CAIN Ends, But the Fight Against Nazism Continues



CAIN Ends, But the Fight Against Nazism Continues
By Writinglegend
​



(Europeia – November 27, 2017) – Europeia has withdrawn from the Coalition Against the Ideology of Nazism (CAIN) after an internal vote to end the organization.

"The signatories of the Coalition Against the Ideology of Nazism have voted to end it," President Rach stated in front of the Senate. "As such, I would like to request that the Senate repeal this treaty."

The Senate unanimously confirmed the repeal after President Rach requested an expedited vote.

CAIN has been a hot-button electoral topic for the past six months since its creator went inactive and the organization fell into disarray. The coalition never seemingly recovered from its lapse of leadership and trudged on with its lofty internal structure. Despite past promises to revive the organization through separate and unique means, all failed and the organization fell deeper into an abyss of inactivity.

The final nail in the coffin for CAIN was not its activity, nor its structure, but the despicable actions by the creator of the organization that, undoubtedly, tarnished the name of CAIN. The creator and their actions will forever be linked to the organization. All signatories agreed that it was best to not uphold their name through its continued life, and to ensure the speedy death of the coalition.

"CAIN has [...] its legacy marred by Brunhilde," Le Libertie stated on the Senate floor while explaining his support for the repeal. This sentiment was shared by Senate Speaker Drecq.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Isaris expressed a similar sentiment when our EBC reporter inquired on the state of the coalition. "The repeal of the CAIN treaty was an unfortunate necessity in the aftermath of the revelations about the player behind Brunhilde," he stated. "CAIN's former members remain committed to standing against Nazism outside of the now defunct organization."

When questioned on what this new commitment would take the form of, Minister of Foreign Affairs Isaris described a future possible venture being an "informal agreement" where CAIN signatories and other regions can proclaim the publicly shared stance to fight Nazism in NationStates.

Both the President of Europeia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed Europeia's fight against Nazism, and the continued prolific role the Europeian Republican Navy (ERN) will play in that fight.

"The ERN will continue to target Nazi and Nazi-affiliated regions in its operations moving forward."

While CAIN may have ended, the fight against Nazism in NationStates has not. Europeia continues to stay strong with her values against hate speech and in-game Nazism, and will use all means to oppose these disgusting players. With an informal agreement being considered, and continued military operations, it seems that Europeia, her allies, and her friends are more primed than ever to lead and continue the fight against Nazism.
 
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A great piece. Thank you for the outlet to speak on this important subject. :)
 
I'm going to play devils advocate here for the sake of it. Is Nazism a continued threat to NS communities? They seem to keep entirely to themselves, and any loners that do pop up here or elsewhere are quickly done away with. So is there a purpose besides trying to prove to ourselves that we aren't racists? :p
 
Vac said:
I'm going to play devils advocate here for the sake of it. Is Nazism a continued threat to NS communities? They seem to keep entirely to themselves, and any loners that do pop up here or elsewhere are quickly done away with. So is there a purpose besides trying to prove to ourselves that we aren't racists? :p
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But it's so important we take a stand, the only reason someone would say this is pointless chest thumping is if they are secretly a Nazi.

... at least that's what I was told. :troll:
 
Vac said:
I'm going to play devils advocate here for the sake of it. Is Nazism a continued threat to NS communities? They seem to keep entirely to themselves, and any loners that do pop up here or elsewhere are quickly done away with. So is there a purpose besides trying to prove to ourselves that we aren't racists? :p
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To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Silence in the face of evil is evil itself."

Any glorification of Nazi Germany in the NationStates community should not and will not be tolerated, regardless of if it is necessarily able to be considered a threat; the ideology is evil and I'm proud to not remain silent in the face of even the tiniest presence of it.
 
Izzy said:
Vac said:
I'm going to play devils advocate here for the sake of it. Is Nazism a continued threat to NS communities? They seem to keep entirely to themselves, and any loners that do pop up here or elsewhere are quickly done away with. So is there a purpose besides trying to prove to ourselves that we aren't racists? :p
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To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Silence in the face of evil is evil itself."

Any glorification of Nazi Germany in the NationStates community should not and will not be tolerated, regardless of if it is necessarily able to be considered a threat; the ideology is evil and I'm proud to not remain silent in the face of even the tiniest presence of it.
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Is it useful at all if all it does is embolden them and give them free press?
 
Kylia Quilor said:
Izzy said:
Vac said:
I'm going to play devils advocate here for the sake of it. Is Nazism a continued threat to NS communities? They seem to keep entirely to themselves, and any loners that do pop up here or elsewhere are quickly done away with. So is there a purpose besides trying to prove to ourselves that we aren't racists? :p
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To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Silence in the face of evil is evil itself."

