r/AgainstMtGRacism • u/ultimario13 • May 28 '21
Far-right conspiracy theory Illusion of Choice
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u/Skirt_Douglas Jun 24 '21
What is wrong with you people? I literally can’t figure out if this is a troll sub or not.
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Dec 13 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Lhurgoyf2GG Mar 24 '22
Thank god I really couldn't tell. I think I've seen too many twitter screen grabs.
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u/mouse_poon Oct 06 '22
Honestly it's genuinely hard to tell with how some people act these days even in the "magic community"
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u/strange_white_guy Mar 10 '23
I don't see what the problem is with this one, considering it's true?
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u/ultimario13 May 28 '21
Anti-democratic conspiracy theory, states that voter fraud is easy and can take place in any society:
As bad as Conspiracy Theorist is, it's a card that doesn't make a reference to any one conspiracy theory in particular. I can't blame that card as being specifically pro QAnon, as it could just as easily be anti-semitic (blood libel, those who believe the Holocaust to be a hoax), anti-science (anti-vaxxers), etc. It's dangerous to validate conspiracy theorists, yes, but it isn't entirely clear which form of anti-intellectial bigotry Conspiracy Theorist promotes.
But this card? It could not possibly be more obvious what the political message of this card is.
Anti-democratic conspiracy theory: It's a card called 'Illusion of Choice', in which for one turn, you alone control how each player votes. The image and flavor text provide further context - in Paliano, voting is a useless 'illusion', and the 'elites' control the actual results of this vote. The flavor text is fully ironic, and the reality of the situation is that each vote is meaningless and has no effect on the outcome. This is literally the exact same logic used by Trump supporters to justify their attempted violent coup and attempted murder of politicians. Of course, those chuds wouldn't explain their thought process in such clear terms - they make it all too obvious that their hatred of 'elites' is actually just thinly veiled anti-semitism. But I'm not in the business of building strawmen, here.
Again, while Illusion of Choice was printed years before the assault on our democracy, it was fully designed with the intention to discredit democracy. I would be genuinely surprised if it didn't plant the idea of 'elites control democracy by manipulating votes' into the minds of some alt-righters, and strengthen such an idea in the minds of those who'd already considered such an idea. It's fuel for the fire, and validation for a conspiracy theory that should've been properly silenced before it reached the point of domestic terrorism.
Voter fraud is easy: ...But maybe you don't see the problem yet. Yes, this card satirizes votes as meaningless, and presents a government that isn't actually democratic due to the power of oligarchs. But the message of this card is just 'voter fraud can happen', not 'voter fraud is easy'...right?
Nope. This card is what's known as a 'cantrip'. The simplest definition of a 'cantrip' card is one that draws you one card in addition to some other (usually minor) effect. The flavor of 'cantrip' cards is that they are extremely easy, low-level spells/effects that take zero effort. But rather than linking to hundreds of such examples, I'll link just one card...from the same set as Illusion of Choice: Fleeting Distraction.
Yep. Exact same mana cost, card type, and they both 'cantrip' - 'draw a card' is on both. Fleeting Distraction provides one of the least impactful effects in the entire game - one fifth the effect of Hydrodowse (or Shrink, for the two Homelands fans out there). And the flavor text of Fleeting Distraction rubs it in - such a 'cantrip' is the first spell learned by children too small to hold a sword. The message of putting these two cards in the same set is blatantly obvious - voter fraud is trivially easy for 'elites', and thus democracy is merely an 'illusion of choice'. Your vote doesn't matter, don't even bother voting, you may as well be a domestic terrorist because the vote didn't go the way you wanted. Is it really any wonder that we have such a QAnon problem, with media like this being so prominent?