Protesters taunt police during demonstrations in the Melbourne CBD on Monday. Photo: JUSTIN McMANUS

“Drunken fascist un-Australian morons.”

“Man-baby Nazis.”

“Numbskulls.”

The first quote comes from John Setka, head of the CFMEU. The second quote comes from former Labor leader Bill Shorten. The third quote comes from me. And I’m being too kind by miles.

Let’s try again. No, numbskulls seems right.

The comments arose from the violent demonstration by a mob outside the union office in Melbourne on Monday and then from a further demonstration in the city on Tuesday. Ostensibly, the protests were in response to mandatory vaccinations for construction workers following data that building sites are a big source of COVID transmission.

But of course it got out of hand, peaceful protest never had a chance. Objects were thrown, abuse was tossed, the police were called in. It turned violent and ugly.

One bloke kicked a dog. Kicked a dog. Tough guy. Can it get any uglier than that?

As a result of the fracas, almost all the construction industry has been shut down for two weeks. So that worked out well.

Setka tried to talk to them, but the numbskulls were having none of it. And while he said he didn’t support compulsory vaccination, the union was running ads to get vaccinated. People shouldn’t be forced he said, but encouraged.

On Tuesday, protesters were chanting “freedom” and “f–k the jab.” Shorten told media of Monday’s incident he had been “reliably informed” some of them were “fake tradies, they’d been down to the reject shop and got themselves a $2 hi-vis hoodie so they can pretend they were construction [workers].”

“There were some who were construction workers. But I’m saying, and I think I’m sure the police are aware of this too, that there is a very small group of people, not just in Melbourne but around the country, hard-right extremists who are trying to weaponise the COVID lockdown.

“There is a network of hard right man-baby Nazis, just people who just want to cause trouble.”

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While one can agree with Setka’s use of “moron” to describe these people, fascist they are not. Fascism relies on a powerful dictator from which flows a rigid line of authority into all sectors of society. These numbskulls couldn’t run a bath.

Memo numbskulls, if you want to get your message across, you don’t behave like a rabble. The thing is, though, there is no message worth getting across via these demonstrations. Freedom? F–k the jab? Shorten is right in calling them man-babies. Again Nazism relied on a rigid society. He was right though in that they are trying to use their dropkick ideas as a weapon. But they are babes in the wood. If it weren’t so odious it would be laughable.

This is a pandemic that has killed more than four million people worldwide in less than two years. Every day there is a death number from NSW and Victoria. The way out of lockdown and into freedom is to get the f–king jab.

If you don’t want to be vaccinated, be quiet, stay home and gee here’s a thought, think of the safety of others. You might want to think of what might happen to your body, such as if not dying then taking a valuable ICU bed in an overstretched hospital, while it feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest, not being able to breathe or stand up, not being able to have a sense of smell and taste, and experiencing the world through brain fog.

Next time the rabble take to the streets and shout “freedom”, ask this: Whose freedom? It’s certainly not the freedom of everyone else to enjoy life without the risk of falling sick, may be fatally so, from COVID.

It is the cry of the numbskulls, who care less about the whole and more about themselves.

Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind” comes to mind: “Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth … It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”