The "I'm still a bit undecided about my vote direction this coming Thursday" copypasta meme has made my mind up. (I've seen it from a couple of people on Facebook not really linked to each other, so I assume it's done the rounds and we've all seen it now.)

"On the one hand the Conservative Boris Johnson is a bit of a rascal with the ladies and can sometimes bend the truth a bit, he’s also a bit posh."

I don't really care that "he's a bit posh", or how many children he has. I mean, it's not what I'd call a good look, but I'm not saying that Boris can't be Boris. Use big words. Have illegitimate kids and keep them quiet. Whatever.

Let's think about that "can sometimes bend the truth a bit" line sandwiched in between there, because it feels like it's glossing over and excusing quite a lot.

Let's agree that yes, he can bend the truth. A bit.

The referendum brought the bar for "bending the truth a bit" pretty low though- we know that "£350 million for the NHS" on the side of a bus has a really tenuous connection with the truth (I think we all know/can all agree that we send that money to Europe, some of it comes back, and it was never, ever going to be spent on the NHS instead. It could have been, kind of… but not really.)

He can bend the truth, a bit.

Right now, I'm getting lots of Conservative party adverts on Facebook telling me about how much more Corbyn wants to tax the average household- obviously not talking about how "average" is an irrelevant metric here and doesn't actually apply to the vast majority of households.

It doesn't matter. It's aim is clearly not to convey accurate information and help people make an informed decision. It's to make me think about earning a couple of grand a year less. To paint a picture of a different "reality" that isn't actually real. It is literally the definition of propaganda. It's still kind of true- "on average" - but it's also total bullshit. But nobody wants to pick apart the details.

There's this thing called the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, that bullshit takes way more effort to refute than to produce, and this particular bullshit isn't being published in a newspaper or broadcast on a TV channel where it can be held up and refuted anyway. It's one of hundreds of messages being thrown out on Facebook. You *can't* refute it, or complain about it to the regulators because there aren't any. And anyhow, it's still sort of true. But still bullshit. But weaponised, grade-A bullshit.

But this isn't about the "bending the truth a little" bullshit stuff.

A fake Labour manifesto. Refusing to turn up to interviews and answer hard questions when voters are actually watching and it looks like it might affect their voting behaviour. Better not to show up. Tell MPs not to turn up to hustings. Threatening to cut the BBC's funding.

Stolen from Reddit;

- - - 8< - snip - 8<- - - -

If you told me that the BBC Would have to send a cease and desist letter to the Tories for doctoring BBC footage to attack Corbyn, making it look like a real BBC news piece I’d say you were getting into tin foil hat territory.
But that happened.
If you told me Facebook was so worried about the quantity of Tory adverts that were utterly misleading, complete lies, that Facebook removed some of them and served the Tories with a warning- I’d laugh in your face.
But that happened too.
If you told me Google was following suit I’d beg you to stop before the laughter killed me.
But they are.
All politicians lie. But Boris isn’t telling defensible falsehoods, or creatively misrepresenting facts. He is a bull shitter. He is a liar. A flat out liar.

- - - 8< - snip - 8<- - - -

That's just in the last couple of weeks. And then he took a reporters phone and put it in his pocket to avoid looking at it. And then he hid in a fridge from another. Oh, that Boris. He's a "bit of a rascal".

Anything to avoid any distraction from "get Brexit done".

This isn't anything to do with the EU any more. It's about how a thing we're all bored of is getting slowed down because of a system designed to stop stupid things from happening quickly. I mean, I don't really understand how the system of Parliament that has evolved over hundreds of years works, but I think that's the basic idea. Not make it easy to break the country. Not without a proper majority representation and a proper mandate.

But democracy can fix it, or it can fuck it right up. Democracy has the power to do pretty much anything- good or bad. And it can be bent, and it can be broken.

Anyway. If the Tories win, these lies get validated. They get shown to be winners and get votes.

I'm not even a big fan of Corbyn- I think he's a bad leader. I don't believe he is anti-Semitic, but I also don't believe he has sorted out the Labour Party's issues with anti-semitism. That's a serious leadership issue, but I don't think it's about Corbyn being anti-semitic.

So I was planning on spoiling my ballot (not that it really matters- like most people, my vote has next to no chance of mattering with more than 55% of the vote in my constituency being Tory), but I'm voting in the direction of the guy who has consistently stood against war and violence, against reinforcing the simple but compelling "them and us" narrative, and stood behind open dialogue and negotiation, building bridges instead of borders (metaphorical bridges, as opposed to vanity projects that wasted £43 million of public money)...

I don't particularly want Jezza for PM, but the idea of Boris and his gang getting in with a big majority and doing whatever they want with the country for a few years absolutely terrifies me. Way more than an old socialist.

I don't want to see what happens next with the Irish borders (including the new one), Scottish independence leading to another border, Wales looking at where that leaves them- maybe an independant England, with London looking out at a sea of blue and wondering what the fuck everyone is thinking, and maybe wondering what a country whose border is the M25 would work like. All in the name of "get Brexit done".

Yes, Boris can bend the truth a bit. And he will, if you let him. (It's not even his real name! They made a fake fact-checking service!)

But go ahead and vote for them if you don't get the feeling that they are pissing down your back. Maybe your local Tory candidate isn't 'one of the worst ones' (although they all seem to have either left or been kicked out of the party, in case you haven't noticed how far to the political right things are moving.) If you're not bothered about the report on Russian interference that Boris didn't want published. But please think about what it is that you’re endorsing.

Some Random Nerd