McGill prof stokes 5G rumours
A McGill professor is out there stoking rumours about how 5G is part of a conspiracy with the WHO and is somehow entangled with Covid-19 and how future vaccines for the virus are meant to control the populace – if I understand the “ideas” properly. McGill isn’t answering the phone when journalists call up to ask about him.
Phil M 05:58 on 2020-06-21 Permalink
They aren’t rumours, they’re lies.
Kate 06:13 on 2020-06-21 Permalink
A thing can be both. A lie being circulated in the way this lie is being circuated is also a rumour.
Orr 13:29 on 2020-06-21 Permalink
I don’t think he cares if he is right or wrong. I think what he cares about is generating FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt.
It has zero to do with facts, it’s all about influencing people’s opinions, a.k.a. PR 101.
Phil M 16:28 on 2020-06-21 Permalink
Yes, a rumour can be a lie, or it can be true, but this is the same conspiracy BS we’ve seen for years, regarding wireless transmission, that has been widely debunked. In this case, he’s either wrong, and needs to be corrected, or he’s lying, and his lies shouldn’t be spread.
I was initially going to put that distinction in my original comment, but felt that these conspiracy theories aren’t worth pointing out semantics.
Kate 16:32 on 2020-06-21 Permalink
Yes, but a) why is he doing this and b) should McGill be putting up with this nonsense? He really is a professor, although he claimed on Reddit that he’s Professor of Toxicology and Health Effects of Electromagnetism which I don’t think is a thing.
Point taken re hair-splitting on rumours and lies. Not really the issue here.
Phil M 03:58 on 2020-06-22 Permalink
The fact that he teaches at McGill is F’d up…
But my point is about not obscuring objective truth (we know 5G doesn’t cause covid, or whatever his particular conspiracy is) behind the predilection for news media to show “fairness” or “both sides” above all else, when one side is demonstrably false. Hence, calling them lies, or conspiracy theories (which is most accurate, since we don’t know his state of mind), is far better than couching them in a hands-off way with “rumours.”
(I may be overreacting after four years of the news media doing nothing to challenge Trump on his lies, but there it is.)