CYM Industrial Commission
To the owner, friends and patrons of the Dice Bar,
K. Finnerty of hipster Dublin haunt, Dice Bar, made some questionable remarks about the Covid-19 Lockdown recently:
The post focuses on a few key themes:
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The role of propaganda by the state and newspapers in favour of one particular class of interests.
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The wild comparison between the massacre of Jewish, Roma and Slavic people by the Nazi Regime and allies.
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The removal of “our liberties” as a recurring talking point between Christian fundamentalists and conspiracy theory merchants.
These three key themes often re-appear in conspiracy theory talking circles, the only point that is missing is a reference to George Soros or vaccinations. They have been making the rounds through all-consuming Facebook groups on the internet and it’s sad to see that people who have Fidel Castro as their profile picture begin to mindlessly lap them up and repeat them.
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It’s fair enough to agree that the State, as run by the capitalist class – and the privately owned newspapers are completely untrustworthy. We should rigorously examine what they present as the truth and question it. The view of the CYM is that this is a legitimate public health emergency and there are plenty of scientific sources to confirm and verify this. These range from the World Health Organisation, to the numerous government and scientific officials all over the world. There has been other scientists presenting an alternative perspective, the most popular one was called ‘Plandemic’ and used a discredited scientist to suggest that COVID-19 was easily curable, a hoax, and so on. It also repeated the often repeated lie that vaccines are directly linked to autism. The owner of Dice Bar would be well to research extensively what he is writing about and where his beliefs originated.
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This is another far right conspiracy theory, comparing the holocaust to situations that are nothing like it. It’s the penultimate coming together of several conspiracy theories, the most notorious and common being that Communism and Nazism are equatable. The equation is straightforward enough: The State is authoritarian Communist-Nazi and everything it does is bad. This is a common libertarian talking point. This is a wild statement or comparison, it’s disgusting because it completely undermines the systematic extermination of Jewish, Roma and Slavic people and the opening of the Second World War. It makes a mockery of it by comparing it the to the lockdown.
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‘Removal of liberties’ is a common libertarian American talking point, manufactured to oppose all State intervention, mostly to Medicare For All, or the New York state intervention in trying to stop the explosion of COVID-19.
There are other points worth mentioning or elaborating, such as the misunderstanding of emergency legislation which expires in three months, or the fact that musicians and artists often gig as something they have to do after a full weeks work because musicians and artists are not recognised as workers, or the fact that most bartenders are not union members, and if they were, they wouldn’t tolerate their owner spewing nonsensical conspiracy theories that puts them in risk.
It is misinformation like this, instead of a lucid political analysis, that continues to distract the people from who actually makes their life difficult, limited and complicated. It is not some shadow cabal of the illuminati or a secretive conspiracy funded by George Soros — it is a very open conspiracy — it’s called capitalism. These anti-lockdown conspiracies are backed by some of the largest US multinational corporations and businesses who are desperate to keep the profits rolling in. Irish publicans should know better.
For any artists or musicians reading this, we recommend you get in touch with The Artists Union, which is a fledgling group aiming to set up a union for that industry.
For any bartenders, or indeed the employees of Dice’s bar reading this, we invite you to join Mandate Trade Union.
