# Are political potshot allowed in IMHO? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 26, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501 "2025-08-26T19:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/1 "2025-08-26T19:20:55Z")
Because there are a few anti-Trump for the sake of anti-Trump posts in a thread that has nothing to do with Trump. I know in P&E this is allowed as well as the Pit and is verboten in Factual Question and (I assume) Cafe Society & Game Room but is it allowed in IMHO and MSISP? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/2 "2025-08-26T19:26:43Z")
Do you have any specific examples? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/3 "2025-08-26T19:28:17Z")
We generally allow brief political commentary in IMHO, so long as it doesn’t derail the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/4 "2025-08-26T19:29:27Z")
Historical myths debunked. Someone brought up President Grant getting a speeding ticket in his carriage and it is heading off the rails about Trump & SCOTUS & official acts & carte blanche &c. > [@Historical myths DEBUNKED!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/211): > > True, but trump driving a car would be. Or so spake SCOTUS. Once _l’etat cest moi_, everything is an official act; yes, even pooping. > [@Historical myths DEBUNKED!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/213): > > I’ll speculate that the current Supreme Court chose to create an ambiguous standard that it could interpret as it wishes. Actions done by a Republican President will be deemed “official acts” that are covered by legal immunity while actions done by a Democratic President will be deemed to fall outside of this protection and subject to criminal charges. I feel they’ve intentionally established IOKIARDI as a legal precedent. Dr Deth called this out > [@Historical myths DEBUNKED!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/217): > > No politics please. The story about Grant is fine, modern day SCOTUS should perhaps be in P&E? Thanks And immediately after Puzzlegal has > [@Historical myths DEBUNKED!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/218): > > nevermind So did he report it and it was deemed ok? Or are those even related? Did Puzzlegal think it was not derailed enough yet? Did DD even report it? I have no clue hence this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/5 "2025-08-26T19:37:06Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So did he report it and it was deemed ok? Or are those even related? Did Puzzlegal think it was not derailed enough yet? Did DD even report it? I have no clue hence this thread. No, that’s not what happened. I do know what happened, but since I did not handle any part of it, I’ll leave it to the mods who did, @What_Exit and @puzzlegal, to explain if they choose to. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/6 "2025-08-26T19:58:45Z")
And I’m not pressing for who did what when and not complaining about lack of moderation. I was curious if it were reported and deemed OK, not reported and the P&E mods haven’t seen them yet, or now we are seeing them and it is OK/not OK. And the only reason for that is to know where political potshots are and not allowed as you have already done above. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/7 "2025-08-26T20:06:59Z")
There was a flag about **DrDeth** Jr. Modding, I determined that it was a polite attempt to steer things away from current politics and didn’t rise to the level of Jr. Modding. @puzzlegal at almost the same time gave a mild modnote not realizing I had cleared the flag and responded to the flagger. So I removed her Modnote. As to the political comments in #In My Humble Opinion, it is not verboten but varies by the thread. No one flagged the political comments, if someone did I might have told them to stop as it can be a hijack of the thread. Now in fact I will go look at the thread. **ETA** : It appears the hijack has been avoided. Hopefully it stays that way. * * * * * * For what it is worth, a polite one off request like @DrDeth made in the thread is something we allow. That is not Junior Modding. Repeating it or making demands or insults however are not allowed. I know in the past @DrDeth actually went ahead and clarified this with the moderators. I actually think his suggestion in this case was very sound. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/8 "2025-08-26T20:22:38Z")
Maybe hijacking my own thread but it doesn’t feel like it needs a whole 'nother thread. If there is no mod note because there was no hijack but the same people keep doing it over and over in multiple threads over the long-term, do mods take note (see what I did there?) and that poster starts getting warned? I’m thinking of a pitcher intentionally hitting a batter. They do it and no penalty and **both** benches get warned so the next pitcher gets punished ecause they violated the ump’s (mod’s) rule. If a specific pitcher does that every game, shouldn’t they be singled out as “If **you** do this again, then you’ll be ejected.”? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/9 "2025-08-26T20:30:00Z")
We do notice trends. We do act on them, though usually slowly. Added to noticing trends, we also mix in the posters overall contribution to the board. If someone is fairly new or rare poster and keeps hijacking or making off-topic posts, they get modnoted or PM’d about it that soon there will be warnings. If the hijacks are a small percentage of the posters posts and their posts bring a lot of information to the board, we’re less likely to threaten a warning or give a warning. Then we’ve had posters and might still have 1 or 2 that have a pattern of making off-topic posts in a consistent way that it appears they’re trying to derail the threads. In P&E and GD we’ve cracked down on these posters a lot and as they couldn’t/wouldn’t stop many are now banned. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/10 "2025-08-27T00:35:23Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > For what it is worth, a polite one off request like @DrDeth made in the thread is something we allow. That is not Junior Modding. Repeating it or making demands or insults however are not allowed. I know in the past @DrDeth actually went ahead and clarified this with the moderators. > > I actually think his suggestion in this case was very sound. Thank you. I tried to keep my requests within guidelines. Yes, I think that would have been a hijack and better covered in another thread. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/11 "2025-08-27T00:38:30Z")
I thought it was a mild case junior modding, fwiw. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/12 "2025-08-27T00:39:42Z")
I can see that. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/13 "2025-08-27T01:03:30Z")
The trade off is it was two posters who should know better and are quite consistent in doing this. So my vote would be all of them or none of them get modded (as was done). ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-potshot-allowed-in-imho/1022501/14 "2025-08-28T05:49:05Z")
I’m not an IMHO Mod, but my attitude towards political potshots in IMHO is informed by a much wiser and misssed mod than I: > [@What, no politics in IMHO or MPSIMS?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-politics-in-imho-or-mpsims/732702/2): > > Political comments are not specifically prohibited in IMHO or MPSIMS the way they are in GQ. However, a deliberately provocative post in a thread that doesn’t have anything to do with politics directly can lead to a hijack and could even be seen as trolling. So they may be moderated even if other political comments might be allowed. Even in the seemingly idyllic past of the 2015 from the POV of a decade later, another poster advised that few political comments, much less _jabs_ are anywhere close to neutral, and for some of us (myself included at times!) there’s an almost Pavlovian response to such, and we’ve had many a hijack based on such across the forums. As for the Jr. Modding question, I agree with both @puzzlegal AND @What_Exit - yeah, it’s _technically_ a very minor case of Jr. Modding, but when done as a polite, single suggestion (especially if there’s an appropriate current thread on the subject) I find it more helpful than not. AGAIN, not a IMHO/MPSIMS mod, just expressing how I feel about the _specific_ situation and circumstances.