Any glorification of Nazi Germany in the NationStates community should not and will not be tolerated, regardless of if it is necessarily able to be considered a threat; the ideology is evil and I'm proud to not remain silent in the face of even the tiniest presence of it.
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Is it useful at all if all it does is embolden them and give them free press?
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Although Nazism is a horrible ideology and should be done away with, the Nazis of NS are of minimal threat. Most of what's left of the far right prefers to isolate itself to regions of 20 nations or less, with only about four or five dedicated members per region. These members often have citizenship across other fascist regions. Doing some quick estimation, there are less than 55 dedicated, die-hard Nazis left, which are divided by minor differences. Of course, the only really tolerable number should be zero, but at the point where even if they all grouped together to form some sort of giant group they couldn't take over anything, I'd say CAIN has accomplished it's mission. This isn't even counting all of the independent-of-CAIN groups that have taken the initiative to infiltrate fascist regions and/or bring them down. I'd say that almost every remaining fascist group has been bugged with spies from the TWPAF/Sekhmet Legion, TCB, or TBH. I'd also say that within the next two years that Nazi groups will be cut in half by these efforts.

As Dubya would say, "Mission Accomplished."
 
I’ve been a vocal proponent of our anti-Nazi efforts for years, partly because I thought it was the right thing to do, and partly because I thought it was good for our brand. Maybe that’s still true, but this is an appropriate time to take stock.

A lot has changed since we made our first high-profile stand against in-game Naziism back in 2011. Although neo-Naziism is enjoying a renaissance of sorts IRL, Nazis are less prominent in NS than they once were. Most service providers won’t host their off-site forums anymore. Prominent defenders no longer pledge to defend Nazi regions from attack. Our independent stance is better understood, such that no one thinks we expose any form of “raider unity” (which was often used as a euphemism for tolerating Nazis). And of course, our own anti-Nazi efforts will be tainted for the foreseeable future by the legacy of Brunhilde.

Maybe there are still ways it makes sense for us to fight in-game Naziism, but if this Administration (or the next one, or the one after that) decides it’s time to declare victory and move on, I’m ok with that too.
 
Skizzy Grey said:
I’ve been a vocal proponent of our anti-Nazi efforts for years, partly because I thought it was the right thing to do, and partly because I thought it was good for our brand. Maybe that’s still true, but this is an appropriate time to take stock.

A lot has changed since we made our first high-profile stand against in-game Naziism back in 2011. Although neo-Naziism is enjoying a renaissance of sorts IRL, Nazis are less prominent in NS than they once were. Most service providers won’t host their off-site forums anymore. Prominent defenders no longer pledge to defend Nazi regions from attack. Our independent stance is better understood, such that no one thinks we expose any form of “raider unity” (which was often used as a euphemism for tolerating Nazis). And of course, our own anti-Nazi efforts will be tainted for the foreseeable future by the legacy of Brunhilde.

Maybe there are still ways it makes sense for us to fight in-game Naziism, but if this Administration (or the next one, or the one after that) decides it’s time to declare victory and move on, I’m ok with that too.
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I completely agree with this statement. In my opinion it's time to declare victory and move on. Any time we act against them they unify into a force that we cannot overcome on the battlefield and only beat in political circles if you only take into account people that already agree with us. Take Femdom Empire for example. A combination of inept military leadership and strategy (still salty about that) and sheer force of numbers, we made our own task impossible, and united them for no gain. That strategy is one that in my opinion, does not work.
 
Vac said:
Skizzy Grey said:
I’ve been a vocal proponent of our anti-Nazi efforts for years, partly because I thought it was the right thing to do, and partly because I thought it was good for our brand. Maybe that’s still true, but this is an appropriate time to take stock.

A lot has changed since we made our first high-profile stand against in-game Naziism back in 2011. Although neo-Naziism is enjoying a renaissance of sorts IRL, Nazis are less prominent in NS than they once were. Most service providers won’t host their off-site forums anymore. Prominent defenders no longer pledge to defend Nazi regions from attack. Our independent stance is better understood, such that no one thinks we expose any form of “raider unity” (which was often used as a euphemism for tolerating Nazis). And of course, our own anti-Nazi efforts will be tainted for the foreseeable future by the legacy of Brunhilde.

Maybe there are still ways it makes sense for us to fight in-game Naziism, but if this Administration (or the next one, or the one after that) decides it’s time to declare victory and move on, I’m ok with that too.
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I completely agree with this statement. In my opinion it's time to declare victory and move on. Any time we act against them they unify into a force that we cannot overcome on the battlefield and only beat in political circles if you only take into account people that already agree with us. Take Femdom Empire for example. A combination of inept military leadership and strategy (still salty about that) and sheer force of numbers, we made our own task impossible, and united them for no gain. That strategy is one that in my opinion, does not work.
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Its not a victory yet though
 

If you define “victory” as ridding NS of Nazis, you’ll never win, unless you persuade the NS mods to ban Naziism from the game — which might be feasible, but is really a separate discussion from the one we’re having here.

