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When Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governator, tells you something, you take his word for it. No questions asked. When he tells you to “get to the chopper,” you do it. When he says he’ll “be back,” you know he’d never lie to you. When he tells you to trust the eggheads and their science know-how, you do it. Right?

After Arnie got his Covid-19 jab inside his car in Los Angeles, he turned to the camera and said, “Come with me if you want to live.” Underneath the viral video, which he posted on all of his social media accounts, he added a comment with a very important message. Arnie told us that we should listen to experts instead of relying on poorly-worded conspiracy theories. And all jokes and movie references aside, he’s got a point about knowing our strengths.

His argument is simple: we should listen to the advice of those who obviously know what they’re doing. In the case of the coronavirus pandemic, we ought to listen to scientists, researchers, and medical experts, not rely on gossip and unfounded speculations on YouTube and social media. Have a read through what he said below and let us know what you think in the comments, dear Pandas.

Arnold Schwarzenegger got his Covid-19 vaccine live on camera

Image credits: schwarzenegger

Image credits: Schwarzenegger

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Arnie also had a very important but stern message to share with anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theory believers

Image credits: Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Governator believes that the pandemic isn’t a political issue, but practice shows that some skeptics think otherwise

Image credits: Schwarzenegger

Joseph M. Pierre, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, told Bored Panda that some conspiracy theories nowadays are political in nature and have their roots in people losing trust in authority figures. “It’s stereotypically liberals that trust science and support mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccination (although historically there have been many liberal ‘anti-vaxxers’),” he explained.

“Wearing masks, unfortunately, has become a kind of political debate, at least here in the US. That is, it’s stereotypically conservatives or Trump supporters that refute the science on masks and Covid-19 more generally, continuing an undermining of science as an institution of authority that’s been ongoing for some years now and was played out before Covid-19 with climate change,” Pierre said.

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He also pointed out that debating conspiracy theorists isn’t something that he’d suggest doing because they keep “moving the goalposts” while defending their beliefs. “Often with conspiracy theories that involve scientific facts, there’s a tendency to focus on some obscure example of experimental minutia (e.g. the temperature of combusted jet fuel and the melting point of the WTC columns), and then moving onto another if that’s refuted, rather than addressing the big picture questions that make the conspiracy theory so ridiculous.”

Pierre continued: “I don’t generally advocate debating conspiracy theory believers at all, since I think it’s mostly a fruitless endeavor. But if you were going to do it, I’d move the goalposts yourself, rather than allowing the conversation to be dictated by the believer.”

Here’s how some people reacted to Arnie’s video and message

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