I wonder about this a lot - in 15-20 years, political candidates / public figures will have hundreds of things they have said online embarrassing their campaigns/images. Do we all just become more accepting of sarcasm, racism, bad jokes, etc? Is it a step backwards or is it a step forward?
I can tell you for a fact I'm sure things on my Twitter account could likely be taken out of context as I can sometimes be a bit of a "Larry David" with my public observations that I can't help but share.
A lot of the people planning to be politicians are purposefully keeping their current digital life clean.
CJ John Roberts knew from a young age he wanted to be Chief Justice. (Overachiever, but lots of us on HN are overachievers.) He kept his record very clean. He never even got a speeding ticket.
And I totally see understand why: he was aware of how the media pick apart people, and who knows what one tiny thing might spiral out of control.
But it means the CJ, when making ruling about police stops, has never actually experienced something the majority of Americans have, and the Court loses some bit of useful perspective.
I can tell you for a fact I'm sure things on my Twitter account could likely be taken out of context as I can sometimes be a bit of a "Larry David" with my public observations that I can't help but share.