Top 5 Desert Island Records

by fiona

2009-05-13 18:38:55 PDT

So: I'm pissed that the BC-STV reform didn't pass. And I'm particularly pissed with people on the radio who justified voting no on the proposed new voting system with "STV is too complicated!" As Clay put it, if you vote but can't rank candidates one through five according to your preference, get the fuck out of my province. It's not too goddamn complicated: it's that people fear change, and don't want to be adults and research things that will affect their lives and the lives of others, so they just cling insistently to a system they've always known-- even when that system is bitched beyond repair and does not accurately reflect the will of the people. If you're that delicate, you shouldn't be voting either.

Hell, I'd respect it somewhat if people said, say, "No, the new system wouldn't work for me because I don't want my electoral district to be merged with others." I don't agree with that reasoning, but at least it's a reason to stick with the outdated "First Past the Post" system. But yesterday, I was listening to this woman on the CBC, defending the FPTP system with the "STV's tooooo haaaaard!" defense. Actually, what she said was a snippy, "Albert Einstein couldn't figure out the STV system," and then she laughed at her own wit. I wanted to reach through the radio and strangle her stupid ass. "Math is hard!" IS NOT A VALID REASON. It's not like you're going to go into the booth with your ballot and read:

Candidate Y leaves the station at 7 am, travelling 75 miles per hour. Candidate B leaves the station at 4 am, travelling..."

No! It's 1, 2, 3, 4? 5, bitch! All those halfheads compiling those endless "Top 5 Movie Villains of All Time"-type lists on fucking Facebook better have voted in favour of BC-STV.

The whole appeal to people's laziest, wimpiest and stupidest selves puts me in mind of infomercials. You know, where someone is trying to plug in a lamp but missing the outlet repeatedly and the chummy voice-over is all, "Has this ever happened to you?" and the person sits back and blows the hair out of their face and shrugs? That's what this is like, only here we'd have someone go to vote using the STV system and rank the candidates, like, 1, Q, ?, 3, and then they'd draw a dick.

Nice work. Quality. Take it away, Christian Bale Dance Remix.

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