 6, 2019
3,170
One of the many bad things about COVID-19 that hasn't been really disgussed much, is that it has really empowered all the conspiracy nuts.

There are so many factors that fuel conspiracy theories at the moment:
- lot of people stuck at home with a lot of free time, many pissed/disappointed/depressed due to being unemployed/layed-off
- ongoing pandemic with an unclear origin and a lot of asymptomatic/weakly symptomatic carriers
- sudden influx of several competing vaccines that may or may not have been rushed to the market
- Trump
- social media and "alternative" news networks
 
OneThirtyEight

OneThirtyEight

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
5,680
I have a student whos parets convinced her, and tries to convince us teachers, that 5G makes you sick and that covid 19 was made with 5g and that the vaccines are poison. They have also met angels and can see ghosts thanks to some "magic rocks" they have.
 
JustTom

JustTom

Member
May 28, 2018
1,455
Germany...
People tend to believe all kinds of bullshit they can find on the Internet. Sadly they stop there and don't do any research to evaluate the sources.
I mean...there are actually people out there believing they can get the Corona virus via 5G..this shit is just insane.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,929
Almost everyone has 5G home via their router so I always fuck with people by saying that lmao

Microwaves, how do they work?!
 
danmaku

danmaku

Member
Nov 5, 2017
3,237
Red said:
There were real media outlets that enflamed fears over cell phone use in the late 90s and early 00s. Usually that it would cause cancer or reduce sperm counts when kept in pockets or whatever. Radiation has been a boogeyman for a long time. In that sense, this isn't new.

Gets around quicker now though. It's easier to have a patina of authority when the conspiracy comes from a professional-looking website and not that one dude you know who is one bender away from raving in the subway.
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This. Years ago my cousin had a cellphone with a plastic ladybug on it that was supposed to "absorb the dangerous radiations". She had no clue how it worked, but she felt safer with it. 5G is the same, just amplified a thousand times by social media.
 
Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,913
BLEEN said:
Almost everyone has 5G home via their router so I always fuck with people by saying that lmao
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That's 5ghz not the same thing

Still you'd think if the government wanted to brainwash everyone they would put this mind altering technology in something more ubiquitous like a router and not just...select newer phones?
 
Gwarm

Gwarm

Member
Nov 13, 2017
2,172
I swear to god, if some nut blows up the first 5G tower I have access to I am going to riot. I've been counting on 5G home internet to make rural areas more livable.
 
Hasseigaku

Hasseigaku

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,578
Pro tip: Almost any belief that sounds hilarious to you probably has true believers

My dad used to work for the John Birch Society and they legitimately believed in vast communist conspiracies involving the Illuminati.
 
Kyrios

Kyrios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,771
gigantor21 said:
Social media is the biggest threat to society right now, because it amplifies so many others.
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Yup, before you had to go to a neglected corner of the library to find any kind of conspiracy books. Now it's all out in the open.

It's just funny because growing up I was always told to not believe everything on the internet, yet it's the generation who told me that for years that's falling for that shit now. Someone said it best by saying what Facebook is doing to our parents is what they thought video games would do to us.
 
Tuorom

Tuorom

Member
Oct 30, 2017
10,957
People think vaccines cause autism despite it being debunked

People think the new vaccines will sterilize people or Bill Gates put a microchip in it or BIG PHARMA pushed it out because money

People are morons. Our technology has advanced so quickly but our culture has been stagnant. We haven't developed any teaching or planning on how to address the extra freedom and tools we have, so people are running wild with it.
 
Zelda

Zelda

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,079
People love conspiracies because it feeds their ego. It makes them believe they know something others don't and it makes them feel superior. It also offers them an easy brainless explanation for all the bad things that happen in the world, "the government and satan are behind it all". It's actually really sad how gullible people are. This whole 5G, anti vax, anti mask, fake virus bullshit is absolutely sickening and depressing and Facebook is a major source of the problem.
 
Stat

Stat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,181
OneThirtyEight said:
I have a student whos parets convinced her, and tries to convince us teachers, that 5G makes you sick and that covid 19 was made with 5g and that the vaccines are poison. They have also met angels and can see ghosts thanks to some "magic rocks" they have.
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It always amazes me that people don't know that they are crazy.

Even the aunt of the OP, it feels like "before", if you were a crazy person yelling in the streets, people would ignore you/run away from you.

But now they have Facebook to find all the other lunatics.
 
OneThirtyEight

OneThirtyEight

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
5,680
Stat said:
It always amazes me that people don't know that they are crazy.

Even the aunt of the OP, it feels like "before", if you were a crazy person yelling in the streets, people would ignore you/run away from you.

But now they have Facebook to find all the other lunatics.
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I stop listening when people bring up something they read on facebook. Even if it's something "positive".
 
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