Link to article with discussions of apocalyptic theory, hyper-capitalists, neo-colonization
This whole article, about seeing New Zealand as an escape pod for the apocalypse, is A Lot. It... it captures a lot of feelings I have, and not just about that particular subject.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand
Continued discussion of that link, although not with that focus
eg, "I was standing next to Byrt, who’d picked me up from the airport and, in a gesture I would come to understand as quintessentially Kiwi, dragged me directly up the side of a volcano."
Ang and I joke that visitng NZ can be summed up w/ "climb this hill, it's important to me". The article then includes a photo from almost the exact same spot as one I took with her.
cont
In all, I think that article is possibly the best representation of NZ, physically and mentally, that I've ever read. The description of our amenability to malign but important outsiders due to any such attention feeling like a cat getting it's tummy scratched is spot on.
It also mentions the lefty prevalence of "it's fine, we have Jacinda now", despite that being due to the nationalist Winston Peters (although he comes across better than he should by being in opposition to Peter Thiel).
@tfproxy @abe_e_seedy I make so many Canada / NZ comparisons but the parallels are so striking it's a whole thing