Tag Archives: Fascists

Columnist Fintan O’Toole argues that “those who won’t get a shot in the arm” could “end up raising that arm in stiff salute”

This morning.

Via Fintan O’Toole in The Irish Times:

There are, crudely, three kinds of “anti-vaxxers”. In ascending order of purposeful malignity, they are the egoists, the paranoiacs and the fascists.

Instead of treating them all as an undifferentiated mass of fools and knaves, it is better to think about their individual motivations.

The fascists can’t be argued with, not least because they don’t actually give a damn either way about vaccines. The issue exists for them merely as another anxiety to be exploited. The point, therefore, is to try to separate the other two groups from these malignant forces.

In dealing with the egotists, it is surely best to appeal to their egos. Telling them that they are stupid and wrong won’t work. Neither, obviously, does the plea to think about other people.

…As for the paranoiacs, the aim should be to work with, not against, their suspicion and mistrust. They won’t listen to official admonitions. But their friends and neighbours can ask them why they are so willing to trust online “influencers” and smooth-talking charlatans.

Try to get them to see that the spread of conspiracy theories is itself a real and well-funded conspiracy. People who take pride in “thinking for themselves” must be urged to actually do so.

Every week, it gets harder for a general public that overwhelmingly understands the need for vaccination to stay patient with those who don’t or won’t. People are dying, not just from Covid, but because the unvaccinated are taking up scarce capacity in our already overstretched hospitals.

But rage, however justified, is self-defeating. It merely drives misguided people towards those who want to turn a biological pandemic into a political plague. It adds to the chances that those who won’t get a shot in the arm end up raising that arm in stiff salute.’

Thud.

Three anti-vaccine types: paranoiacs, egotists and fascists (Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times)

Pics: Wikipedia/European press Prize