It’s unlikely anyone would pick up Kindness and be persuaded to adopt the author's worldview. But for someone who already harbours the many conservative anxieties the book extrapolates to ludicrous conclusions, it will serve to reinforce them.

The news last week that a film chronicling the week following the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch – to be titled They are Us and starring Australian actress Rose Byrne as Jacinda Ardern – was being shopped around to international buyers was quickly met with widespread disdain. But what might a truthful film about the event look like?