If you want evidence, merely wade into the cesspit that is the comments section of the Limerick Leader. (I will not provide a link nor drive revenue to their site.) Here you will find people parroting the racist line "All lives matter", calling protesters "trouble makers," "idiots," "stupid," etc.
Consider that the virus is here to stay. There is little chance for a vaccine, and even less chance that enough people will be vaccinated for it to matter. So, to say that people cannot protest now is the same as saying they will never again have the right to protest. No doubt this thought pleases many.
The truth is that distancing was observed at the protests in a way it isn't elsewhere. (Check out the photos from the Limerick gathering, for example.) Supermarkets apparently allow only a fixed number in their stores, but once inside people push up against you and employees stock shelves in crowded aisles. On a sunny weekend, people flock to the beach in violation of distance restrictions and geographical limits. People raised on an ideology of hyper-individualism think of themselves first.
While I have seen some complaints about these behaviours, they don't match the vitriol reserved for the protestors. Even though the marches for Black Lives Matter are not based on self-interest so much as mutual empathy and equality.
Another fact is that there are only about 800 cases of coronavirus in Ireland at the moment, and no new cases. The chance of encountering the virus in the wild is very small (though I can find no numbers for this). For many, the dangers due to institutionalised racism, and the compelling need to change this situation, is more important than the infinitesimal chance of catching a virus. In light of these facts, stigmatising protesters is unjustified.
It's no coincidence that the only people I see shaming protestors are white. These individuals need to examine their own privilege. This will only happen if they are forced to, by continuing pressure for a better society.
Black Lives Matter
End Direct Provision
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2 comments:
Well said. What we want is a new normal, "a better normal" as the local Green Party here in Canberra have described it. And the message seems to be resonating as in the local election here on Saturday, the Greens took a significant share of the vote away from the conservative and reactionary Liberal Party (liberal in the sense of their free market capitalist ideas rather than their social policies). We cannot afford to wait until "post COVID" because that time frame may not exist. We need to fight now for the social and environmental changes necessary to secure a just and equitable future.
Very happy to see those changes in NZ. The official Greens here in Ireland are a disgrace to the name, in bed with the right-wing business parties. This tarnishes the entire movement.
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