John Donnellan, Ocean Shores
Duncan Shipley-Smith (DSS) seems put out by Mandy Nolan’s article accurately describing the local anti-vax mob as extreme right wingers.
Let’s see who the prominent proponents of the anti-vax madness are in Australia. They include such luminaries as Rupert Murdoch, Alan Jones, George Christensen and Clive Palmer. The last of who actually pays to print out flyers full of lies about vaccination and deposits them in thousands of letterboxes hoping to influence the weak minded. All are extreme right wingers, or XRWs as DSS refers to them.
What about the cheerleaders in the good old USA? Let’s start with Donald Trump and his delusional followers. The same people who still believe he won the election predictably believe his lies around vaccinations. The same people who refuse to be vaccinated now make up 97 per cent of hospital admissions and deaths [from COVID-19] in the US. That’s a fact. But anti-vaxers will say it’s ‘fake news’. Sound familiar?
Next up are the Proud Boys. These violent neo-fascists are especially wary of vaccinations lest that mind-control chip that’s in every vaccination turns them into normal, reasonable people.
The Boys were at the forefront of Trump’s attempted violent fascist takeover of the country at the Capitol, all because their deranged leader couldn’t cope with being thoroughly beaten by a much better man. They believe their superior immune systems will be enough to beat ‘the flu’, as they term the covid pandemic that has claimed over four million lives in the past 15 months. Sound familiar DSS?
Let’s not forget Qanon. Yes ,the ones who believe Earth is ruled by subterranean reptilian beings bent on protecting Democrat paedophiles who want to kill the Donald. A movement that is gaining traction in our region full of anti-vaxers, conspiracy theorists and 5G paranoiacs, among other assorted freaks. All these people share the same traits; their feeling of superiority, their disregard for accepted societal and community norms designed to keep the public safe, and they value self-primacy over any concern for society or other people generally. In lay terms they’re self-obsessed pricks (no pun intended).
This, along with their penchant for violence when things don’t go the way they want. See the Sydney Freedumb March and local incidents by anti-vaxers when they scream at 80-year-old volunteers and 16-year-old supermarket workers and trash the shop because they refuse to put on a piece of fabric on their face for five minutes. This is the real divisive behaviour that you have accused Mandy of.
Lastly, their constant (American influenced) whingeing about their freedom and rights. They should go and complain to people who really suffer from lack of the above, like our Indigenous peoples, Palestinians, Iraqis, or Syrians who have been dispossessed and suffer violence and oppression on a daily basis. Complain to them that your oppressor wants you to put on a mask while you live in the most desired part of Australia. Must be terrible DSS.
So, DSS, is this why you and your cohort are XRW? Get used to it mate, you’re now an apprentice fascist. And you’ll eventually bring more disharmony and violence the more the tide goes against you. And you call us Sheeple!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
