[MENTION=7]Totenkindly[/MENTION]
Yeah, that is helpful to understand. I probably should ask first, exactly what the process is to see if there is the possibility of snafu.
Yeah, if the process is as I saw when I read about it, then that is how I proceed. (I do process and tech troubleshooting for a living, and you need to quickly get a sense of where the weak elements of a process are in order to quickly pinpoint a problem.)
A big issue in assuming that malfeasance was done is simply, well, motive. Opportunity is another. If there was no opportunity, then motive doesn't matter. I'm sure there are folks out there who hated La La Land, but when a process breaks down, my first assumption is to look at the stuff that is easy to examine: The system and the opportunity. In the investigation, then maybe motive would become a factor. But I see stuff break daily and it's usually just human beings who screw something up.
Even here in a case where someone maybe had the extra card out, and another person took it and offered it purposefully to the announcers to confuse them - well, it's clearly obvious who took the card and who did what with it. They are nailed immediately. And if they manage to sneak the card away or swap them somehow without folks knowing, then it was the person who was in charge of the cards who is left holding the bag because they weren't protecting the cards.
It does charm me when clear rational types find certain socially dominant and odd behaviors inconceivable. You could also ask why Justin Timberlake was making weird faces behind Emma Stone when she was being interviewed. Arrogant people are kinda insane. I actually know a lot of people who do things to make others feel thrown off and embarrassed and it gives them a sense of dominance to instill a negative and confusing feelings in others. The types of people at those award shows feel really similar to the types of people who do that to people.
I don't have any qualms or misgivings about the darkness that can lurk within the human heart, but in my experience usually as I've said when there is an issue, it's usually because someone did something dumb or a process was poorly designed. It's typically the best thing to examine first, rather than assuming the captain of the Titanic pushed the ship in order to make the engines blow up and aimed the ship straight at an iceberg to murder the entire crew and passenger list + embarrass the ocean liner company.
Also, there is a reward/punishment payoff. Anyone in the entertainment industry who did this and got caught are basically ruining their career and will never work again in the field, so that is a huge deterrent to folks who are in that boat especially if their ego is that large.
Even my boyfriend's father responded to me thanking them for dinner by point at me and saying, "now get down on your knees and say it". Why would he say that? It isn't funny. It didn't fit the situation. It did make me feel a little confused and embarrassed and like he gained some sort of social dominance. My sister's MIL is like that all the time as well. You can never tell for sure if it was intentional or something that just happened, but the odd thing is that stuff happens where you have to constantly ask that question.
I guess someone could make a joke like that, but it seems highly inappropriate especially for someone in authority to say. (A parent of a SO isn't really an authority in reality but socially dominant and then if you are in their house.) Especially when it comes to a man saying it to a woman, because there are many horrible connotations to that. IOW, who the heck are these people?
A small example I mostly decided to dismiss is when she offered me a fig, and when I chose one, she grabbed it out of my hand and said, "here, eat this one", which was all brown and squished. Did she really think it was the superior fig and she was helping me, or did she just want to dominate me by making me eat a rotten fig. Her son had talked about getting a saxophone to start playing again, and when it was his birthday she sent him an old, bent up rusted saxophone, even though she had plenty of money. Did she think it was a genuinely good gift or did she want to make him feel confused and badly for almost getting a thoughtful present, but one that also felt like an insult. Irrational and arrogant image-focused people do those sorts of odd demeaning behaviors to others all the time. It's because it gives them a feeling of control and dominance to impose a vulnerable feeling on other human beings.
I think in those cases you have pinpointed people who seriously seem to have some issue, and their nasty behavior is tangible and observable, and you can cross-check your understanding of their motives, so it makes sense to wonder what in the world is wrong with them and what they are up to.
