Idiots Begin Attacking US 5G Cell Towers Because, Idiots

from the ill-communication dept

On one end, you've got wireless carriers claiming that 5G is some type of cancer-curing miracle (it's not). On the other hand, we have oodles of conspiracy theorists, celebrities, and various grifters trying to claim 5G is some kind of rampant health menace (it's not). In reality, 5G's not actually interesting enough to warrant either position, but that's clearly not stopping anybody in the post-truth era.

Baseless conspiracy theories about the health impact of 5G have gone next level during the pandemic. To the point where facts-optional nitwits are not only burning down cell towers in the UK, but putting razor blades and needles underneath protest posters on telephone poles (apparently you solve public health risks by... putting peoples' health at risk?). Now the Department of Homeland Security has had to issue warnings here in the States after several similar attacks were launched against US telecom infrastructure over the last few months:

"Since December 2019, unidentified actors conducted at least five arson incidents targeting cell towers in Memphis, Tenn., that resulted in more than $100,000 in damages,” the DHS reports say. “Additionally, 14 cell towers in western Tennessee, between February and April, were purposely turned off by way of disabling their electrical breakers," according to separate DHS field intelligence reporting. In April, arsonists set fire to a major cell tower in Portland, Ore., damaging electrical components at the base of the structure."

The overwhelming scientific evidence currently available indicates that not only is 5G not a serious risk to human health, but some aspects of 5G (especially millimeter wave deployments) are, in many instances, less powerful that existing 4G signals. 95% of the time when you see somebody insisting 5G hurts your health, they're badly misinterpreting debunked studies or this decades old chart. Assuming they're even pantomiming any respect for properly peer-reviewed science in the first place.

The DHS intelligence report states that it's very likely that these attacks will be increasing throughout the year, as a growing crop of nitwits "learn" about the technology online. Sometimes from ordinary domestic crackpots and grifters, but also via foreign governments (Iran, China, Russia) hoping to accelerate the US' descent down the conspiracy idiot rabbit hole:

"Violent extremists have drawn from misinformation campaigns online that claim wireless infrastructure is deleterious to human health and helps spread COVID-19, resulting in a global effort by like-minded individuals to share operational guidance and justification for conducting attacks against 5G infrastructure, some of which have already prompted arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several US states."

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.

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Filed Under: 5g, attacks, conspiracy theories


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  1. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 6:49am

    "The overwhelming scientific evidence currently available indicates"

    Due to the level of lying, conning, and attempts at social control for nefarious reason scientists have a credibility of that of a yellow sheet journalists - none at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Bloof (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 7:11am

    The situation in the UK isn't helped by media personalities going 'maybe there's something to it, we don't know, believing conspiracies are a sign of an enquiring mind!' on TV and getting away with a reprimand. Yikes.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:16am

    Re:

    I'm sure that whatever level of confidence you have in the scientific community, that level is way above that of Donald Trump & the GOP.

    Amirite?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:18am

    Re: united arab emirates visa online

    Not going to visit there - ever.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:22am

    Re:

    Scientists, by definition, have no interest in social control for any reason. Fake science and politicians are what you're talking about. Thinks like claiming that an unproven drug is effective in fighting coronavirus or that injecting yourself with disinfectant might be an effective cure are where you find interest in social control for nefarious reasons.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:27am

    Re: Re:

    clearly you're down below the Trump and the GOP with your own stupidity.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:37am

    Re:

    That is complete and utter bullshit even if you lump in all scientific misconduct together including outright quacks, frauds, and incompetents while ignoring the refutations and peer review.

    That aside if we took all purported scientests in sum you would have an "unreliable" platonic scientest you would still get real and useful results with nuance mixed in. It would be frustrating to sift through but it could be done and a rough consenseus would emergre. That would not happen with yellow journalists. You would see a bias towards easy to write and sensational.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    A bit corrupt is like saying the sun's surface is , 19 May 2020 @ 7:39am

    Visitation rights?

