Corona, masks, vaccinations: the false prophets of the pandemic

Attila Hildmann is probably the best-known example of people who have drifted extremely off course in the pandemic. in the fact finder podcast Experts explain why such false prophets get lost in increasingly grotesque legends.

“Last warning!” – in September “almost all vaccinated people are dead”. This is currently only one of hundreds of apocalyptic prophecies that are being spread in the digital cosmos by “lateral thinkers”, imperial citizens and supporters of conspiracies. It is said again and again that the government will soon be overthrown, the economy will collapse and a “third world war” will break out.

For example, a well-known conspiracy ideologist claimed in the spring that 25 percent of those vaccinated would die immediately. Another 36 percent would have such severe side effects that you don’t know whether they would make it. There was talk of an “organized mass killing”.

Profit from scaremongering

Publishers that have been earning their money with conspiracy tales for years now also offer equipment for “crisis situations” in their online shops. The offer ranges from electric shockers for defense to power generators to whole-grain rye canned bread.

In this dark parallel world, dubious media activists and shrewd entrepreneurs obviously earn a lot of money – and therefore keep fueling the hysteria. The boundaries between personal fanaticism and economic interests can often hardly be discerned.

Some protagonists in this milieu were once quite prominent, such as Michael Wendler, who provides his almost 150,000 followers on Telegram with new bad news and doom scenarios. He also shared the “final warning” of the alleged impending death of nearly all vaccinated people in September.

From businessman to wanted

Attila Hildmann drifted even more radically. Once a successful businessman, today he is on the run and has destroyed his economic existence within a few months. If he returns to Germany, he faces trials and severe punishments – among other things because of various tirades of hate and threats against Jews.

Hildmann is an extreme example, but not an isolated case, says Carla Reveland from the fact finder editorial team of the Tagesschau. In an interview with the moderator Michail Paweletz, the journalist Sebastian Leber from the “Tagesspiegel” adds that especially people who are becoming more and more radical cannot afford to stop. Corona denial has become the center of her life: “Some have given up their jobs or have quarreled with their families”. Relationships were broken, friendships ended. If you have invested so much, then “it is also dramatic when you have to give up all of that. And that’s why you keep increasing.”

The radicals are left

This can also be observed in the “lateral thinking” movement: This has clearly lost momentum. The radicals who cheer each other on remained customary. Hildmann is the best example, says journalist Leber. He has “invested so much and lost since the beginning of the pandemic”. The only thing left to him now is “the illusion that he would know something that others do not know, that he had secret knowledge and that his fantasy might be true after all. And that’s why he sticks with it”.

in the fact finder podcast of the Tagesschau Moderator Michail Paweletz speaks in detail with Carla Reveland and Sebastian Leber about the false prophecies of various activists from the Corona denier milieu – and they discuss the question of what consequences the flowering of the conspiracy narratives can have during the Corona pandemic. Because when the pandemic is over, Reveland and Leber agree, the radical conspiracy ideologues will look for a new topic in order to further disinform, unsettle and incite people.

The fact finder podcast is there in the ARD audio library, on tagesschau.de as well as on major platforms that offer podcasts.