As we inch closer to the provincial election this fall, the BC Conservatives have been gaining momentum and the cause is clear: people are struggling to survive and are fed up with a political system that doesn’t work for us. And absurdly, it’s the BC Conservative Party, not the BC NDP, that has successfully branded itself as the anti-elitist, worker-friendly option.
I thought the reason for this was obvious but it seems that political leaders are still dumbfounded by the Conservative’s rising popularity. When I reflect on my own journey from right-wing conspiracy theorist to socialist, the current political climate becomes even clearer. I’ll preface by saying my story is not unique. On the contrary: I am concerned by the similarity of my experience and that of the young people who are turning to the right-wing to “solve” the major issues with which we’re all grappling.
How did we get here?
Growing up, I didn’t care about politics for many reasons. In part, because I was the typical selfish teenager. But also because I believed that the whole system is rigged, and I mean that literally. To be clear, I still do believe this in more nuanced ways: the capitalist and colonial system in which we live is built in such a way that makes creating change for the working class almost impossible. Power stays concentrated in the hands of the few, mega corporations have too much sway with elected leaders. Nothing seems to matter for the political establishment other than money and power. War and ecocide are the norm. Our governments really do engage in conspiracies and coups in other countries. And the list goes on.
But when I was a teenager, I believed in a more erroneous reality: one in which the entire world is controlled by an evil satanic cabal that orchestrates elaborate hoaxes regularly to keep the masses controlled and subdued. Sounds a bit crazy? It was.
In a strange turn of events, the outlandish conspiracy theories I grew up believing in are more common now and are actually manifesting in mainstream politics. Fifteen years ago, I felt completely alone with these beliefs. Today, it seems that the average Conservative supporter shares them. So, how did this happen?
For me, my paranoid and conspiratorial beliefs developed after formative years of listening to Alex Jones and evangelical pastors at home, mixed with my own personal trauma. Plus witnessing the horrors unfolding in reality and watching news broadcasts with no analysis of the root causes to events like 9/11, the Columbine shooting, and Abu Ghraib. Growing up in deep poverty and often going without the basic necessities of life like food and housing didn’t help, only furthering my anger at a system that I didn’t understand.
Jones and the like offered seemingly legitimate reasons for why my life was so shitty. As a high school drop out, I did not know or understand concepts like capitalism or imperialism, nor could I comprehend the way that these oppressive systems impact society. Poverty and lack of parental support during my middle and high school years meant that I wasn’t getting the education I needed to develop critical thinking skills that could help me decipher fact from fiction. My anger was being transformed into conspiratorial beliefs the more I heard from right-wing ideologues.
As I reflect back on this time, I realize that perhaps believing in conspiracy theories was a type of coping mechanism because these media figures validated the class struggle that I grew up experiencing but not understanding, for which I lacked a genuine theoretical framework. I thought: the world sucks, the system is rigged, things are horrible, and no one around me is noticing or caring. When it came time to vote in elections, I was completely checked out and didn’t care who would be elected—in my eyes, they were all in on “it”. The whole process felt hopeless.
Things started changing for me a few years after I earned my adult dogwood diploma and enrolled in university—a place where my views could be challenged in an academic setting with accountability from my peers and professors. My beliefs of a secret satanic cabal ruling the world started crumbling with each morsel of political knowledge. It started to make sense why Alex Jones and other talking heads spouted anti-intellectual propaganda, warning their disciples to stay away from postsecondary education. I realized that universities aren’t indoctrinating youth into evil marxism like they claimed, but rather far-right ideology doesn’t stand up to scrutiny and science, so it can be easily debunked through education and critical thinking (another reason why socialism and free education is a win in my books).
Had social media been more advanced when I turned voting age and had there been a popular political movement rooted in the far-right populism and conspiracy theories to which I was exposed, I likely would have joined it. I can’t help but think that a similar process is happening to the moveable middle and the reasonable conservatives who aren’t full-blown white supremacists and climate deniers. They are sick to death of the gaslighting by the centrist parties and just want real change. Also, those who are new to being politically engaged are influenced by the trifecta of online persuasion by bots and propagandists, a rapidly deteriorating standard of living under late-stage capitalism, and the lack of real left-wing and worker-led leadership.
