Opinion: Coalition for Irresponsible Politics




Opinion: Coalition for Irresponsible Politics
I'm all for politicking, but let's stop pretending it's "responsible"
Written by Aexnidaral









Hi.

I'm Aexnidaral Seymour. I know most of you already know me, but some of you may know me better as "a shithead uselessfucktard shitbag who needs to be kicked out the region for extreme fail" or any number of other less interesting but equally insulting names.

Recently one of the last remaining vestiges of the politics of 2016-2017, the Coalition for Responsible Politics, (CfRP) shuttered for good. As any person thirsty for the tea would do, I decided to check their recently public-archived subforums to see exactly what went down. I had heard rumors. I wanted to take a trip down memory lane to when I was the Big Evil. What I wound up stumbling upon was something far more interesting.

Before being shuttered the Party left their Discord invitation thread up. Being still thirsty for that tea and wanting to see what shade had been thrown, my inner drama gay clicked the link and searched for my name. To my surprise Discord returned to me (drumroll please) nearly 500 direct results and about 20 pages of hits. Look ma, I'm popular! I did more digging into what was being said about me, but first I wanted to do some quick searches of other Europeians that were flashpoints or seen to be antagonists by the Party at some point.

Here are the grand totals:
Aex - 496 results, 20 pages
Rach - 432 results, 18 pages
WL / Gleg - 192 results, 8 pages
GraV - 53 results, 3 pages
Pichto - 91 results, 4 pages

That is just monumentally incredible! Look, I get that I'm often annoying politically but spending 20 pages talking about (largely) how much you hate me or how much you want me to be kicked out of the region because I'm a useless shitbag is a little much. If I'm taking up that much of anyone's headspace you may need to focus on something else. I'm neither that important nor that worthy of taking up so much time. But I get it!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to say that everything that was said in the forums or Discord are morally reprehensible, and we should all be outraged. In fact, fuck that. Look, this is a political simulator where we've all clashed, we've all gotten outsized egos, and most of our skin is thinner than we let on. We've all said terrible, awful things about each other to others under the auspices of it being private. We say things out of frustration, out of anger, or just out of sheer exhaustion. I've done it. We've all done it. No one has a moral high ground here.

What I am saying though is that it is hilarious, in a way that I can't accurately describe, that a political party who prided themselves as "citizens of Europeia who are working to encourage, foster, and advocate for the betterment of the political environment within our region" spent so much time not doing that at all. In fact there was engagement in some clear and disproportionately irresponsible politics.

One of the best examples of this are when GraV and I applied to join CfRP. Our applications weren't malicious; we weren't trying to be spies. I figured my application would be denied, and having been told similarly by someone in CfRP, I withdrew the application so as to not make a fuss.

When I read this, the takeaway for me was that one of the weighted reasons GraV was denied was because of his association to me. He was too close to me. Frankly GraV and I are friendly, but we're not BFFs. Even if we were, who cares? Who cares if he is associated with me? That's some pretty irresponsible politics. Obviously, political parties have the right to deny any applicant for various reasons, but this is where it gets silly to deny someone and still pretend your practicing responsible politics.

This was another example that just made me chuckle both because it's fundamentally untrue, and it's just dumb. Yes, when I first came to Europeia I joined the Loaded Baked Potato Party (LBPP), and we transformed it into the Action Coalition of Europeia (ACE). As the leader of the Party I did what I felt any good leader would do: engage in politicking and electioneering to help the candidate we endorsed. I can understand why certain people would feel like the party was turned against them when they supported someone else but to claim that it was all me with my friends and sycophants is misleading. Actually it is just a lie. There's some irony to this statement (and others like it), a complete lack of self awareness in calling out someone's "sycophants" in a chat where they spend 90% of their own time digging on the people they dislike. That's some pretty tone-deaf sycophantic behavior in and of itself.



