Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I think there's probably a self justifying belief that EVERYONE is on the take, everyone is lying and hypocritical (this is also true, which helps), bending the rules and so on is just the way things are done in "the real world" and you're either naive or lying if you say otherwise.
This makes me think of something I read a couple of months back - it may well have been posted here, can't remember who by - the gist of which was something like:
The triumph of postmodernism is now more or less complete. We live in a post-truth age in which nothing is true and everything is permitted, and it's taken as axiomatic that all politicians lie all the time. This works to the advantage of the Berlusconis, Trumps and Johnsons - for whom this is actually true - because they lie so glibly and easily, with a boyish grin and a wink in their eye, that there doesn't seem to be any serious intent to deceive. Their whole demeanour says "Yes I'm lying; you know that I'm lying; and I know that you know that I'm lying". So paradoxically they seem more honest than the more traditional sort of politician, who attempts to come across as earnest and honest, because they are assumed to be lying whether they are or not, and to be attempting to fool us for real.
So people who cannot possibly hope to benefit from continued Tory rule vote Tory with Boris Johnson leading the party in full knowledge of his dishonesty, not despite that but because of it, and because he "seems like a breath of fresh air", somehow.
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