When I was in a leadership role, I always defined our objective as relegating Naziism to the outermost fringes of the game. One could argue that that goal has been achieved.

In any event, this isn’t the time for us to be making bold pronouncements of anti-Nazi policy — Brunhilde has left us in no position to do that. Whatever comes next after CAIN will likely be decided by others. At that point, we can decide if we want to play a role or if we’d rather focus on other priorities and leave the anti-Nazi fight to others. I’m not as convinced as Vac and Kylia that we should do the latter, but I’m not as committed as I once was to the idea that Europeia always needs to be at the forefront of anti-Nazi efforts.
 
Snowball said:
Vac said:
Skizzy Grey said:
I’ve been a vocal proponent of our anti-Nazi efforts for years, partly because I thought it was the right thing to do, and partly because I thought it was good for our brand. Maybe that’s still true, but this is an appropriate time to take stock.

A lot has changed since we made our first high-profile stand against in-game Naziism back in 2011. Although neo-Naziism is enjoying a renaissance of sorts IRL, Nazis are less prominent in NS than they once were. Most service providers won’t host their off-site forums anymore. Prominent defenders no longer pledge to defend Nazi regions from attack. Our independent stance is better understood, such that no one thinks we expose any form of “raider unity” (which was often used as a euphemism for tolerating Nazis). And of course, our own anti-Nazi efforts will be tainted for the foreseeable future by the legacy of Brunhilde.

Maybe there are still ways it makes sense for us to fight in-game Naziism, but if this Administration (or the next one, or the one after that) decides it’s time to declare victory and move on, I’m ok with that too.
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I completely agree with this statement. In my opinion it's time to declare victory and move on. Any time we act against them they unify into a force that we cannot overcome on the battlefield and only beat in political circles if you only take into account people that already agree with us. Take Femdom Empire for example. A combination of inept military leadership and strategy (still salty about that) and sheer force of numbers, we made our own task impossible, and united them for no gain. That strategy is one that in my opinion, does not work.
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Its not a victory yet though
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There will never be a complete victory, Snow. As long as there is clear, unified opposition towards Nazism, there will be an opposite reaction. However, the fact that we almost eradicated the ideology altogether from NS is proof that we can push it back to a manageable level.
 
Skizzy Grey said:
You’ll never win, unless you persuade the NS mods to ban Naziism from the game — which might be feasible, but is really a separate discussion from the one we’re having here.
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I did suggest during the creation of CAIN that we do try to lobby moderators for this very banning. What we have seen with the Astarial petition is that these efforts can be effective.
 
Skizzy Grey said:
If you define “victory” as ridding NS of Nazis, you’ll never win, unless you persuade the NS mods to ban Naziism from the game — which might be feasible, but is really a separate discussion from the one we’re having here.

When I was in a leadership role, I always defined our objective as relegating Naziism to the outermost fringes of the game. One could argue that that goal has been achieved.

In any event, this isn’t the time for us to be making bold pronouncements of anti-Nazi policy — Brunhilde has left us in no position to do that. Whatever comes next after CAIN will likely be decided by others. At that point, we can decide if we want to play a role or if we’d rather focus on other priorities and leave the anti-Nazi fight to others. I’m not as convinced as Vac and Kylia that we should do the latter, but I’m not as committed as I once was to the idea that Europeia always needs to be at the forefront of anti-Nazi efforts.
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I don't want to give up, I just don't know if making a big thing about it is worth our time. When Nazis become open to attack, yes, let's attack them, but otherwise, man, do we talk about Nazis a lot.

@Rach: Are you trying to be sarcastic? the Alstariel petion has done nothing whatsoever. They haven't even moved on the "defamation" rule
 

In response to the petition, the NS mods have said they will consider offsite evidence on a case-by-case basis. This is a terribly belated step, so it’s fair to withhold judgment until words are matched by actions, but I think Rach is right to say that the incident demonstrates that NS moderation can be moved by player opinion.
 
Skizzy Grey said:
In response to the petition, the NS mods have said they will consider offsite evidence on a case-by-case basis. This is a terribly belated step, so it’s fair to withhold judgment until words are matched by actions, but I think Rach is right to say that the incident demonstrates that NS moderation can be moved by player opinion.
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Yeah. They made a change to the rules a couple of days ago. It took a while to get there, but it's a definite improvement.
 
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