🧩 BND Motif Index · M1224
The lesser evil is still evil
Voting for the lesser evil is said to be voting for evil all the same, accepting harm to others because it spares the voter.
- 1claim filed under it
- 1claim 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:
- 🧩 Hold your nose counter: the answer to hold your nose
🗣️ In so many words
the words that carry it
💬 the tellers' own words: “The people saying choose the lesser evil ALWAYS mean the lesser evil FOR THEM.” “this amount of evil is okay, cause it doesn't hurt me personally” “voting for the lesser evil, its still evil and you're still voting for it”
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, in our words, by who told it: newest first in each; a claim's dots are the shows it came up on, in their lean's color (point at them for their names)
Retold online 1
claims many people posted in their own words
- 2026-10-25 “Voting for the lesser evil is still voting for evil: it accepts harm to marginalized people because it doesn't hurt the voter personally.”
M1224 · first seen 2026-10-25 · what this is · how the index works