The anti-vaccination mandate protest is like an alien intrusion which offends Canberrans

It's the national capital, and in a vibrant democracy people come to protest to politicians.

All kinds of views are flaunted and shouted, views which are outrageous to some Canberrans but nothing but common sense to others.

Protest is as much a part of the city as pollen is in summer. It's in the air.

But the anti-vax protest is different. It feels like an alien visitation from another world of alternative unreality.

And it is offensive in a city where 98.6 per cent of the eligible population are double-vaccinated. You don't need a mathematician to translate 98.6 per cent into "All". A protest against vaccination in a vaccinated city amounts to a contempt for the citizens who have done the right thing.

Canberra is also a rational city. Even the design is rational.

This is not some higgledy-piggledy urban agglomeration which has grown through the centuries. It was designed by a brilliant husband-and-wife team of designers.

It is a city of science, with a raft of scientific bodies.

So to have this bunch of science-denying ignoramuses in our midst feels offensive.

They have every right. Of course, they do. Freedom of speech extends to people with loopy views, too.

But the current camp of nomadic protesters is of a different order.

The arrogant way in which they park on our public lawns and attack our buildings is offensive.

Some Canberrans are offended. People who agree to differ on many things agree on this one thing: the anti-vaxxers bring nothing to this city except trouble.

When the Black Lives Matter people marched when the pandemic had started, there were people who thought they shouldn't have - including me - but we still recognised the strength of feeling in a legitimate cause.

When the eco-warriors block the road, many are enraged - including me - but I still think that's part of living in the capital of a democratic country. I rant a bit in the car and then find an alternative route (by the way, they push me away from their cause).

But the attention-seeking anti-vaxxers with their alien sentiments, flying their Trump banners and hijacking the Eureka Flag, are a different matter.

Apart from anything else, they assault journalists, including me. When I dared to question three of them about their anti-vax views, these fit, young, confrontational men, flexing muscles, simply snatched my phone and camera.

So don't tell me this is a movement for democracy. Please don't.

The protesters' tents are an alien intrusion which has suddenly landed from far away, whether from the dark corners of the internet where the creepy-crawlies of Trump-land live or from the eco refuges deep in country Australia (railing against technology even as they depend on it to live their remote lives).

Like good democrats, we will tolerate them.

Like polite Canberrans, we will drive past without acknowledgement.

But the sooner they take off and return to their own planets, the better.

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