This is just patently hypocritical, and I'm going to out myself. During the Cat/WL v Brun/Rand and Darc/Sopo v Brun/JD -> Rach elections, I helped the non-Brunhilde tickets. I did not like Brunhilde. I felt something was "off" about them and was frankly miffed that they'd run for President so soon after being appointed Vice Chancellor without really having done anything after resigning as my VP and leaving me out to dry. I didn't think they'd make a good President so I helped out the other tickets. I didn't do the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) myself, if I can remember, but I gave my advice to their campaigns and attempted to walk them through my strategy on how to target voters and get them out to vote. One election it worked; the other it didn't. What's striking to me here is the complaints that were lobbed at me for doing this until they decided that they needed, or wanted it, or until I was on their side. You can't hate me or my methods until I'm useful to you. That's not responsible politics.

I have to admit that when I first read the "#reasons" quote I sent it to a few people, including WL himself, and asked them what they thought of it. I'm not sure what the implication was, and I don't want to say that I 100% know it was malicious but what immediately came into my mind was how the air quotes could imply something less innocuous. "That ol' WL is endorsin' Aex for *eyebrow waggle* 'reasons'." That's probably not a fair reading of it, and I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that it isn't but, regardless, I would like to clear the air and say that WL and I have no attraction to one another, and the only reason WL and I have ever endorsed each other is because we think we're qualified or would do well in the position. It's not because we think the other is smoking hot. Throw me a grimace emoji, folks. The follow-up I want to say here is that all of these people endorsed me when I ran for World Assembly Delegate (WAD) for their own reasons. It doesn't mean that they did it so I would owe them favors or vice versa.



There's dozens upon dozens of other examples of this kind of hypocrisy... I mean a lot of plainly nasty, cruel, and untrue things said about fellow Europeians in that chat. But what bothers me the most having read through it is the "Aex/WL/Rach turn everything into Us v Them while we advocate Us v Them, but it's okay because we're us, and they're them.", this "GOTV is awful but lets coordinate our campaigns and messaging to canvass for votes-- oh good they're on our side this time", irresponsible politicking while pretending to have the moral high ground. They played the part of Anakin thinking they were Obi-Wan and much like Anakin now they've got no legs to stand on.

As an outsider looking in, as someone who was seen as one of the primary antagonists for CfRP, it seems to me that the party was animated around combating me first and foremost when I was President. Then, when I started to fade away and become less of a Big Evil, Writinglegend took up that mantle. When Writinglegend started to fade away again, Rach took up that mantle. When Rach started to fade away again there was...not much left. Alliances shifted, politics shifted, and the primary pushers against the Big Evils retired or left.

I'm not here to pretend to have the moral high ground and say I haven't engaged in politicking or that I haven't said things I regret - because holy shit I absolutely have. I have engaged in dark, seedy politics, some of which I regret, but frankly no more or less than anyone else in Europeia that's held or run for high office. This is a political simulator; this is what happens. But we need to make sure we don't repeat some of this nonsense from behind the auspices of the morality of "Responsible Politics".

This is your mostly incompetent fool, that you don't want to be like signing off!
 
This is an extreme turn off for me. This kind of backbiting politics is toxic.
 
It is gloriously ironic that the party founded on the goal of responsibility was possibly the most toxic of any party I have seen in my time in Europeia.
 
Lhwk2112 - 08/13/2017
tbh i'm not sure gleg is really one of those serious politicians but what do i know
i mean he obviously is qualified
Boomer - 08/13/2017
Gleg trolls a lot about political campaigns
Lhwk2112 - 08/13/2017
but i think he plays this game more relaxed than others
Boomer - 08/13/2017
but when he's serious, he's dedicated
I can't really shittalk Gleg because he's had my back through a lot of stuff though
Lhwk2112 - 08/13/2017
does gleg have any political enemies
Boomer - 08/13/2017
Mouse.
Lhwk2112 - 08/13/2017
whaat
really
one day when gleg is president again i am going to get him to appoint me as court jester
Kylia Quilor - 08/13/2017
Gleg and Mouse don't get along for reasons that are all Gleg's fault
and Gleg is a politico - he's part of the clicque that Kraken started way back when
and Aex is a member
Mousebumples - 11/02/2017
i seriously am not invested enough in europeia to mount vendettas
and i agree that WL and NES can and should stand up for themselves and not get rach to do their dirty work for them
but, whatever, at this point
Seven Deaths - 08/25/2017
Idk, man. I know he does good work and I used to be friends with him, but the more time I spent with him around, the more I hated him. He's an incredibly annoying troll and seems fairly disrespectful when he doesn't need to be too Presidential.
Seven Deaths - 08/25/2017
I'm not a fan of either Brun or Rand, but I hate WL. Literally only voted for Cat because I love Cat. Only person on any of the tickets I liked.