    Not gonna visit but maybe sending care packages via Obama Drones would be in order.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:49am

    Truth hurts

    Violent extremists have drawn from misinformation campaigns online that claim wireless infrastructure is deleterious to human health and helps spread COVID-19.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    Vidiot (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 7:56am

    Wow... rare occurrence at TD for two spam messages to sneak by the filter. I'll bet it's that nasty 5G! Time to grab my matches and gas can and look for a cell tower...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:56am

    Re: SEO Artifice - SEO Solutions

    ar·ti·fice
    /ˈärdəfəs/
    noun
    clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive others.

    A fool and his money are soon parted

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Pixelation, 19 May 2020 @ 7:58am

    Re:

    "...scientists have a credibility of that of a yellow sheet journalists - none at all."

    Well Komrad, I'm sure you're right. Scientists have given us nothing at all. Including the internet. It's all a conspiracy. You aren't real.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    kallethen, 19 May 2020 @ 8:09am

    The pessimist side of my brain is fully convinced we are on the brink of a new Dark Age...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 8:11am

    Re: Visitation rights?

    "Obama drones"? This would be the military strike drones? The ones super-stable genius, extra-pacifist, bring-our-boys-home Trump used more in his first two years in office than Obama did in his two entire terms?

    The drones that the Trump administration stopped reporting numbers of civilian deaths for, because those records were "distracting"?

    Those "Obama drones"?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    Bloof (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 8:13am

    Re:

    He said, using technology developed by scientists using principles discovered by other scientists, on infrastructure deemed safe by different scientists, free of diseases like polio and smallpox thanks to another set of scientists...

    Isn't it nice to be able to stand on the shoulders of giants and say 'Fuck giants!'

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 8:34am

    Its almost like having highly placed officials unwilling to say anything that might draw the ire of the Conspiracy Theorist in Chief by debunking insane things leads to insane things happening.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. icon
    Ed (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 8:40am

    accelerate the US' descent down the conspiracy idiot rabbit hole

    We're in free fall now, thanks to the MAGA idiots and anti-vaxxers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 8:41am

    Re:

    Damn right!

    I'll take anecdotal "evidence" over scientific consensus any day of the week. Because I have far more faith in crackpots on the Internet I've never met than some square who's been working in the field for years.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:20am

    Re: Re: SEO Artifice - SEO Solutions

    This is the first time I've noticed a post being fully deleted rather than just hidden. Does that happen often?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:23am

    Re:

    We're already in one. Dark Age refers to a period for which we have very little information, thus "dark". With so much information existing only in electronic form, our current age is prone to lose this history if anything ever went wrong with power or storage. Example: where can you find all the sites that were set up on MySpace?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:29am

    Re: Re: Re: SEO Artifice - SEO Solutions

    Only when spam gets past the filters.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:37am

    Re:

    Not to mention another TV celeb, mostly famous for their looks and being a Britain's Got Talent judge (obviously well qualified to judge the impact of 5G signals then!). With the size of their twitter following they can spread dis-information to a lot of people.

    Unlike Eamon Holmes, Amanda Holden has not apologised for getting it wrong as far as I know (I may be wrong, to be honest these semi-celebs just annoy me)

    For info, the Dutch have decided to join in the fun too - despite having no 5G deployments yet! Get in early :)
    https://www.engadget.com/anti-5g-attacks-in-netherlands-220248588.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:47am

    Re: Re: Visitation rights?

    Yeah, I didn't want to burst his bubble but drone use by the military was not a new thing in 2008. Obama did, from what I read, make use of same quite a bit.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. icon
    wereisjessicahyde (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 9:54am

    Re:

    Pro Tip: If you have an evil plan for social control for nefarious reasons just become a politician.

    It doesn't require any intelligence and you don't have to worry about spending 8 years of your life at University getting your PhD.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:58am

    Re: Re:

    I thought it was the Bullshit Age.
    Agricultural age, Industrial age, Space age, Cyber age, Bullshit age

    Side note, I read that it was probably dark during a portion of the dark ages. A lack of sunlight due to volcanic activity is suspected. But yeah, mostly it is called that because of a lack of historical data from that period.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 1:00pm

    Re:

    Yep. Anyone with a degree in, or practicing any sort of science, they are all in one big cabal. Against actual science. And they never disagree amongst themselves.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 1:03pm

    Re: Re:

    Then fighting for grant money every year for your social control studies.

