However, while conspiracy theories about powerful groups secretly manipulating the world, and the misinformation that spawns them, have always existed, the past few years have seen an alarming uptick in these types of unfounded narratives. This century, there remains a vocal portion of people who believe that the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre were orchestrated by the US government in order to create sympathy for the invasion of Iraq and later Afghanistan. Fast forward to the 20th century and you have the belief that the 1969 moon landing was a hoax. Probably the first modern conspiracy was the 19th century obsession with the short-lived Enlightenment-era secret society, the Illuminati. Throughout the Dark and Middle ages in Europe, antisemetic conspiracy theories told of shadowy cabals of Jewish merchants and bankers secretly holding the political strings of the “civilised” world ( sound familiar?) - certainly one of the oldest and most disturbingly persistent delusions in history. That isn’t to say conspiracy theories are a new phenomenon. However, one of the most shocking developments has been the harnessing of social media platforms by authoritarian governments and right wing extremist groups like QAnon, to spread disinformation, openly fascistic messaging and - the subject of today’s dive - conspiracy theories. Polarisation, corporate greed and a global shift to the right have all been defining features of the global socio-political and economic landscape over the past decade (many would argue for longer than that). To kick off the week on a cheerful note, we thought we’d give you a breakdown of some of the most outlandish things the anti-5G brigade has been up to, as well as reflect on exactly where we all stand regarding conspiracy theories, and how on (flat?) Earth we got here. Like flat earthers, anti-vaxers and 9/11 truthers, 5G conspiracy theorists have gained a puzzling amount of traction in the past two years, with the global outbreak of COVID-19 feeding into the demographic’s narrative of government control and sinister cabals of tech billionaires and lizard people in pizza restaurants (more or less - it’s hard to keep up sometimes).
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The destruction of the mast, which reportedly left 1.5mn people without television, telephone and radio service for days, is only the latest in a long line of fringe groups trying to delay and damage the rollout of 5G infrastructure around the world. Last week, a previously unknown group of anti-5G conspiracy theorists, the 5G Abolition Committee, set fire to a relay antenna near the French town of Limoges in Haute-Vienne.