Finally, One for the Good Guys
Right now, tennis bad boy, notorious anti-vaxxer and all-round shitty person Novak Djokovic is winging his way from Melbourne Australia to Dubai after being deported for violating Australian immigration laws, lying about it, and then insisting that rules don’t apply to him. He dragged immigration officials, tournament officials, the tennis world, and indeed the entire population of Australia through almost two weeks of drama just because he doesn’t want to get a simple safe and effective vaccination.
A three federal judge panel ruled on Sunday afternoon that Australia immigration officials were within their rights doing their damn job and enforcing the country’s immigration laws. Even better, there was no court that would receive an inevitable appeal from Djokovic. The decision was final. The decision was unanimous and, to add insult to justice, the panel ordered Djoker to pay all of the costs incurred by the government for this sorry chapter of his life that resulted from his own decisions and conduct.
After years of bad guys all over the world getting away with actual murder, from Rodrigo Duterte Wrecking to Philippine government to Vladimir Putin’s murderous rule over Russia, to TFG’s teflon life where he’s never been personally held to account for his entire corrupt existence, wins for good guys are few and far between. Of the thousands of Deplorables who stormed the US Capitol only about 700 were charged with crimes and most of those are only petty charges. Less than 20 are charged with serious crimes and only 11 charged with what all were guilty, sedition. Bad guys get off scott free on a daily basis, especially willfully ignorant anti-vaxxers who are participating in mass illness and death simply because they’re assholes.
Because bad guys win almost all the time, it’s rare when one of them gets theirs, especially famous ones like Djoker. Like other narcissists, he believes that simply because he’s really good at hitting a tennis ball he can inflict his warped existence on everyone around him with no consequences. Australia proved him wrong, and that victory is especially sweet.
What’s infuriating, though? This entire episode was easily avoidable by Djokovic doing the right thing and just getting vaccinated. Just think of all the lives he could save, especially in his native Serbia where anti-vaxxers have caused the virus to surge again in a population that’s only 47% vaccinated. That’s the real tragedy of Djokovic’s failure at being a decent human being.