# Have you said too much online to ever win public office? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 7, 2014, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613 "2014-10-07T01:38:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/1 "2014-10-07T01:38:53Z")
Hypothetical: you are running for high office (state governor, federal congressperson or US President/Vice-President). So naturally the opposition digs for dirt. They unearth everything you’ve ever posted publicly, under any pseudonym that can be traced back to your email address: message boards, social media (Facebook et al), comments on other people’s blogs, etc. All the things you ever admitted under the pseudo-anonymity of the Internet, the stuff you posted when you were angry, drunk/stoned, etc. gets published. Would your campaign immediately implode? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/2 "2014-10-07T01:44:12Z")
Definitely. I’m an atheist. Barney Frank, who was comfortable enough to come out as gay in liberal Massachusetts, did not come out as an atheist until after he left Congress. I suspect a professed atheist would have an extremely hard time being elected, at least for a first time, to any high office in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/3 "2014-10-07T01:45:15Z")
You know, I’d like to think that future politicians will have grown up in an era where privacy was as archaic as slavery. Obama smoked weed and nobody much cares. Twenty years from now, every politician will have had their sexts passed around the NSA, all their drunken episodes documented on Facebook, their silly tea party and occupy Instagrams on some archive somewhere… who cares? It’s more the old guard that worries about putting up their professional, completely dehumanized fronts to fool conservative religious old folks, who will hopefully die soon enough. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/4 "2014-10-07T02:15:36Z")
I’m atheist, if they dig up my ReligiousFreaks history I’m doomed. On ./ I’m always AC so I MIGHT be safe. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/5 "2014-10-07T02:52:35Z")
My posting history may or may not make me ineligible for public office, but I wouldn’t last more than 40 minutes in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/6 "2014-10-07T03:51:56Z")
My posting history would be my campaign platform. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/7 "2014-10-07T04:05:21Z")
It’s ironic that some atheists claim that religious people have a ‘persecution complex.’ ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/8 "2014-10-07T04:58:47Z")
Given some of the outlandish political positions I have held (and some I continue to hold), I’d be laughed off the ballot. Good lord, at least I hope so. Some were (and some probably are) insane. ---
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/9 "2014-10-07T14:13:33Z")
Oh, dear God yes. Various special interest groups would attempt to fillet me for even 5% of the jokes I’ve cracked over the years… and that’s just the ones I can remember :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/10 "2014-10-07T14:19:35Z")
Given modern opposition campaigns’ ability to take a single line out of a speech from an hour ago and build an attack by running it out of context, I shudder to think about them going through my posting history. “He said we need female sex slaves!” “What? That was a sarcastic response to—” “_Jophiel: He Demands Sex Slaves!_ – Webforum 8/12/03” ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/11 "2014-10-07T14:23:58Z")
If you only say outlandish things, when they are taken out of context, they sound perfectly normal. Thats been my battle plan from the start. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/12 "2014-10-07T14:24:11Z")
Online? I said too much offline before there was an online. You’d have to be crazier than I am to vote for me. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/13 "2014-10-07T15:02:42Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Definitely. I’m an atheist. Barney Frank, who was comfortable enough to come out as gay in liberal Massachusetts, did not come out as an atheist until after he left Congress. I suspect a professed atheist would have an extremely hard time being elected, at least for a first time, to any high office in the U.S. +1 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/14 "2014-10-07T15:06:49Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It’s ironic that some atheists claim that religious people have a ‘persecution complex.’ I am not sure what your point is. An atheist couldn’t be elected dog-catcher. No one has ever lost an election for being too religious. Unless s/he is a Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/15 "2014-10-07T15:38:33Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I am not sure what your point is. An atheist couldn’t be elected dog-catcher. No one has ever lost an election for being too religious. Unless s/he is a Muslim. …or a Hindu, a Pagan, or a Sikh. Even Catholics often find their religious beliefs a burden in American elections. Really, your only good options as a candidate for office in this country are ‘loudly Protestant’, or ‘other Christian and quiet about your denomination’. And yeah, I too am in the ‘no God, no public office’ bucket. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/16 "2014-10-07T15:39:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Online? I said too much offline before there was an online. You’d have to be crazier than I am to vote for me. Ahahahahaha. Yes. And my bounds with mental illness (and a couple of subsequent breakdowns) have been well documented. Plus, one or two other things that would be considered bad behavior. So, I’m not even ever going to run for president of my own back porch. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/17 "2014-10-07T15:40:27Z")
Never mind online; I’ve done and said too much IRL to ever run for public office. We can start with an angry ex, a few unfortunate relationships, some crazy-as family members. Then throw in that I’m a vocal atheist… ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/18 "2014-10-07T16:12:10Z")
But if all the other candidates have said outrageous things, though, then isn’t everyone still equally electable? “I love racist segregation!” doesn’t sound so bad when your opponent has “Slavery was a good thing” or “Clubbing baby seals = best thing ever!” on his or her record. These are all hypothetical quotes, of course. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/19 "2014-10-07T16:16:26Z")
The stuff on this site alone would make an end to any chance of winning an election. Let alone stuff I have posted elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613/20 "2014-10-07T16:23:38Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > No one has ever lost an election for being too religious. Unless s/he is a Muslim. Not to derail the thread, but I’m pretty sure the religious views of the Westboro Baptist church people would keep them from winning office. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-said-too-much-online-to-ever-win-public-office/700613.md?page=2)