Why you shouldn't believe everything you read about China in the newspaper
Twenty-seven public health scientists express their support to their Chinese colleagues in 'The Lancet'. They refute the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin and that the virus would have been escaped from a lab in Wuhan. "Conspiracy theories," they write, "do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus." An immensely important statement.
"PROVEN”, headlines a women's magazine, “the most loyal partners often have this zodiac sign.” Anyone who takes the bait and clicks through will read that an anti-scientific "research" from dating site Victoria Milan shows that people with the zodiac sign Sagittarius are the most loyal partners. Absolute nonsense, of course. But this way the women's magazine is again assured of a lot of clicks, without having to invest a lot in personnel costs. Not to mention the dating site, which has free advertising. A win-win situation.
From better sex to 5G
Unfortunately, this slightly silly example is the rule rather than the exception. This was also demonstrated by the now-legendary TV program Basta. With a simple email from the non-existent research agency "Data Driven" they managed to get so-called quality newspapers to publish articles such as "left-oriented people have more and better sex". A laptop and a group of rascals, nothing more was needed to reach hundreds of thousands of people with total nonsense. Imagine what large companies and powerful politicians helped by the marketing industry are capable of.
Well, then you get to see videos of dying trees next to a lamppost that should prove that 5G is life-threatening. And that just when the Chinese telecom company Huawei seems to be winning the technological race... Then you get a relentless stream of nothing-based allegations of anti-Semitism against left-wing politicians like Jeremy Corbyn. And then you get racist conspiracy theories about how China would be responsible for the current pandemic. This kind of fake news is usually developed in far-right circles. But before you know it, it is taking its place in the mainstream debate.
Psychological warfare
Major resources are being used for this. The techniques used for Donald Trump's election campaign, among others, literally stem from military-sponsored research into psychological warfare. The Netflix documentary "The Great Hack" clearly shows how one succeeded in sucking people into an alternative reality in which the difference between valid information and fake news is increasingly blurred. It's a war. And we are all targets.
So don't be surprised "how stupid some people can be." I deliberately put the sentence in brackets because can you still say with certainty what's true and what's not? I don't. It's pretty bloody difficult. Be outraged by how certain forces from the establishment conduct unscrupulous psychological warfare against the population. High-ranking media types who say that this is just what people want to read are a bit like parents who put their children in front of the TV every night with a bag of candy. To then conclude that when those children become addicted to it, they simply do not like vegetables.
The benefit of the truth
The benefit of the truth is that even those who do not believe in it must eventually take it into account. In a way, the corona crisis is also a confrontation with reality for the establishment. One example: today it appears that it is not the investors and shareholders, but the nurses, garbage collectors and other working people make this society flowing and growing.
Let's use that confrontation to build up a society where we start from that reality. A society that starts from the needs of nurses and garbage collectors. A society where there is no need to bombard people with total nonsense. A society where the article from 'the Lancet' would simply appear on the front page of every newspaper. Because it is a myth that 'people' cannot understand that. It's simply our current model of society that is too irrational to properly distribute correct information.
Sources:
- Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19
- Chinese version of the statement
Photo by Felipe Simo on Unsplash