ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: doi.org/10.54208/1000/0006 51
the Practical Lawful Dissent International Facebook
group. Mainstream media reporting that resulted from
AVI v MHVB triggered several video rants by Phoenix
(Phoenix, 2020a Phoenix, 2020b), but those carefully
omit any direct link to the decision in question, and
what, exactly, Justice Graesser concluded.
Robinson’s Laymans Guide and its Three/Five Letters
documents are treated as the “Word of God.” No
deviations from or evolution of those concepts are
permitted. Anyone who questions MCLR orthodoxy
or its leadership is censored, expelled, and demonized
as “controlled opposition”: government and/or “New
World Order” puppets. Both gurus used this mechanism
to maintain a uniform public message. While Phoenix
often employs this mechanism when faced by any
dissent, Robinson in 2020 targeted Phoenix in much
the same way (Robinson, 2020b).
MCLR Facebook groups therefore operate as echo
chambers. Both Phoenix and Robinson received
ritualistic messages of appreciation from followers.
Both are elevated and publicly revered as uniquely
gifted leaders. Phoenix, in particular, embraced her
special status, and has adopted an increasingly esoteric
persona and dress, by summer 2021 usually appearing
with a ritual staff and crystal (Figure 3), and sometimes
wearing purple Christmas lights in her ubiquitous
cowboy hat. Others in the movement have not adopted
atypical dress.
The MCLR is unusual among pseudolaw movements
by its use of visual icons, logos, and other “branding.”
Figure 6 illustrates the MCLR shield motif that Robinson
employed at least as early as 2015. The MCLR shield
is found on almost all MCLR publications, template
documents, and materials.
Robinson’s Facebook social media re-used non-MCLR
antiauthority videos and meme images circulating in
broader conspiratorial circles, but Phoenix’s Practical
Lawful Dissent International Facebook group contains
a wide variety of surprisingly high-quality MCLR-
specific promotional imagery, such as illustrated in
Figure 7.
Phoenix’s group has also offered printed items that
allegedly possess tangible legal effect, such as Figure
8’s MCLR replacement motor vehicle tax disk, and
Figure 6 -The MCLR shield used from 2015 onward, and
found on practically all MCLR documents and materials.
Personalized and/or regionalized versions are also known,
and typically add a coat of arms to the upper right quadrant.
Figure 7 includes an annotated version indicating the symbolic
meaning of the various components, such as the “Multi Ethnic
Handshake.”
a “caution card” that followers are instructed will
defeat state authorities, particularly law enforcement.
“Sympathetic magic” documents and IDs, items that
are obviously fake, but that purport to grant special
authority, are quite common in pseudolaw circles
(Netolitzky, 2018b), but typically are sold, rather than
distributed without cost.
While pseudolaw documents often are elaborate and
ornamented in strange and dramatic ways (Netolitzky,
2018b, pp. 1053-1069), the visual designs used to
promote pseudolaw movements and gurus are typically
crude. So, while MCLR theory is an almost ridiculous
and primitive caricature of actual legal processes and
concepts, the visual presentation of some online MCLR
materials is unusually sophisticated.19 The higher
quality graphics used in MCLR materials plausibly had
significant effect in both attracting MCLR adherents
and competing with other Commonwealth pseudolaw
groups.
Social control within the modern MCLR is primarily
passive. Its adherents are self-selected by their
19 The Laymans Guide template documents developed by Robinson
fall to the “crude” end of the spectrum.
the Practical Lawful Dissent International Facebook
group. Mainstream media reporting that resulted from
AVI v MHVB triggered several video rants by Phoenix
(Phoenix, 2020a Phoenix, 2020b), but those carefully
omit any direct link to the decision in question, and
what, exactly, Justice Graesser concluded.
Robinson’s Laymans Guide and its Three/Five Letters
documents are treated as the “Word of God.” No
deviations from or evolution of those concepts are
permitted. Anyone who questions MCLR orthodoxy
or its leadership is censored, expelled, and demonized
as “controlled opposition”: government and/or “New
World Order” puppets. Both gurus used this mechanism
to maintain a uniform public message. While Phoenix
often employs this mechanism when faced by any
dissent, Robinson in 2020 targeted Phoenix in much
the same way (Robinson, 2020b).
MCLR Facebook groups therefore operate as echo
chambers. Both Phoenix and Robinson received
ritualistic messages of appreciation from followers.
Both are elevated and publicly revered as uniquely
gifted leaders. Phoenix, in particular, embraced her
special status, and has adopted an increasingly esoteric
persona and dress, by summer 2021 usually appearing
with a ritual staff and crystal (Figure 3), and sometimes
wearing purple Christmas lights in her ubiquitous
cowboy hat. Others in the movement have not adopted
atypical dress.
The MCLR is unusual among pseudolaw movements
by its use of visual icons, logos, and other “branding.”
Figure 6 illustrates the MCLR shield motif that Robinson
employed at least as early as 2015. The MCLR shield
is found on almost all MCLR publications, template
documents, and materials.
Robinson’s Facebook social media re-used non-MCLR
antiauthority videos and meme images circulating in
broader conspiratorial circles, but Phoenix’s Practical
Lawful Dissent International Facebook group contains
a wide variety of surprisingly high-quality MCLR-
specific promotional imagery, such as illustrated in
Figure 7.
Phoenix’s group has also offered printed items that
allegedly possess tangible legal effect, such as Figure
8’s MCLR replacement motor vehicle tax disk, and
Figure 6 -The MCLR shield used from 2015 onward, and
found on practically all MCLR documents and materials.
Personalized and/or regionalized versions are also known,
and typically add a coat of arms to the upper right quadrant.
Figure 7 includes an annotated version indicating the symbolic
meaning of the various components, such as the “Multi Ethnic
Handshake.”
a “caution card” that followers are instructed will
defeat state authorities, particularly law enforcement.
“Sympathetic magic” documents and IDs, items that
are obviously fake, but that purport to grant special
authority, are quite common in pseudolaw circles
(Netolitzky, 2018b), but typically are sold, rather than
distributed without cost.
While pseudolaw documents often are elaborate and
ornamented in strange and dramatic ways (Netolitzky,
2018b, pp. 1053-1069), the visual designs used to
promote pseudolaw movements and gurus are typically
crude. So, while MCLR theory is an almost ridiculous
and primitive caricature of actual legal processes and
concepts, the visual presentation of some online MCLR
materials is unusually sophisticated.19 The higher
quality graphics used in MCLR materials plausibly had
significant effect in both attracting MCLR adherents
and competing with other Commonwealth pseudolaw
groups.
Social control within the modern MCLR is primarily
passive. Its adherents are self-selected by their
19 The Laymans Guide template documents developed by Robinson
fall to the “crude” end of the spectrum.
