In Collateral damage, a post I published a few weeks ago, I lamented a bleak future for a political system that smears candidates for their online activities, particularly where their activities have been specifically and maliciously spun out of context. This is a serious concern. We’re starting to see the emergence of political candidates who are digital natives.
Digital natives have never known a time without computers and the Internet. They’ve not only lived their lives online through social media, they’ve frequently engaged in a meaningful, thought-provoking and authentic way. Many, particularly those interested enough in public life, have probably participated in some interesting online discussions. We all do. Perhaps we’re just not used to the idea of people having the confidence to be transparent about their thoughts (and by extension our own).
It seems the trend continues. Jason Lamarche who’s running for Vancouver city council is the subject of a smear campaign for a nerdy, tongue-in-cheek post he published to a blog as a student in 2007 (see Attack the policy, not the person). Yes. Four years ago.
His post applies a business decision-making model (he was a business student at the time) to dating. He did something on paper almost everyone does intuitively (men and women) — judge possible dates on a series of criteria. It seems the wording of one criterion, “Is she good in bed? Guess if don’t know”, has offended some people.
Really?!
If we’re going to smear candidates who are committing themselves to public service for something as ridiculous as that, done when they were students, we should expect homogenous, uninteresting, group-think politicians who will be good at keeping the status quo alive and well rather than actually making a difference in their communities. The same goes for smear campaigns which twist reality. Why? Because the people who are most intelligent, most innovative and most creative will realize being the subject of smear and character assassination isn’t worth their time and trouble. There’s more money to be made and more time to be enjoyed elsewhere.
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