There are so many mysteries about the coronavirus: where it came from, why it’s here, and what will happen. But as humans we want to fill in those knowledge gaps. So some people use conspiracy theories to answer those unknowns, and wacky theories exist on both the right and left.

Many of the more creative theories seem to come from the far right. Some believe that the coronavirus pandemic is no more than a political ploy, like the Ohio man who posted angry messages saying just that.

“Does anybody have the guts to say this COVID-19 is a political ploy? Asking for a friend. Prove me wrong.”

Sadly for this man and his loved ones, COVID-19 proved him wrong. He died on April 15 of the disease.

An extension of this theory states that coronavirus is part of a deep state conspiracy to bring in the “New World Order.” Adherents to this theory film empty hospital waiting rooms and parking lots as proof, while ignoring that fact that visitors cannot enter many hospitals due to the virus.

https://twitter.com/lourdesmz/status/1253889870327689216

Then there are those who believe that Bill Gates is using COVID-19 as a reason to install trackers into everyone’s bodies once we have a vaccine to fight the virus. So why would he do this? To add to his billions, of course. That’s about as believable as those on the left who think Trump is out to make money on the use of hydroxychloroquine.

Finally, there’s the theory that 5G towers are emitting tiny radio waves that mess with our bodies, causing us to be susceptible to the coronavirus. That theory doesn’t just exist in the US; 5G truthers have burned cell towers in the UK as well.

But it’s not just the guys living in Mom’s basement who are churning out this stuff. Actors John Cusack and Woody Harrelson (no stranger to conspiracies is he) also buy into the 5G bunk.

Yet, as I said above, the far right aren’t the only ones to dabble in conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19. The left have their own ideas too, and most of them surround President Trump.

I noted above, for example, the theory that Trump is promoting hydroxychloroquine because he can make money off its manufacture. But there’s more: presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told his supporters that Trump is using COVID-19 to delay the election.

“Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.”

Yeah, let’s mark his words as total bullcrap. Constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley noted in The Hill that the date of the national election is set by federal law. Thus, Trump cannot change it through an executive order. Plus, the 20th amendment to the Constitution states that the power of the president ends on January 20 anyway, end of story.

Then there’s the Salon nutter who goes by the preposterous name of Lucian K. Truscott IV (yes, that’s his real name), who uses his West Point credentials to give him credibility. He’s rather like the Fredo of the Long Gray Line, the guy who couldn’t cut it by actually serving: “I’m smart! and I want respect!”

Credit: tenor.com.

Anyway, Truscott claims that Trump is using COVID-19 to kill off voters in the states that won’t support his re-election. Yes, Fredo said that:

“The states that are a lock for Trump, or the states he doesn’t stand a chance in? Let them rip. Get the dying out of the way now. Maybe by the fall the coronavirus infection numbers will go down, maybe not.”  

“The number of those killed won’t go down, but Trump doesn’t give a shit. He’s not the president of the United States. He’s the president of the Confederate States of MAGA. All he wants to do is win. If they’re not Trump’s voters, let ’em die.”

But perhaps the most durable of all leftist falsehoods has nothing to do with Trump. Rather, it’s that Sen. Tom Cotton claimed that Sars-CoV-2. the coronavirus, was developed by the Chinese as a bioweapon to use against the US.

Cotton did nothing of the kind. In fact, he tweeted that “deliberate release” was “very unlikely,” and that the virus most likely occurred naturally. Or, perhaps, if it did come from a virology lab near Wuhan, it was “bad science, bad safety.” Plus, U.S. officials have been concerned about inadequate safety at that Wuhan lab for the past two years, anyway.

In the end, however, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that evidence that Sars-CoV-2 came from the Wuhan lab is “inconclusive.” The website LiveScience concurred, and said that we may never know. But never mind that: Tom Cotton is a Conspiracy Kook fits the media narrative.

The simple fact is this: as people, we want answers to why our existence has been turned on its head. Some of us are willing to honestly say we don’t know, while others dabble in conspiracy theories. That kind of behavior has always been with us, of course, but in this highly-charged political environment, too many people seek out websites which confirm their biases. I’m afraid conspiracy theories on both the right and left will remain with us as long as the virus runs our lives.

Featured image: Apionid/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.