So far, despite the rise of the Canadian neo-fascist movement that I’ve written about in the past, we have only seen doubling down on right-wing policy by the ruling parties instead of standing firm in class solidarity to bring in leftist voters.
Then comes the issue of vote splitting.
Lesser evilism
In 2016, Rebecca Solnit penned a now-famous line in The Nation: “I think of voting as a chess move, not a valentine.” Just days before that fateful American election that led to Trump’s presidency, Solnit reflected on how the George W. Bush presidency of the 2000s came to be. The Bush legacy that brought war, destruction, and climate disaster not just to America but to the world, was arguably a result of progressive vote-splitting between Al Gore and Ralph Nader.
As a lesson from that election, Solnit warned that voters shouldn’t wait for a perfect candidate who ticks every box (because that candidate likely doesn’t exist). Instead, we should vote for the lesser of two evils, the one with the best chance of winning. We cannot afford another legacy like Bush, Trump, Harper, or, in the case those of us in BC now confront, John Rustad.
I’ve taken this lesson to heart. After moving on from the “truther” movement, I began engaging with the democratic process and at the time, strategic voting made sense. I wanted to see a better, more equitable world, and as Solnit said, voting should be a chess move—one that helps us win in the long run or, at the very least, helps keep fascist atrocities at bay. As disheartening as it was, voting for the “lesser of two evils” seemed like the right thing to do. I went from being a disillusioned teenager to a young adult with a glimmer of hope for a better world. I happily became a casual NDP supporter, making social media videos in favor of the party while also exploring the Greens’ platform.
But then I caught a glimpse into how incremental our political system truly is. The establishment barely moves. When Anjali Appadurai ran against David Eby for the leadership of the party, thousands of people across the province, myself included, were thrilled to finally have a real left-wing option who brought excitement and courage to the political discourse. But shortly after paying for a membership and officially joining the BC NDP (a huge step for me), I received a phone call from the party to interrogate me over my intentions. They were so suspicious of the grassroots support behind Appadurai that they would rather reject new NDP supporters than welcome them in and risk Eby’s shot at becoming the premier. I was treated like an interloper by the very party that I had been rallying behind.
The “vote for the BC NDP, no matter who” strategy isn’t going to recapture all of the people who were ready to join the party during the Appadurai campaign and then were turned away, nor will it keep climate activists who know that we urgently need to shift gears away from liquified natural gas. Of course, there are a few strong BC NDP candidates who seem to genuinely care about the working class and the climate crisis, but we need more than a handful of standout politicians. We’re facing a polycrisis: war, genocide, climate disaster, crumbling infrastructure, poverty, and the rise of neo-fascism. The answer cannot be more of the same political status quo.
It’s no surprise that many people are choosing not to participate in the system at all. In 2017, the late anarchist anthropologist David Graeber asked, “how much do you want to vote against the system as a whole in any given instance, or how much do you want to intervene in a system you know to be corrupt and dysfunctional, just to create some worse form of damage?” Graeber theorized that most people end up voting against somebody rather than voting for. At what point do we start finding new ways to engage with such a broken system? For those of us who have experienced the sting of poverty, the answer is simple: yesterday.
I know I’m not alone in this feeling. In 1996, voter turnout in BC was 71.5 per cent. By 2020, it had dropped to 53.86 per cent. When I look at today’s young people who are exposed to the same kind of extremist content I grew up with, I see they are searching for leaders who will be angry at the establishment with them. If they can’t find one, then they are likely to check out altogether. The Conservatives are tapping into that anger, and while we know their solutions to be anti-worker and, quite frankly, detached from reality and science, many people see it differently.
Will the BC NDP ever be a socialist workers’ party?
