My apologies to anyone who is sick of the election coverage and want anything election related out of their news feed, but I must have this little rant/whine.

This really has been the most disgusting election campaign I have ever seen.  Both parties are doing what they can to appeal to the absolute lowest of lowest common denominators. And you know what the worst thing is? They may actually have a point with their strategies. Hear me out.

DrunkenMadman brought this to my attention last week or the week before. It had already become apparent to him, and he opened my eyes to this realisation as well.

You see, email spammers write their emails badly on purpose. “Nigerian Princes” who need to get their millions out of the country but need your thousands first, fake pharmaceutical sellers, etc etc. They do this for a reason. They know that if they hook a smart person in, the smart person will sooner or later pick up on the fact it’s a scam and all time spent on that person will just be wasted time.

To this end, they use bad grammar and spelling to target their emails to the lowest common denominator, the people too stupid to pick up on the bad English are probably stupid enough to keep going long enough that credit card details get handed over or transactions made.

During the 2013 election campaign, both of our major parties are well aware that smarter more intelligent people have paid attention over the last 5-10 years and are familiar with each parties motives.  They’re aware that smarter and more intelligent people are actually going to read policies and decide based on those.

The political parties realise that these people are a lost cause, they’ll vote how they’ll vote regardless of any campaigning that’s done, so any time spent targetting them is time wasted.  The campaigns then get targeted 90%, 95%, 100% at the lowest of the lowest common denominator. The “HERP! TERN BAK DA BAOTZ!!!”, the “DERP! NO CRABON TAX!” and the “HERPY DERPY! ILLEGAL IMMIGANT BOATS ON DA M4!!!” crowds who think a five word media bite is a fully accounted and considered policy.

This is why the 2013 election has been such a horrible spectacle, and it’s only going to get worse from here. I’m really not looking forward to future elections.

Blatant human rights violations can’t even get these arseholes embarrassed/thrown out of a job (Australia no longer being in the Australian immigration zone), let alone absurd direct insults to significant parts of the community (marriage equality being equated with beastiality numerous times by the same arsehat).  What hope do we have? 😦