It is beyond clear that the Coalition for Responsible Politics was nothing more than a back-drop for a regional clique, giving them a private area to spew malarkey and spread false information to other members in an attempt to demonize a few individuals -- notable Aex, Rach, NES, and myself. This stands for everything against the manifesto providing by the Coalition for 'Responsible' Politics, which ironically opposed 'cliques' and 'private discord conversations'. Everything this party stood for was a lie, and it is becoming more and more clear that this was a sad political attempt by a few usual suspects to turn a region against a few individuals.

It is a little sad to see, considering Aex and everyone else had no way to defend themselves from the false assertions made by Mouse, Kylia, and Seven Deaths that was thrusted on to new players who joined the party. It is especially sad when an abundant of these false assertions are personal attacks -- such as calling someone an 'incredibly annoying troll' -- or pseudo-homosexual remarks (#reasons).

In no way are any of these statements based in reality. I am not an 'incredibly annoying troll', I simply play this game much more relaxed than other individuals because that is what makes it fun. I do not get Rach to do 'dirty work'. Aex and I are not secret lovers. The me and Mouse situation is well-documented, and I think it is clear that such a situation began with a breach of confidentiality when Mouse released secret information from Tomlinson to reinforce a hit-piece. None of these comments provided by CfRP members are based in reality. It is sad that this political party was used for personal attacks rather than regional action.

Everyone involved in these logs should be ashamed of themselves. This is, by and large, the most toxic political party I have seen in my time here.
 
I am so sorry Aex and all others that were affected by this.. :( Politics should not be this way. I know I don't have the best understanding of how politics work, as I have generally tried to avoid them due to them being rather frightening at times, but.. nothing should be like that. ;-;
 
Wasn’t really planning on doing anything here but since both my former party and my name are cited in this article I guess I will have to write a partial dissent:

This is an eye-opener, and truly an excellent (should I say Aex-cellent) article. I was not aware of what happened there after I left and am shocked.

This having been said, I would like to point out a few fallacies and biases that spoil this great article whose intention, I doubt not, was pointing out the uneuropeian abuses of isolated members of the party, but that can been understood in a way that conveys the message that the entire party was nothing but a corrupt society of mud throwers. So, of course, nobody will be surprised if I offer a partial dissent of what is written to prove that some members, not the coalition itself, are guilty of irresponsible politics. I insist that this is not in support of those members who have been quoted, but rather in support of a group that is unfairly on the recieving end of an argument stained with a fallacy of composition.

As I have said, I am very sure this article aims to condemn individual members for their hateful speech and not the totality of former party members. I will assume that the title is a fair-game clickbait as is done very often in journalism because "Some members have been irresponsible" generates less interest than "the whole party was corrupt from the start!". We've all done this kind of titling and there is nothing too fundamentally wrong. The body of the article is what I call the excellent part. Of course, some phrases like the following are the result of rightful indignation that blurs vision:
Aexnidaral said:
the party was animated around combating me first and foremost
Overall the article is not a rubbish of biased opinions but rather a collection of truths that are only very slightly construed, intentionally or not (I believe in the "not" option) to picture the CRP as a bunch of barbarians.

The author claims to have to
Aexnidaral said:
have decided to check their recently public-archived subforums to see exactly what went down
He must have been very disappointed to see a subforum where members discussed candidate nominations, analysed the latest Cabinet picks, endorsed members and outsiders for Senate and CA Chair elections, elaborated bylaws, helped its members create platforms and debated law projects...all in all a very banal party indeed. And this is what most of the members of the CRP lived for: a party that would help them climb the Europeian ladder, a party where they could openly talk of regional politics in a respectful manner, a party that would promote the advancement of Europeia.

