[cuspy]

The 5G scare is to some extent part of an exploitative, manipulative health-concern industry. However, people are generally right to be afraid of the potential health effects of new technologies and substances that are released into their environments.

It is extremely unethical and dangerous in my opinion to attempt to shame and censor people or pathologize their "paranoia". In most cases, despite being cynically exploited, what we're talking about is a healthy and sensible self-protective instinct. I feel safer in my society when people are free to discuss these fears without shame

When talking to a skeptic, if you are certain that a particular fear is illegitimate, be specific as to why and don't use shame to seek compliance. In many cases you'll probably find that you yourself lack the ability to clearly explain why you think their skepticism is unfounded. We all know from countless examples, even in recent history, that there are many people and organizations willing to physically harm the public's health in various ways for profit.

What I wish we would all be concerned with is not the health effects, but instead the potential for dramatically increased surveillance and control that comes with access to so much more bandwidth. Carelessly normalizing and naturalizing progress for progress's sake undermines the credibility of science and technology as tools for the greater good. More and more people are turning against us.

Second, it's also my opinion we should be concerned that certain crucial decisions about our urban environments are exempt from even the pretense of local democratic control. I for one do not want to live in a city where critical infrastructure is governed by a large top-down international private corporate consensus, but it seems that's where we are headed.