Napoleon once said “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” Poor Napoleon missed the advent of the Internet where thanks to Google search, Facebook profiles, file sharing and websites, glory is forever and obscurity is non-existent! Once something is sent out into the interwebs it can be archived into the vast online network forever.
There can be drawbacks to this vigorous storing of information. For example, if you publish something super dicky online, there’s a fair chance it could ultimately resurface to bite you in the arse.
Queensland ALP candidate Peter Watson has learned this the hard way after a four-year-old web post was unearthed and led to his resignation this week. In the offending posts Watson disseminates his disturbingly antiquated broad-stroke stance on homosexuality, describing gay people as “social degenerates” and linked homosexuality to paedophilia.
Watson had posted the comments when he was 14 or 15 years old, and while spouting stupid shit on the Internet is something most teenagers (and everyone) are guilty of from time to time, Watson continued to proffer dumb arse statements making it extremely hard to feel sorry for the guy and his teenage web faux pas.
This morning in an interview with ABC Radio’s AM program Watson said he maintained his stance on homosexuality saying: “They do… In a sense homosexuality does degrade our society’s values.”
Peter Watson is just the latest in a long line of people caught out by the Internet’s archiving power. In 2010 an instant messenger conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and a college buddy leaked, painting Zuckerberg as a self-satisfied douchebag.
The conversation read:
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
Let this be a cautionary tale about thinking before you post.
Via www.abc.net.au