This is of course a not very fruitful finding for somebody who is not a great fan of the party. So, of course, there is not one line on what the author found in the subforum. That is a shame, but I totally understand that giving a balanced analysis is not the aim of an opinion article. This is why I am posting, after all, to offer viewers this other point of view: that of a member that came to feed himself from the genius of some of the party's experienced and gifted members such as Drecq, HEM, Darcness or Mousebumples. The party was, in its hayday, a hub for exchanging knowledge. Some citizens may be surprised to find, when browsing this subforum, completely legitimate ideas such as the failed States project. Maybe they will be perplexed to see that this whole subforum was completely forgotten in the dark behind the spotlight. A party that works towards internal reflections on how to turn beautifully turned phrases into a coherent plan is not a great enemy. It is hard to paint evil by showing a party demonstrating reflection upon how it should render the application process more comfortable and gratifying for applicants. A strawman is better.

The article did not suggest the whole party was evil, I am aware. But the conclusions taken by reading just this point of view are inaccurate and very harsh for a majority of party members. Now, the CRP was not a consortium of angels: thread title baiting was taking place and, of course, what I discover before my eyes on what happened on Discord flabbergasts me. But suggesting that:
Writinglegend said:
the most toxic political party I have seen in my time here.
Only means that more people must read what happened both in the subforum and on Discord, and forge a balanced and nuanced opinion. My personal conclusion to all this concurs with part of Writinglegend’s, namely:
Writinglegend said:
It is sad that this political party was used for personal attacks rather than regional action.

This article is a good article, an interesting read and a major piece that rightfully condemns intolerable hatefulness. I am just warning about the dangers of taking it beyond its word and not considering the other side of the argument. The part does not make the whole.

I emphasize with all those who have been insulted in a non-joking way by many of the party’s former members, and do wish to hear some explanation for those actions. I do not consider it is becoming of our region that citizens express such hurtful and immature messages. But I will not remain silent in front of citizens who unfairly suggest the whole party was toxic and that all its former members should be ashamed. Both the author and readers of the article are to intelligent to believe it seriously.

Thanks for the article, EBc and Aex :cheers: .
 
I'd like to point out that I did help found the party as they needed a third member, but essentially left not long thereafter; I've always found political parties to be useless in Europeia and NationStates regions as a whole. I do agree with Grizzli that a wide brush is being used here, but I can't say I'm surprised seeing the biggest offenders - Mouse, Cerian, etc.

I suppose I should have known about the Discord-side of things. I don't know if I ever joined their Discord - is that invite link still active? - but I don't think I did. Some of you may not believe this, but there were a good few times in private where I was quick to rebuke Trinn, Mouse, etc. for their decidedly anti-Aex/Rach/WL/etc. stances. Not because I necessarily liked those players, but because I thought the attacks (even in private) were less about their politics and more about them personally. I'm all for punching above the belt with political stances; I'm not a big fan of punching below the belt with personal attacks (though I'm no dope, obviously Rach has been the exception to that rule and I've regretted those instances).

Was the fleece being pulled over my eyes with this thread? I really want to see if the positive attitudes there match what was being said concurrently over Discord. I doubt it. I'm also curious to see what they were saying about *me* after I left and took some positions they may not have agreed with (e.g. Mouse once tried to rip my head off in a chat for simply stating that I voted for a candidate she was convinced would "destroy the region" or something - it may have been pre-scandal Brun).

For whatever it's worth, Aex, I'm sorry this happened. Not surprised, but sorry you and others were unfairly attacked.
 
Excellent post Grizzli. It's a shame that innocent players are being demonised in much the same way Aex was.
 
Grizzli said:
I emphasize with all those who have been insulted in a non-joking way by many of the party’s former members, and do wish to hear some explanation for those actions. I do not consider it is becoming of our region that citizens express such hurtful and immature messages. But I will not remain silent in front of citizens who unfairly suggest the whole party was toxic and that all its former members should be ashamed.
If people were in the discord and said nothing, then those people should be ashamed because they were part of something incredibly toxic. If people were not on the discord then I could understand the unfairness aspect you bring up here. But people on the discord really have no excuse.

It is mainly the fault of the people who established and created such a toxic environment there. But there is also culpability from people who stayed there and said nothing.
 
To clarify, because it feels like the purpose of this article is being missed: this article merely is attempting the highlight the immense hypocrisy from the former party that claimed to be "responsible" and act as though they were the political moral authority while doing literally everything they claimed to dislike about other people's and party's political gamesmanship.
 
