🧩 BND Motif Index · M1017
The perfect is the enemy of the good
Voters are urged to back the flawed candidate over the awful one: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- 6claims filed under it
- 3right shows it came up on
- 3claims retold online
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Hold your nose
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 0
🦗 none of our left shows, so far
⚖️ center 0
🦗 none of our center shows, so far
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-25 “Not voting concedes the election: staying home or refusing the lesser evil hands the win to the bigger evil.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-24 “Voters debate whether to support the BC NDP to prevent a Conservative victory or vote for the Greens based on environmental morals.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-22 “Voters should choose the GOP over Democrats because the GOP is the lesser of two evils.”
🎙️ The Jesse Kelly Show - 2026-10-22 “Leftists vote for what they want rather than for achievable or logistical means.”
🎙️ Timcast IRL (podcast) - 2026-10-20 “Voters punish their own side by choosing bad candidates to avoid imperfect ones.”
🎙️ The Michael Berry Show - 2026-10-10 “The Democratic Party isn't transphobic: Democrats in power protect trans rights, and any Democrat will treat trans people better than a Republican who hates them.” 🧶 people online
M1017 · first seen 2026-10-20 · last 2026-10-27 · what this is · how the index works