    Of course, you could get a job at a corporation where they are far more likely to fund such, and you can skip out on the science part.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 1:08pm

    Re: Re: Re: Visitation rights?

    Sure, Obama was heavy into that. We used to hear about Trumps insane over-usage also, but the Distraction-in-Chief keeps stupid news outlets too busy for them to pay any mind to real issues. They also distract themselves quite a bit with their own manufactured bullshit.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  29. icon
    R.H. (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 3:20pm

    Re: Re:

    You'd find them on MySpace. The site still exists. I just checked my login information and it works too.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  30. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 3:30pm

    The 5g lies, including it somehow became legal, are in fact one of the various unprotected forms of speech.

    If that man loves his LSD and illicit opioids so much he should be fired like his bosses.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  31. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 5:29pm

    Re:

    don't be a violent extremist....

    They help torture and murder people....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  32. icon
    tz1 (profile), 19 May 2020 @ 5:51pm

    Quixotic

    I can understand tilting at windmills at least if you love birds, but not 5G.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  33. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 7:50pm

    Re:

    W
    What?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  34. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2020 @ 9:29pm

    Re: Re:

    Actually, I can see injecting a certain part of the population with disinfectant to be an effective cute and would be quite happy if that subset of the population did do immediately.

    The condition to be cured is idiots.
    The subset of the population to be cured are of course idiots.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  35. icon
    Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 1:39am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Visitation rights?

    "...the Distraction-in-Chief keeps stupid news outlets too busy for them to pay any mind to real issues."

    Journalist: "Boss, it's official, Trump just killed more civvies with drones than Obama did in his whole term"

    Editor: "Save it for the slow news day. Trump just advised injecting bleach against corona, suggested most women like having their p_____s grabbed, and announced the creation of Space-based stormtroopers as a new arm of the US military..."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  36. icon
    Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 1:41am

    Re: accelerate the US' descent down the conspiracy idiot rabbit

    "We're in free fall now, thanks to the MAGA idiots and anti-vaxxers."

    There have always been idiots. The only difference today is that the current POTUS relies on exactly those idiots for half his voting base.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  37. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 1:45am

    Re: Re: Re: SEO Artifice - SEO Solutions

    Full on spam gets deleted when found.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  38. icon
    wereisjessicahyde (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 5:00am

    Re: Re: Re:

    You do realise you're mental? If you don't realise you're mental then why the fuck do you not know you're metal

    link to this | view in thread ]

  39. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2020 @ 5:01am

    Re: Re: Re:

    At least I have not taken chlorine internally. Guess that makes me stupid.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  40. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2020 @ 5:05am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Visitation rights?

    Let us not forget the Super Duper Missie in us at The Space Force!

    To Unfathomable and Beyond!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  41. icon
    wereisjessicahyde (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 5:08am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    ~mental

    link to this | view in thread ]

  42. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2020 @ 5:09am

    Re: Quixotic

    There are new wind driven energy producing devices that were designed with avian protection in mind. The open, exposed fan blades are replaced with a vertical turbine resting within a cylinder. Promising design.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  43. identicon
    Talmyr, 20 May 2020 @ 7:48am

    Re: Re:

    ... said every flat Earther, Creationist, anti-vaxxer. Covid-denier, climate-denier and conspiracy theorist ever.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  44. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2020 @ 7:49am

    Re: Re:

    WOT

    link to this | view in thread ]

  45. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2020 @ 8:59am

    Count Your Blessings, U.S.

    "...conspiracy theories about the health impact of 5G have gone next level ..."

    <multilevel_mockery>Thank goodness the risk is directly proportional to the amount of 5G coverage, i.e., nearly non-existent in the U.S.!</multilevel_mockery>

    link to this | view in thread ]

  46. icon
    Thad (profile), 20 May 2020 @ 10:27am

    Re: Re: accelerate the US' descent down the conspiracy idiot rab

    Half?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  47. icon
    Toom1275 (profile), 21 May 2020 @ 10:12am

    Re: Count Your Blessings, U.S.

    Not if it's homeopathic 5G.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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