If we run for political office, could our Fluther comments be traced and used against us?

Theoretically, yes.

And your Facebook page content is in the clutches of the CIA, according to this New Zealand Herald article.

No, they can’t seem to find Obama’s birth certificate, you think they can find your comments on Fluther?~

I support Obama by the way.

I think anything that you have posted online (anywhere) or anything that you have written and shown or given to anyone or anything that you have said that has been recorded is potentially out there for “them” to use against you.

It probably depends on how much you’ve publicly associated your user name and your legal name. In my case, it would be super easy for someone to link my comments here to me.

Yes, nothing on the internet is private, really. If someone wants any information bad enough they can find it. How they use it is a different story. As @chyna has pointed out, some people, when faced with cold, hard facts will simply believe what they want to believe. And then there are the people who, when confronted with lies and innuendo and half-truths can be placated by your army of spin doctors.

The NSA and HSA are not the only ones that can find dirt on us. They jsut happen to be the quickest, in part due to deep pockets.

Basically the only reason anyone has any privacy is that people generally don’t care. As soon as you do something to make them care though, it’s time to lube up, grab your ankles, and brace for impact. Posting anti-American rhetoric will make people care, but so will running for office, having a hit song/movie, or a variety of other things.

Fortunately, all my posts are consistent with my political views, and since I and my fellow flutherites make so much sense, the opposition would suppress them.

@zenvelo consistency is one thing, but measuring words so that they are harmless when taken out of context is quite another. The whole point of a site like this is to be honest and get to the point of what you think in a few words. Good politicians must learn to talk in circles because it’s too dangerous to do otherwise.

“Good” politicians. By “Good” @jazzticity means, most conniving.

A new day is come. It matters not about the cult of personality. Now is the era of the result. Welcome

A short list of fallible men, some might call politicians, who didn’t talk in circles:

Gandhi, JFK, MLK, Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin…

They lived in a different world. Look, I don’t see anything wrong with “neutral” speech. We do it in business meetings, when in any kind of leadership position, and in politics. Men like Reagan and Clinton were masters at it and still accomplished a great deal. Given that, public comments are different from private ones. Which are these?

@jazzticity This is public, as is anything else on the internet. There is no real privacy on the internet.

They’d get me for being an atheist long before they’d get me for being a flutherite.

You damn flutherite, you!

Nothing on the internet is private. Anyone with the resolve can find you.

Absolutely, yes. The problem is, even if you are currently pseudonymous (you can’t be truly anonymous since the NSA operates a program called ECHELON which taps the entire Internet at the main trunks on all the major backbones), if at ANY point in the future you happen to slip up and leave a trail (or have an account somewhere stolen, or any of a thousand other possibilities) then everything previous also suddenly becomes visible at the same time.

Having recently completed an unsuccessful run for office myself, I know that there was a lot of searching on me on Google (because a bunch of “popular searches” on my name popped up as suggestions), and anyone patient enough can find most of my online activities since the mid-80s. Interestingly, the opposite seems to be happening to me more often: views I expressed while campaigning are being thrown back in my face while engaged in subsequent non-political activities.

Oh, well. I guess you can’t troll for chicks on Craigslist and send them bare-chested photos of yourself any more, especially if you’re a self-proclaimed arbiter of moral values.

Your sins will find you out! With government backing!

yes.. and even things you haven’t said

Okay. I understand. And technology has changed everything. Whom can you trust? Your secretary? Your wife? Your bathroom mirror? Is it getting to the point where every ill considered word out of our mouths can ruin us? If that is the criterion, will there be anyone left to lead us?

As to your last ^^ question, I’ve often wondered the same. It seems to me that most people who really should be politicians (those that would be good for the country, I mean) won’t run because they don’t want to go through the mudslinging that’s sure to follow.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Oh & I am not a crook! Just for the record you understand.

Your real name associated with the Fluther account is not searchable through engines unless you post it in a thread. So how are “they” going to know to search Fluther for you unless a fellow jelly turns you in?

Shit. Now I’m paranoid about all of you.

You might want to read this
Trust me, cross-referencing isn’t hard, especially if you know a little psychology ;)

I think I will use Fluther to get myself elected!!!