🧩 BND Motif Index · M914
Hold your nose
Voters are told to back their side's candidate however bad, because the other side is worse, and those who won't are blamed for what follows: hold your nose and vote.
- 8claims filed under it
- 1right show it came up on
- 7claims 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
↔️ answers and mirrors:
- 🧩 The lesser evil is still evil counter: the answer to hold your nose
⏱️ answered 20 days after this was first told here (2026-10-05 → 2026-10-25)
🔗 goes with: 🧩 The perfect is the enemy of the good
🎙️ 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
🐘 right 1
"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 - 2026-10-19 “Voters are being urged to vote NDP instead of Green to prevent a Conservative victory.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-15 “Third-party and protest votes let the fascists win: protest votes created the second Trump administration, and not voting is a choice to support fascism.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “Democrats are betraying trans people by prioritizing political expediency and moderate voters over protecting trans rights.” 🧶 people online
- 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
- 2026-10-05 “Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's estranged wife, is supporting her husband's Senate bid while avoiding mentioning him by name, casting the Republican ticket as a corrupt, unethical entity that subjugates women and denies them bodily autonomy.” 🧶 people online
M914 · first seen 2026-10-12 · last 2026-10-27 · what this is · how the index works