There is truth, and then there is Pravda: the official truth, usually a lie. Those in power find lies useful. Moldbug said this when Obama was in his first flush of power, and it is correct: having some thoughts which are repugnant and disgusting that are defined as good thoughts, Pravda has utility if you want to control the narrative.

The Greens function as a Type I society: there are good thinkers and bad thinkers. If the bad thinkers speak truth, it is a lie. And, as Moldbug described, they concentrate in the most fashionable parts of the nation, have a contempt for the peasants who cannot afford nonsense, and state their nonsense with pride.

In a successful type 1 society – there have been many – the range of good thoughts may be rich and broad. Many if not all of them can be quite sensible. It should be possible for an intelligent member of the governing classes to live a normal and successful life without once being tempted to venture off the reservation.

However, from the perspective of the security forces, it may be quite useful to have one or two questions for which the bad answer is true, and the good one is nonsense. Some people are just natural-born troublemakers. Others are naturally loyal. Separating the sheep from the goats gives the authorities a great way to focus on the latter.

Of course, not everyone in a type 1 society needs to be a believer. The more the better, however, especially among the governing classes. An ideal structure is one in which believers are concentrated among the most fashionable and successful social circles, and dissenters (if there are any) tend to be poorly educated, less intelligent, and nowhere near as wealthy. If this can be achieved, the believers will feel a natural and healthy contempt for the dissenters, who will be inclined to abandon any bad thoughts they may have been brought up with if they have any desire to succeed in life.

Why am I bagging the greens and not labour or the whigs (who call themselves tories, but are not)? Because today’s example is a foolish Iranian woman who needs to go back, but, to our shame, is a Green MP.

And a demonstrable producer of pravda. David Farrar discusses this: the example he gives is of a psychopath who murdered a student: Weatherston is a case all people in NZ know about. He accuses her of poor judgement, correctly.

There is also a separate article on Stuff with the headline “Golriz Ghahraman explains smiling photo with convicted genocide perpetrator” and again people can make up their own mind how convinced they are. One thing of note in the article:

Green Party leader James Shaw has also stood up for her, saying the accusations were “a political hit-job”

This is the defence you run when you don;t have a defence. Quin is a left wing activist who has worked for Labour. Anyone who knows him knows he is passionate about what happened in Rwanda. He has many friends in Rwanda. To dismiss what he says as a political hit-job is unworthy.

Other defenders of Ghahraman keep trying to muddy the waters by saying that the system needs defence counsels and all she was doing is acting as a lawyer should.

Here’s the correct analogy.

There’s nothing wrong with being defence counsel for a despicable person such as say Clayton Weatherston. Two very fine lawyers were his defence counsels and they were just doing their jobs. They even got hugged by Sophie Elliott’s mother after the verdict.

But what if one of those lawyers stood for Parliament and their official website described them as “acquired the confidence to study criminal law at Oxford University, and, later, to stand up in court representing the Crown in courts prosecuting some of the New Zealand’s worst killers, including Clayton Weatherston.”

And what if multiple articles had appeared stating she had prosecuted Clayton Weatherston, when in fact she had defended him, and she never sought to correct them. And what if her Wikipedia page repeated the lie she had defended Clayton Weatherston and it was only corrected after the election.

And finally what if she had posted to Facebook photos of her smiling and posing for a selfie with Clayton Weatherston.

Then of course there would be outrage and condemnation. Not for being a defence lawyer. But for everything else.

However, the official narrative

Ghahraman confirmed on Newshub’s AM Show that she had worked for a Rwandan refugee in an extradition case, but was reluctant to mention details citing suppression orders.

“We were trying to get a fair process around it here so that everyone could present their witness evidence. That’s an ongoing case that I’m not on anymore.”

Quin said he was outraged by Ghahraman’s moral judgement, rather than the abstract legal principles of every defendant deserving a fair trial.

He said he had received hundreds of responses on Twitter from “disgusted” Rwandans reacting to a photo of a beaming Ghahraman with Bikindi.

“Those kinds of moral choices – forget about the law – that bring into question her judgement as a leader in our Parliament.”

Quin asked Ghahraman to endorse the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda genocide account, rather than the account that her defence team was part of.

A spokeswoman for the Greens said Ghahraman had already expressed her views on the Rwandan genocide and would not be commenting further.

Ghahraman has rejected suggestions that she was misleading about the nature of her work, and says it is nothing to be ashamed of. She has said the work, whether for the defence or the prosecution, is important in establishing the rule of law and the UN human rights model.

“It’s not about denying genocide. That’s what I find offensive. We’re all there, the UN is there to say that genocide is a crime … This is what these trials are about.”

In an unusual move, the Law Society issued a press release standing by Ghahraman, saying it was wrong to identify a lawyer with their client’s actions.

Convenor of the Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee Steve Bonnar QC said defence lawyers often had no choice about who to act for.

As expected, the twitter activists are accusing us all of badthink. But they forget that such has been described before.

Zephaniah 3:1-13

¹   Ah, soiled, defiled, 
          oppressing city! 
²  It has listened to no voice; 
          it has accepted no correction. 
     It has not trusted in the LORD; 
          it has not drawn near to its God.
³   The officials within it 
          are roaring lions; 
     its judges are evening wolves 
          that leave nothing until the morning. 
⁴   Its prophets are reckless, 
          faithless persons; 
     its priests have profaned what is sacred, 
          they have done violence to the law. 
⁵  The LORD within it is righteous; 
          he does no wrong. 
     Every morning he renders his judgment, 
          each dawn without fail; 
          but the unjust knows no shame.
⁶   I have cut off nations; 
          their battlements are in ruins; 
     I have laid waste their streets 
          so that no one walks in them; 
     their cities have been made desolate, 
          without people, without inhabitants. 
⁷   I said, “Surely the city will fear me, 
          it will accept correction; 
     it will not lose sight 
          of all that I have brought upon it.” 
     But they were the more eager 
          to make all their deeds corrupt.
⁸   Therefore wait for me, says the LORD, 
          for the day when I arise as a witness. 
     For my decision is to gather nations, 
          to assemble kingdoms, 
     to pour out upon them my indignation, 
          all the heat of my anger; 
          all the earth shall be consumed.
⁹   At that time I will change the speech of the peoples 
          to a pure speech, 
     that all of them may call on the name of the LORD 
          and serve him with one accord. 
¹⁰  From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia 
          my suppliants, my scattered ones, 
          shall bring my offering.
¹¹  On that day you shall not be put to shame 
          because of all the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; 
     for then I will remove from your midst 
          your proudly exultant ones, 
     and you shall no longer be haughty 
          in my holy mountain. 
¹²  For I will leave in the midst of you 
          a people humble and lowly. 
     They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD — 
¹³       the remnant of Israel; 
     they shall do no wrong 
          and utter no lies, 
     nor shall a deceitful tongue 
          be found in their mouths. 
     Then they will pasture and lie down, 
          and no one shall make them afraid.

Yes, the meme generators have been busy: this was not my work, (and I won’t out who it was).

What Zeph describes here is a society in decline: the prophets speak Pravda, the priests worship the state religion, the judges are corrupt and their judgements nonsense, the poor are more oppressed, and no man can speak truly. This was the Soviets, it is the current clerisy in the academy, and it is the narrative of the converged.

And God will judge it. Nation by nation, kingdom by kingdom.

We will not be able to lie: we will have to speak true. We will no longer need to misbehave.

And those praised now, those who are defended now, will be in the dust. For their Pravda will have been exposed for what it is. Nonsense and lies.