🧩 BND Motif Index · M1402
They're all crooks
Politicians as a class are said to go into office to get rich, taking from the public what they couldn't earn honestly, so nearly all of them are corrupt.
🪨 Beliefs🗂️ Politician Archetypes🗂️ Accountability
- 3claims filed under it
- 2left shows it came up on
- 2right shows it came up on
⚠️ 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.
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up (2 left-leaning, 0 center, 2 right-leaning so far), colored by the show's lean; the bar is how many of its claims each one heard
- left-leaning
- right-leaning
- crossover
"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 so many words
the words that carry it
💬 the tellers' own words: “Donald Trump and guys like Ken Paxton thrive because people think we're all corrupt” “McClellan: 'the people who are doing it for reasons that are going to be beneficial to others are in the minority for sure', after 'another state senator who had some felony charges against him for fraud'” “Rogan: 'the type of people that want to run for office are almost all out of their fucking minds'” “So many people get involved in politics because they want access to the things wealthy, famous people get... Get elected, then they steal it from you” “the crooks who are in office right now. Almost all of them are corrupt”
🧶 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)
Told on the left 1
claims heard on left-leaning shows, and no right-leaning one
- 2026-11-05 “Democrats must deal with corruption in their own party, like stock trading, because Trump thrives on voters thinking all politicians are corrupt.” 1
Told on the right 1
claims heard on right-leaning shows, and no left-leaning one
- 2026-10-31 “Most people running for office do not act for the benefit of others.” 2
Told on both sides 1
claims heard on left- and right-leaning shows alike
- 2026-11-01 “Politicians get elected to steal taxpayer money to fund the lifestyles they cannot afford legally.” 2
M1402 · first seen 2026-11-01 · last 2026-11-05 · what this is · how the index works