WHERE DID THE MICROCHIP VACCINE CONSPIRACY THEORY COME FROM ANYWAY?
How an innocuous Reddit thread mutated into a dangerous, viral lie
OnOn October 2nd, 2020, then-President Donald Trump and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus. As we were all waking up to the news, I got into my car and tuned in to The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 FM in New York, where Charlamagne Tha God, its most outspoken host, wasn’t having it. “I got a few thoughts and one of those thoughts is the reason I’m saying ‘allegedly,’” he said.
At the time, the country was accelerating into the third wave of the pandemic, and the president had been appearing at large, mask-less rallies. But the news didn’t sit right with Charlamagne. “The conspiracy theorist in me simply doesn’t believe it,” he said.
As I listened, he seemed to build a conspiracy theory on the fly. According to Charlamagne, the president was pretending to get the coronavirus so he could be the first to take the vaccine and become a hero to the world just in time for the election. Which is the provocative, Sasquatch-exists brand of conspiracy theory you might expect to hear on the show. But then Charlamagne took the conversation in a direction I didn’t see coming: “Millions will line up to take the vaccine, and boom, microchips for all of y’all, right in time for goddamn Thanksgiving.”
WHERE DID THE MICROCHIP VACCINE CONSPIRACY THEORY COME FROM ANYWAY?
How an innocuous Reddit thread mutated into a dangerous, viral lie
OnOn October 2nd, 2020, then-President Donald Trump and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus. As we were all waking up to the news, I got into my car and tuned in to The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 FM in New York, where Charlamagne Tha God, its most outspoken host, wasn’t having it. “I got a few thoughts and one of those thoughts is the reason I’m saying ‘allegedly,’” he said.
At the time, the country was accelerating into the third wave of the pandemic, and the president had been appearing at large, mask-less rallies. But the news didn’t sit right with Charlamagne. “The conspiracy theorist in me simply doesn’t believe it,” he said.
As I listened, he seemed to build a conspiracy theory on the fly. According to Charlamagne, the president was pretending to get the coronavirus so he could be the first to take the vaccine and become a hero to the world just in time for the election. Which is the provocative, Sasquatch-exists brand of conspiracy theory you might expect to hear on the show. But then Charlamagne took the conversation in a direction I didn’t see coming: “Millions will line up to take the vaccine, and boom, microchips for all of y’all, right in time for goddamn Thanksgiving.”
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