# Politicized questions in GQ **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 13, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440 "2016-10-13T17:26:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/21 "2016-10-13T19:58:41Z")
Okay, fine, it’s Colibri’s call and we can’t argue it. I’ll just add that it seems at odds with other calls - from warnings to moved threads to locked threads - for much milder allusions in questions or posts. It’s also a question pretty easily answered with a little Googling. So I guess (and would not have formerly thought) that I can go over to GQ and post: “Fox News continually refers to our colored, Muslim-school-educated ‘President’ as being foreign born, but he claims to have a valid Hawaiian birth certificate. ALL OF THAT ASIDE, NOW, can anyone tell me how they spell the state name on Hawaiian long-form birth certificates?” i had thought, from both observation and being noted personally, that GQ was held to a higher standard than that, and that marginal shit overlooked in the other forums wouldn’t be tolerated there. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/22 "2016-10-13T20:10:23Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Should the second “ATMB” be “GQ”? If not, I’m super confused. Yes, I meant GQ in the second case. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/23 "2016-10-13T20:14:37Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > So I guess (and would not have formerly thought) that I can go over to GQ and post: > “Fox News continually refers to our colored, Muslim-school-educated ‘President’ as being foreign born, but he claims to have a valid Hawaiian birth certificate. ALL OF THAT ASIDE, NOW, can anyone tell me how they spell the state name on Hawaiian long-form birth certificates?” > i had thought, from both observation and being noted personally, that GQ was held to a higher standard than that, and that marginal shit overlooked in the other forums wouldn’t be tolerated there. That’s not what the OP of the thread did. In this case, you would not be reporting allegations but making a statement yourself. You are not saying that Fox news says calls Obama “colored and Muslim-school educated” but making those statements yourself. Distorting the situation with inaccurate hypotheticals does not help your case. ETA: In any case, I’m not going to rule on hypotheticals. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/24 "2016-10-13T20:21:24Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Okay, fine, it’s Colibri’s call and we can’t argue it. I’ll just add that it seems at odds with other calls - from warnings to moved threads to locked threads - for much milder allusions in questions or posts. > > It’s also a question pretty easily answered with a little Googling. > > So I guess (and would not have formerly thought) that I can go over to GQ and post: > “Fox News continually refers to our colored, Muslim-school-educated ‘President’ as being foreign born, but he claims to have a valid Hawaiian birth certificate. ALL OF THAT ASIDE, NOW, can anyone tell me how they spell the state name on Hawaiian long-form birth certificates?” > i had thought, from both observation and being noted personally, that GQ was held to a higher standard than that, and that marginal shit overlooked in the other forums wouldn’t be tolerated there. In addition to **Colibri’s** comments, the OP scenario was directly related to the genetics question. It sets up why the paternity was in question, and who the possible related family members (half-brother, daughter) are. Your scenario doesn’t add anything to the context of why someone would be questioning how it was spelled. If your scenario was that “While Fox news was on a rant stating the Obama was a Muslim and foreign born, they showed the ‘forged’ birth certificate and claimed Hawaii was spelled wrong. Is it misspelled?” You’d be a lot closer to the wording of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/25 "2016-10-13T20:29:21Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > It’s also a question pretty easily answered with a little Googling. That applies to about 90% of GQ threads I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/26 "2016-10-13T20:34:35Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > That applies to about 90% of GQ threads I’ve seen. This is not remotely true. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/27 "2016-10-13T20:48:28Z")
**Czarcasm** : There is so much wrong with your post in that thread, it’s hard to know where to begin: Threadshitting? Politics in GQ? Snark as the very first post in a GQ thread? Jr Mod’ing? Really, it boggles the mind that you don’t see anything wrong with your post. Even if we assume the OP was politically charged (I don’t see it, but let’s just assume), the proper response is to report it. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/28 "2016-10-13T21:53:22Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > That applies to about 90% of GQ threads I’ve seen. Googling does not lend itself well to follow-up questions. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/29 "2016-10-15T22:16:01Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s not your call whether the OP of that thread constituted well poisoning, obviously. Why is it not? We’re not talking about a rule, but a term. And even if he was invoking a rule, he has the right to disagree with moderators on a ruling. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/30 "2016-10-15T22:20:29Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > **Czarcasm** : There is so much wrong with your post in that thread, it’s hard to know where to begin: > > Threadshitting? > Politics in GQ? > Snark as the very first post in a GQ thread? > Jr Mod’ing? > > Really, it boggles the mind that you don’t see anything wrong with your post. Even if we assume the OP was politically charged (I don’t see it, but let’s just assume), the proper response is to report it. Good thing there’s not a post in this thread arguing that it was acceptable, right? His post isn’t even the topic of this thread. The OP says flat out that it was political and thus properly modded. He asks if the OP is also political. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/31 "2016-10-15T23:13:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why is it not? We’re not talking about a rule, but a term. And even if he was invoking a rule, he has the right to disagree with moderators on a ruling. You don’t seem to have been following this thread very well. The issue is whether the OP of the other thread was excessively politicized. **Czarcasm** made the claim that it was, because the OP had poisoned the well. As I said, whether the OP was excessively politicized or whether the well had been poisoned was a moderator’s call. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/32 "2016-10-15T23:17:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Good thing there’s not a post in this thread arguing that it was acceptable, right? > > His post isn’t even the topic of this thread. The OP says flat out that it was political and thus properly modded. He asks if the OP is also political. **Czarcasm** was trying to justify his post in the original thread. He was moderated for his comments in that thread, so they are a legitimate subject for comment here. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440/33 "2016-10-16T11:42:58Z")
It seems to me that the OP was seeking factual information about two intertwined topics: First, what degree of relative would be sufficient for a test in general, and second, whether William Jefferson Clinton has any such appropriately-close relatives. There’s really no good way to ask about both topics without including the context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicized-questions-in-gq/768440.md?page=1)