By Antonis Karpetopoulos

The history of vaccine deniers who seek to buy or make forged vaccination certificates indicates that in Greece we have degraded even the last ideological bastion that many found attractive, the absolute denial of the system – what we pompously call the anti-systemic movement.

When the vaccine rollout began, those responsible for the programme were concerned about three categories of deniers.

The first was those devoted to homeopathic remedies and those who simply don’t take medicines, including a number of doctors and pharmacists.

The second was people who might fall victim to media exaggerations and become scared by the idea that they may be the unlucky ones and pay a heavy price from side-effects.

Thirdly, they were at a loss regarding how to handle “anti-systemic people – those who deny not only vaccines but also social prosperity. One usually finds them in the social media as harsh deniers of social progress and they are akin to the indignados [opponents of the bailout programmes imposed during the economic crisis] who protested in Syntagma Square and viewed the economic crisis as an opportunity to destroy banks and who supported a return to the drachma. The seemed to fantasise about the creation of a different country. Some of them said they were in the far right and others left-wing anti-authority supporters.

Authorities figured that this group would be the most difficult to persuade to be vaccinated because they view the public health crisis as an opportunity to bring disaster not only to capitalism but to everything. In the end it became clear that these people are extremely few. Most of those who refuse to be vaccinated are deniers with no apparent revolutionary sentiments, unless it is a revolution of idiotic cunning.

Do you know what “denier” means? It refers to a person who sees denial not as an opinion but as a way of life, who is not just an ideologue but a social activist. The true denier opposes medicines, pharmaceutical companies, and the state (which could not possibly want what is good for us), Do you know what “denier” means? It refers to a person who sees denial not as an opinion but as a way of life, who is not just an ideologue but a social activist. The true denier opposes medicines, pharmaceutical companies, and the state

These people believe in the chemtrail conspiracy theory, that we are “sheep in a pen”, and that we lack their courage to say no. They do not care about losing what they will be deprived of if they say no. They don’t care about going to cafes, restaurants, stadiums or trips. They adjust their way of life based on their denial and justify this ideological view (firstly to themselves) by distancing themselves from the rest of us.

They are prepared to leave their jobs if pressured to be vaccinated, or even their city. They may find a house in the provinces and live near nature, isolating themselves from friends and acquaintances whose lack of understanding they pity. Naturally they trumpet their actions, which they believe prove their devotion to their values, on Facebook.

Such deniers are extremely few!

The fraud with forged vaccination certificates that came to light indicates that there is a new market comprised of deniers who have no problem with the country, social life, or anything else. They are neither ideologue nor do they “resist the system”.

If one sees what they say on television newscasts with their back to the camera and what they write in the social media, one will discover that the majority are not “anti-system” but rather the opposite! They want to take trips and go to cafes, clubs, bouzouki nightclubs, and everywhere.

They simply don’t want to be vaccinated either because they are scaredy cats or just want to differentiate themselves from the vaccinated, not in the name of some ideological approach to the issue, but just because they are so smart that they can do whatever they please!

These are the same people who take joy in tax evasion, who bribe to get a driver’s license (because, as they say, in Greece everything can be bought), who when they went to the army someone in a position of authority arranged for them to serve a few kilometres from their homes, and who find ways for someone to erase their traffic tickets “because they know how to do it”.

They are all people who love to have a good time, care only about themselves, and have no problem with the system. On the contrary, they believe that they are members of a system of privileges that allows them to get whatever they want due to their acquaintances and money.

They have learned how to find people willing to serve them and give them a permit to which they are not entitled to drive in the city centre, to arrange a transfer for theirs sons serving in the army, and to reserve the best table at a bouzouki nightclub.
Those responsible for the vaccine rollouts believed they could persuade devotees of homeopathic medicine to be more flexible. They are not people who hate science, and I believe most of them will be vaccinated at the end of the day.

Given the fact that over six million Greeks have been vaccinated, that alone should be sufficient for them – and for all those scared by the stupidities spewed on the social media by quacks – to transcend their fears.

People who will with difficulty change their opinion are those who believe that they live in a country where they can easily buy off services and consciences. They comprise the new market created by COVID-19. They would pay to have a shop owner open to serve them when all stores were shut due to the lockdown. They sought and paid for invitations to “corona-parties”. They squander money to show that they have nothing to do with the poor sots who are vaccinated, abide by public health measures, listen to their doctors, and are cautious.

Those in this category of citizens believe they have the right to thumb their nose at everyone and they view bogus vaccination certificates as yet another opportunity to fool the country’s authorities, which in their mind exist only to serve them.

Their only denial is a denial of the law, because they believe that it does not pertain to them, that it exists simply for them to degrade it.

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