I think it’s simpler than that. Covid happened. Some people don’t like being told what to do or to feel powerless against an abstraction, so they start to make “sense” out of a situation that is too hard for them to accept.

There definitely were climate deniers way before covid, but I do think that covid set in motion a trend of contrarianism and apathy that we will have to live woth and gradually overcome for a long time. The fact that our governments and scientists did such a fantastic job at protecting us the world over has allowed these people to live in their fantasy, that covid was a hoax. I have heard all manner of reasons for why they did what they did. Big pharma wanting to get rich, lobbying for that power. Governments wanting to prime us all for fascist regimes and keeping all the power permanently. Forcing us to take the vaccine to control us and poison us. On and on and on the reasons pile on and I know for a fact that if the governments and scientists had done nothing to stop the spread and the death toll being higher than it was, these same people would have found a way to make conspiracies about governments wanting us all to die.

Some vulnerable people cannot handle adversity and will find excuses to deny the reality of their situation because it gives them a false sense of security. And once that ball starts rolling, it’s so easy to branch out to more things.