Rach said:
Grizzli said:
I emphasize with all those who have been insulted in a non-joking way by many of the party’s former members, and do wish to hear some explanation for those actions. I do not consider it is becoming of our region that citizens express such hurtful and immature messages. But I will not remain silent in front of citizens who unfairly suggest the whole party was toxic and that all its former members should be ashamed.
If people were in the discord and said nothing, then those people should be ashamed because they were part of something incredibly toxic. If people were not on the discord then I could understand the unfairness aspect you bring up here. But people on the discord really have no excuse.

It is mainly the fault of the people who established and created such a toxic environment there. But there is also culpability from people who stayed there and said nothing.
I would just like to point out that a lot of people don't read back through everything on the discords, There are also people who have 10, 20, 30+ discord servers and don't look at some of them unless pinged, and this argument is at best, flawed
 
Aexnidaral Seymour said:
To clarify, because it feels like the purpose of this article is being missed: this article merely is attempting the highlight the immense hypocrisy from the former party that claimed to be "responsible" and act as though they were the political moral authority while doing literally everything they claimed to dislike about other people's and party's political gamesmanship.
I hope people pay attention to this clarification because it's important. In that vein, this article makes a good and important point.

But some people are taking this article from the moralistic high ground of, "oh, how could people say these things??" And yes, some of the comments here are perhaps beyond pale, but in a game based on politics, we should expect some harsh language behind closed doors.

I certainly, will not walk into this thread and pretend to be a saint. If someone went through all my DMs through time and fished out a few dozens of the worst ones, I'm sure I would appear to be a gigantic dick. I would really urge most here to avoid the "holier than thou" shtick that is pretty tempting in situations like these.

Again, the point of "a party claiming to be about reasonable, respectful politics did not live by those values" is a good one. Just wanted to push back a little on the other stuff.
 
HEM said:
But some people are taking this article from the moralistic high ground of, "oh, how could people say these things??" And yes, some of the comments here are perhaps beyond pale, but in a game based on politics, we should expect some harsh language behind closed doors.
Harsh language is one thing -- this is another.
 
Comrade Prim said:
HEM said:
But some people are taking this article from the moralistic high ground of, "oh, how could people say these things??" And yes, some of the comments here are perhaps beyond pale, but in a game based on politics, we should expect some harsh language behind closed doors.
Harsh language is one thing -- this is another.
As I said, some comments, in my stance, went beyond the pale. I'm just hesitant to cast the first stone here -- and so should some other people probably.
 
Aex, thank you for this piece. This has honestly started some deep self reflection I don’t think otherwise would be possible.

I concur with Grizzli’s partial dissent. But I also agree with Rach. I didn’t always closely follow the Discord conversations, but I often knew in general that they occurring, and I didn’t have the inclination to stop them. I take responsibility for my actions: ranging from being complacent while insults and personal attacks were thrown at those defenseless to actually participating at times where the party sustained a toxic environment. It was irresponsible. It was stupid. And now it has deeply damaged my integrity. The tombstone thing was intended to be a private joke, but intent is often meaningless. It was insensitive and disrespectful to someone who had worked hard to win a competitive election. And so I want to apologize to those I deeply hurt. Not just from that, but from other insensitive things I’ve stated. I have often silently been prided myself in being someone who didn’t personally attack others and get caught up in pettiness, but it’s ironic to realize how contrary this was when I look back.

I’m glad my eyes were opened to this.
 
Oh I know I'm double posting, but I'm going to say that I hope those involved behind the scenes with this level of hidden toxic nature never get honoured citizenship here.
 
Shin said:
Oh I know I'm double posting, but I'm going to say that I hope those involved behind the scenes with this level of hidden toxic nature never get honoured citizenship here.
As others have said here, for a lot of the players involved this is more a snapshot than the entire portrait. If we took most Europeians' DMs, posts, etc. active during our most political moments or talking about their most disliked players (admittedly moving things into the public sphere as well, although you specify "behind the scences"), then none of us would get honored citizenship. :emb:

Not saying we should excuse the behavior, but I also wouldn't want any positives swept away while we try to wash out the negatives, especially for many players where the former actions greatly outweigh the latter.
 
Back
Top