3 ms·

Is this the first taste of the future of politics? Smear websites dredging up every silly / facetious / dumb comment someone has ever made? The smear site is l

Is this the first taste of the future of politics? Smear websites dredging up every silly / facetious / dumb comment someone has ever made? The smear site is linked to in the article and can be found: http://www.colleensworld.com/ http://www.colleensworld.com/ The whole site is made up of pictures of her comments from reddit. I suppose older folks will probably be very unhappy with many of her comments, but she just sounds like a normal person who uses the reddit and plays WoW. Actually scratch that, having played WoW she is definitely far above average :). Too bad I don't live in Maine though! I guess we can only hope that this stuff isn't convincing to people who actually use the internet, and that in the future it won't work.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Yes, I expect it is. As we get candidates who have 'grown up' in the Internet world, political spin doctors will take comments made in your teens and accuse you of holding the same opinions today. I imagine that the 'Internet Brand Management Consultant' will become a staple of folks who seek to hold public office. Yes, its sad. Like the whole "I didn't inhale" rebuttal by President Clinton.
- theevocater 14y ago
  I want to hope that everyone who grew up using the internet or take part in it now will not fall prey to dirty tactics like those. It is probably foolish, but perhaps if people realize that they are in the same boat of saying/writing/doing dumb things as they grow perhaps they can see through it? I think this really leads into a much deeper societal question of 'what is private?' If we become a more open society, perhaps silliness like this won't work. I'm likely being far to optimistic/idealistic.
  - yuhong 14y ago
    Yea, this is the right solution!
btilly 14y ago
You think that this is a change? Not long ago I listened to http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161436246/political-consulting-and-the-lie-factory http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161436246/political-consulting... which discussed the origins of modern political consultants. One tactic included taking the worst things that a person ever said, and then running ads where you just quoted that person and tied them to those quotes. Context did not matter. For example in a 1934 campaign they smeared Upton Sinclair with quotes taken from his fictional characters in his books. Of course any good author will include fictional characters who are very dislikable, and they will say things that the author does not agree with. Smear websites are just a minor update on this age-old tactic.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  I suspect the primary difference is that now everybody is a published author. Even if you avoid the internet, you can have your "works" globally published by merely showing up to a party and having the misfortune to stand in the wrong place when someone takes a picture. In the past those sorts of things would likely be forgotten, if even ever developed. Now people publish them seconds after taking them.
- theevocater 14y ago
  oh definitely agreed. Smear tactics/hit ads are nothing new, but this is (I believe) our first taste of this form of it in the future. We have all seen attack ads on TV and in print, but this is the first time I have seen a website pulling quotes from reddit (at the moment). I think the largest change is in the distribution. Upton Sinclair was a internationally syndicated author whereas this woman is simply a redditor who is now running for public office. The real change is in the ability of a single person to reach the universe.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Yes, I expect it is. As we get candidates who have 'grown up' in the Internet world, political spin doctors will take comments made in your teens and accuse you of holding the same opinions today. I imagine that the 'Internet Brand Management Consultant' will become a staple of folks who seek to hold public office. Yes, its sad. Like the whole "I didn't inhale" rebuttal by President Clinton.

theevocater 14y ago
I want to hope that everyone who grew up using the internet or take part in it now will not fall prey to dirty tactics like those. It is probably foolish, but perhaps if people realize that they are in the same boat of saying/writing/doing dumb things as they grow perhaps they can see through it? I think this really leads into a much deeper societal question of 'what is private?' If we become a more open society, perhaps silliness like this won't work. I'm likely being far to optimistic/idealistic.
- yuhong 14y ago
  Yea, this is the right solution!

btilly 14y ago

You think that this is a change? Not long ago I listened to http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161436246/political-consulting-and-the-lie-factory http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161436246/political-consulting... which discussed the origins of modern political consultants. One tactic included taking the worst things that a person ever said, and then running ads where you just quoted that person and tied them to those quotes. Context did not matter. For example in a 1934 campaign they smeared Upton Sinclair with quotes taken from his fictional characters in his books. Of course any good author will include fictional characters who are very dislikable, and they will say things that the author does not agree with. Smear websites are just a minor update on this age-old tactic.

jlgreco 14y ago
I suspect the primary difference is that now everybody is a published author. Even if you avoid the internet, you can have your "works" globally published by merely showing up to a party and having the misfortune to stand in the wrong place when someone takes a picture. In the past those sorts of things would likely be forgotten, if even ever developed. Now people publish them seconds after taking them.
theevocater 14y ago
oh definitely agreed. Smear tactics/hit ads are nothing new, but this is (I believe) our first taste of this form of it in the future. We have all seen attack ads on TV and in print, but this is the first time I have seen a website pulling quotes from reddit (at the moment). I think the largest change is in the distribution. Upton Sinclair was a internationally syndicated author whereas this woman is simply a redditor who is now running for public office. The real change is in the ability of a single person to reach the universe.