The Brainworms of the Wellington Protestors
The PowerPoint presentation being shared around kiwi conspiracy theory circles that will make you... much dumber
Hi,
I see that Byron Clark (occasional and valued Webworm essay writer) just posted this on Twitter:
I find it incredibly sad and funny that the New Zealand police have had to clarify that there are no secret words protestors can use as a “get out of jail free” card.
It’s sad because these protestors have made up a new (entirely false) reality — and now entities like the police are having to talk back. They have to entertain the idiocy.
It’s like if the cops had to put out a press release making it clear that dragons don’t exist. Or that the tooth fairy is a story parents tell their kids to make them go to sleep.
Anyway — this reminded me of a document I’ve been made privy to that’s an insight into how many of these protestors think — both in New Zealand, and overseas.
It’s the Sovereign Citizen movement, or the “The Living Man” movement.
I think it’s important see the brainworms many of these people suffer from.
It’s a PowerPoint presentation that is probably the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen, and includes a number of “scenarios” to coach you through how to stop being arrested, go to court, or be sent to prison.
I’m going to include a few of my favourite slides below, then link to the full document underneath. It’s very long.
Happy bedtime reading.
David.
Okay.
With those examples in mind — this is the whole presentation on Dropbox, all 203 glorious slides of it.
Someone took the time to make this, and a lot of protestors probably read it.
This is the reality some people are living in.
I feel so, so tired.
David.
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I've spent a lot of time recently looking at NZ sovereign citizen material and actually hadn't come across this before.
It is by far the most accessible and complete introduction to this stuff that I've seen.
I still struggle to understand how people go from "normal" to accepting this stuff, but I tend to assume there's a few smaller steps in between. Just as they don't tell you about Xenu and the volcanos when you walk into a Scientology centre for a personality test.
The powerpoint reads like it was written by someone who was on a real bender using super powered Coromandel dak.