🧩 BND Motif Index · M615
Sanewashing
Something ugly, like dishonesty, extremism, or failure, is dressed up in flattering or respectable language, and the tellers see through the makeup.
- 8claims filed under it
- 1left show it came up on
- 2right shows it came up on
- 6claims 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: 🧩 De mortuis nil nisi bonum 🧩 Words mean things
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 1
⚖️ 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.
📰 In the news
the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)
- 📰 Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and a U.S. photojournalist during olive harvest 2026-10-16 to 2026-10-19
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-18 “The New York Times avoids calling out Donald Trump's lies to prevent appearing biased.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-18 “People argue that Israelis occupying land should be called 'settler terrorists' rather than 'settlers'.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-17 “Democrats use the phrase women's reproductive rights to mask the reality of abortion.”
🎙️ The Jesse Kelly Show - 2026-10-16 “The New York Times uses euphemisms and nonpartisan framing to minimize and sugarcoat Donald Trump.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “David Brooks is wrong to scold Ossoff for calling neo-Nazi-linked opponents Nazis.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “Donald Trump is habitually and constantly dishonest.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-10 “Tucker Carlson is an immoral liar who uses populist rhetoric to mask Holocaust denial and Islamophobia.”
🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ Verdict with Ted Cruz - 2026-10-06 “The New York Times praised a speaker as 'fierce and nimble,' but many commenters believe this is a misleading description of someone who lied repeatedly and lacked substance.” 🧶 people online
M615 · first seen 2026-10-07 · last 2026-10-23 · what this is · how the index works