How Election Conspiracy Theories Toppled Leaders and Fueled Global Unrest
Conspiracy theories that portray fair elections as fraudulent deserve to be classified as an antisocial mental disorder, alongside Juche ideology, which worships North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung as the 'Sun of the nation.' Once infected, people suffer a decline in cognitive ability and behave strangely. They become aggressive, shameless and rude. The slogans that Freedom and Innovation, a party led by former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, has hung across the country show the symptoms clearly: 'Chinese intervention in election fraud' and 'President Yoon's martial law equals an investigation into election fraud.' Since the claim of election fraud is false, the claim of Chinese intervention is false as well. It is also racist agitation that baselessly casts China as the force behind an unrelated conspiracy. Hwang also reportedly appealed at a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Texas for Yoon Suk Yeol's release, U.S. sanctions against those allegedly involved in Korean election fraud and a joint investigation. Two symbols invariably appear at far-right rallies: the phrase 'Stop the Steal' and the Israeli flag. The slogan was created by Donald Trump's camp after his defeat in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Those who import an American-made lie and spit on their own country call it patriotism. Only three presidents in the world have sold their souls to election conspiracy theories. Two of them, in Korea and Brazil, are in prison. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed fraud after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and incited supporters in an attempted coup, receiving a 27-year sentence. Trump imposed 40 percent tariffs on Brazil over what he called persecution of his 'conspiracy friend,' before backing down. In January 2021, rioters incited by Trump's conspiracy theories stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving five dead and 140 injured. U.S. investigators indicted more than 1,400 people, over 1,000 were convicted and about 60 percent received prison terms. Upon taking office again last year, Trump pardoned and released them all. He has since targeted officials who opposed election fraud claims and filled key posts with conspiracy theorists. Surveys suggest that more than 60 percent of Republicans believe the theory. Polls after Korea's presidential election last June suggest that about 30 percent of voters, or more than 10 million people, may have been deceived by election fraud claims. Only about 5 percent of progressives believe them, compared with more than 50 percent of conservatives. Among People Power Party members, the figure is probably above 60 percent. Angered that Kim Moon-soo conceded last year's election, they shifted support to Jang Dong-hyeok at the party convention. Jang's only success since taking office has been to expel former leader Han Dong-hoon by putting an election conspiracy theorist in charge of the party audit committee. The result has been a collapse in PPP support, while the Democratic Party and President Lee Jae Myung have reached new highs in approval ratings. Yoon, captured by conspiracy theories, made Lee president through his failed martial law attempt. Jang, refusing to change course, has driven PPP support down to 15 percent, according to the April 23 National Barometer Survey, and now appears ready to hand over local power as well. Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok once described conspiracy theorists as internal attackers, spies and agents working for the collapse of conservatism. In effect, they serve as bodyguards for the Democratic Party. Genuine conservative voters who value the Constitution, facts and common sense must judge the PPP's far-right faction. The far right is not part of conservatism but its enemy, converging with the far left under the horseshoe theory. Both extremes are lawless, incompetent and rude. Wherever people infected by conspiracy theories go, conflict and division follow. They divide families, friends, civic groups, parties and the nation. Public anger at their rudeness has turned the PPP into the country's most disliked party. Conservative intellectuals, trapped since 2022 in factional logic, became a cheering squad, helped turn Yoon into a monster and nurtured conspiracy theories. Journalists bear responsibility for upgrading lies they knew were no more credible than flat Earth theory into 'suspicions of election fraud.' By gilding falsehoods with that label, they handed too many souls to darkness.
