To ask “what is the conspiracy?”

[loulou0987]

I have seen many times on social media, over the past week, people saying there is something else going on and the Covid rules are for a different reason entirely.
I just wondered if anyone truly believes the government have a different agenda for extending lockdown??

@ArthursRoundTable

(No subject)
For the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, popular conspiracy theories included:

• It was made up by drug companies and the WHO to boost profits.
• It was an Al-Qaeda attack against the West (and in particular, the pork industry)
• Western Governments developed it as a means of anti-immigration biological warfare
• Surgical mark manufacturers created it to boost profits
• Obama and/or the UN unleashed it as a means of population control, to help create a new world order.

For the 2013 Avian Flu, it was a US anti-china conspiracy

For SARS in 2003 it was a lab-made synthesis of measles and mumps, or another bio-weapon made by the US.

For the 1918 'Spanish Flu, it was a bio-weapon created by the Germans and spread worldwide by German submarines, or tainted German-made aspirin

For the 1889 Russian flu, the cause was electric lights (the 5G of the time...)

I'm sure there's loads more out there, but that's a good sampler. All the hits too; big pharma, mask producers, population control, new world order, caused by new technology, bio-weapon, etc. etc.

@HomeSliceKnowsBest

It's rather convenient that all the places people gather to talk and 'plan the revolution' are shut; pubs, cafes, meeting places. So most communications take place online and can be monitored and removed. I hope tf Sunflowerbutterfly is wrong, but my understanding is that we are headed towards a total nightmare.

The internet is open. That's where the majority of planning (of any kind) takes place nowadays.

[quote Nomoreboobs]@SheepandCow I don’t understand all your replies to a situation many are very anxious about. I’d love your confidence, then I could sleep at night! What is your perspective on what’s going on?[/quote]
I'm sorry I missed your post.
My perspective. Some countries - mainly Europe and the US (but some South American as well) put short-term greed before long-term economic health and individual lives.

I have family in Australia and extended family in NZ. There was an easy way to contain Covid - especially for islands.

There's nothing conspiracy about the UK government aiming for world beating incompetence - with a side order of criminal negligence.

@Cornettoninja Definitely. I suspect it's easier to come up with more invented conspiracy theories (without basis in fact/truth) than being able to suss out the real ones and have any credible evidence for them. The real conspiracies are probably too good to be worked out, well-kept secrets and it's not like they're likely to leave a paper trail either... which is probably why the conspiracy theories that get put forward are way off mark, sound crazy and (rightly) get dismissed.

Weren't ancient Emperors famously paranoid about conspiracies? Pretty sure some had pretty wild conspiracy theories that made them paranoid. Their wild theories may have been wrong, but the suspicion of the existence of a conspiracy was often found to be legit. E.g. Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula etc. What's the saying? "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you"

The root cause for someone even trying to work out if there is some sort of conspiracy probably comes from a lack of trust and maybe even survival instinct? So, maybe it's just a case of greater transparency that's required? Help put people at ease with reassurance.

I find the accusations against Bill Gates to be a bit sad. He has been trying to educate, warn and prepare people about a major outbreak for a while. When it actually happens he gets accused of being the one behind it and I think that is unfair (not least because there is no credible of evidence of this AFAIK). His TED talk from 2015 is really interesting and informative. The next outbreak? We're not ready by Bill Gates.

But...one of my own conspiracy theories might be coming true. Several weeks ago I predicted that MPs would jump the vaccine queue by 'volunteering'. Matt Hancock (healthy, under 40) has announced he intends to do just that....it gives weight to my theory about anti vaxxers. Government 'concern' seems disproportionate. Anti vaxxers are a tiny minority. My conspiracy theory is the government wants to (secretly) encourage anti vaxxing... because we don't have enough vaccines to go round. Not for a while at least.

@SheepandCow

I don't know. Only yesterday I read this: GCHQ in cyberwar on anti-vaccine propaganda Spies tackle disinformation linked to Russia.

They've admitted today that the initial 800,000 doses might be the only delivery we get for a while.

That's only enough to vaccinate 400,000.

We have a population of 67 million - with around 20 million vulnerable (not including the risks of Long Covid).

No way are the government genuinely concerned about anti vaxxers, who are a small minority.

We're already seeing bunfights over who gets it first.

Way more people want it, but can't access it, than don't want it but have been offered.

@SheepandCow

I dunno. Vaccination means they can open up the country and get things back to normal. Ultimately, the government, especially the tories, care about the economy.

There have been suggestions that the virus might be an "Act of God". That probably just means you can't get insurance cover...

This is one article, from March, that I read at the start of the pandemic that did come true with Trump losing the election (he had stood a good chance of winning until the covid crisis). Talk of the County: God sent coronavirus to get rid of Trump because Republicans failed to do so. Like, hypothetically, if God (aka like a force of nature outside human understanding/control) is behind all this then what can anyone (rich, powerful, famous, whatever) actually do about it?

I agree that to an extent there's only so much we can do against a virus - be it an act of God or nature, however, other countries have shown that it is possible to mitigate the damage.

Australia, New Zealand, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, etc.

These countries showed us it was possible to take effective action to save economy and lives.

@ArthursRoundTable, I agree about Bill Gates. He strikes me as someone who has recognised they’ve achieved all they can in the corporate world and financially so has focussed on humanitarian issues. The attitude of some people towards his involvement is almost spiteful and resentful of his financial input when he’s doing exactly what many people call for the rich to do.

I’m not entirely sure but there were reports of some irregularities in one of their foundations vaccine programmes which I’m pretty sure is where the current conspiracies have sprung from.