The low voter turnout from the last election and the surge in Conservative support are clear warning signs: democracy is in deep trouble. But I won’t place the blame on independent candidates that bring revolutionary ideas forward or the people who support them (isn’t political engagement supposed to strengthen democracy?). Instead, I blame the ruling bourgeois parties, which have the power to stifle any candidate that pushes for radical change and seem to do so whenever they wish.
If the BC NDP wants to secure re-election, it needs to be visionary and bold, willing to embrace real change and reclaim its roots as a true labour party. A 2020 article by the NDP Socialist Caucus lays out how the BC NDP has strayed from being a genuine workers’ party. What has happened since then to move the dial?
Capitalism has been failing us, and it’s time to pivot. The BC NDP should proudly stand by its roots and realize that we cannot reform our way out of the climate crisis, the disinformation machine, or the exploitation of capitalism. Some bold policy ideas could include: tax the rich; establish a Youth Climate Corps provincially and pressure the federal government to expand it nationally; wind down fossil fuel infrastructure and halt new liquid natural gas projects; provide free post-secondary education and cancel all student debt; remove unwanted police from unceded Indigenous territory; and uphold Indigenous rights and title rather than coercing nations through “economic reconciliation”.
We also need politicians to confront the fact that the ongoing wars and genocides around the world are not only causing immense human suffering but also accelerating the climate crisis in terrifying ways. Ecocide is driving disasters like fire weather, heat domes and mass flooding. It’s time for all levels of government to adopt an explicitly anti-war, anti-imperialist stance.
Neo-fascism rising
It would be a mistake to focus only on the BC NDP’s shortcomings without addressing the regressive policies of the BC Conservatives. Led by conspiracy theorist John Rustad, the BC Conservative Party has openly opposed Indigenous sovereignty. One of Rustad’s key talking points is his desire to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), as he sees recognizing Indigenous rights and title as a threat to the colonial and nationalist vision he holds for BC. Rustad also denies the reality of human-caused climate change.
Many of Rustad’s candidates are far-right activists involved in the “freedom” movement, which grew from the 2022 “freedom convoy” that occupied Ottawa. Reports have shown that several of his party’s candidates donated to the convoy. In line with other conservative figures, Rustad is also vocal against trans rights and the anti-bullying program SOGI123, which is implemented in schools across the province to support 2SLGBTQIA+ students. The BC Conservative Party also states on its website that it intends to target activists and organizations that use protest as a tool for change—despite that (or perhaps because) protest is a basic human right and one of the most fundamental means for people to bring forward change, especially when the electoral process fails them. Rustad also says the Conservatives will commit to involuntary institutionalization of people with addictions, an inhumane and ineffective practice.
The truth is, the BC Conservative Party is filled to the brim with conspiracy theorists. The conservative movement longs to drag society back to the “good old days,” when Indigenous people were forcibly assimilated, when 2SLGBTQIA+ communities were openly ostracized, and when austerity and industrial expansion were seen as progress. I do not want to see an extremist Conservative government that will cause immense harm to the land and the people I love. I want the BC NDP to be the socialist party that we need in times such as these. The question is, will that ever happen?
Holding onto hope of true freedom
I resent the notion that my vote should be used solely for the purpose of defeating the BC Conservatives. My vote is for a radical vision, for socialism, for a new world that actually cares for each other, for a world without war and genocide. I know that my desire for a better world may not be pragmatic, but I am not willing to give up on it. Fear of the far-right is not a good enough reason to settle for crumbs from the ruling class.
In the song The Death of Neoliberalism, British rapper and political activist Lowkey says, “We could be at the precipice of freedom”. We could be standing at the precipice of something different. We could have the good life. But first, we should start with radical honesty. The BC NDP is losing its base and turning away new supporters; young people are growing up in an increasingly radicalized environment. The Conservatives are moving farther and farther toward fascism, capturing those who are newly politically engaged.
And those of us on the left are being stifled by moderate progressives for speaking up against the capitalist shell that the BC NDP has turned into. It’s time to move past capitalism and to bravely build the world we need. If the ruling party won’t go there, then perhaps it’s time we build our own movement.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
