Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
The same NDP that is already ahead without any mail-in ballots? Fucking clown conspiracy idiots. Some new garbage every week.
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It is an interesting case study in right wing paranoia and conspiracy thinking in a few ways:
1) Irrelevance of motive:
As the result stands, the NDP has won. So any delay in the counting of results, or additions to the number of ballots still to be counted is likely to work to the benefit of the Conservatives. But nonetheless, on social media you will see right wing folks automatically assuming that any delay or change means that the election is being rigged against them, to find more (unneeded) votes for the NDP
2) Irrelevance of available information
It was known ahead of time how the votes would be counted, and the process and timeframes involved, and nothing that has happened so far has varied in any way from what was expected ahead of time and what is clearly documented by Elections BC. But this information has no impact on the belief that the election has been rigged.
3) Irrelevance of observers
The Conservative party has people observing every step of the process and hasn't raised any issues or concerns, but this doesn't affect the assumption of rigging by conspiracy theorists.
4) Asymmetric (right wing leaning) nature of the reaction
Elections BC is a non-partisan agency, and the results were very even, so there is no reason, a priori, for one side or the other to be more willing to think that Elections BC is rigging the election against them. But still, from what I have seen, all of the conspiracy thinking, rigging comments are coming from the right wing and not from the left.
These points show us how impervious to rational thought the (primarily) right wing conspiracy mindset is. I guess the question going forward is how many people get infected with this type of thinking. It seems to be growing, or maybe it is is just that social media makes it more visible. If it is growing, at what point does this level of irrational conspiracy thinking start to pose a real threat to the province and its institutions. I guess time will tell.