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So what the heck is Europeia anyways?

Can I join?

So, I came here representing another region? I do not want to become a citizen. Where should I go?

What offices are there for people to be elected into?

What is there for me to do in Europeia?

That answers most of my immediate questions. What if I have any more?


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How Aex Played Me; Op-ed
Topic Started: Jan 29 2017, 12:41 AM (1,449 Views)
Lethen
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Remember when I was famous? Neither do I.

Calvin Coolidge
Jan 29 2017, 07:32 PM
Kaboom
Jan 29 2017, 06:35 PM
Just curious: Calvin has his own paper. Why post this in the ENN and not the Panda's Pen?
Publishing this in my paper paints it as a certain type of article

Doesn't change the fact that it still reads as that certain type of article, though.

HEM
Jan 30 2017, 05:44 AM
I think Aex has proven he can win without the dramatic pity (cc: Lethen).

Cute. As I told you earlier when you texted me asking "why [I love] Aex so much (asking for a friend)," my "dramatic pity" (though you called it "aggressive" vis-a-vis text) was much less that I love Aex - I do think he'll be a good President - and much more "I'm getting tired of the hypocrisy" exhibited by many here. Frustrated by it, even. Irrationally salty, definitely.

Aex plays the political game well, and there's nothing wrong with that in a region as political as Europeia and a game like NationStates that is a political simulator. I have no qualms with that, but where I do take issue is the hypocrisy that drips from some people's posts and commentary, in private or public. Some may say "Lethen, hypocrisy is part of politics too!" But I deal with it enough in the RL (see: Republicans, subsection: coworkers), and if I can have some sort of curbing effect in Europeia, I am going to damn well say something.

In many ways I'm quite a hypocrite; however, if we're operating on the assumption that hypocrisy is okay in Europeia too then we'll run with it. Being out of politics in any official capacity gives me a unique viewpoint when people from various cliques and tracks of Europeian life come to me for idle chatter, political advice, etc. That's also the reason I've picked up the habit of talking behind someone's back and then telling them to their face later - why do I care about who I'll offend if I don't need their vote? :emb: And if they are offended, why? My complaints are rarely about their inherent character traits or personal life; I operate in trash-talking their politics.

Including those that like to paint Aex as this uber-adept and shrewd political operator who is "playing politics" 24/7 while they themselves are, apparently, being political in a more fair and straight-forward kind of way. Somehow. Or maybe its doing the same thing with regularity in one-on-one chats and within somewhat closed circles but arrogantly acting as if they aren't even though everyone is in on the secret? As I said in my other post, maybe Aex's mistake is getting caught and having it made public. None of us are exceptions, however. Calvin included, this article included.

And that's what frustrates me beyond reason, this hypocrisy. In Calvin's previous article on his Presidential ambitions, he talks about why he decided not to run. It has emotion and I don't doubt his sincerity - to a point. We aren't idiots. Regardless of whether or not you believe the narrative of a "toxic" Europeia has much merit, it was an incredibly adept move by someone with Presidential ambitions. Calvin has not only avoided an election that may expose his faults for a future run, but he has also co-opted the "toxic Europeia" narrative to paint himself as this selfless Presidential hopeful who decided to rise above it and not contribute to the toxicity further. Did it work? I can't tell you. I know some of us, myself included, were disappointed that Calvin decided to bypass the hard work of running a good and clean campaign, the kind that would combat "toxicity" in Europeia as it were, to instead bow out.

So what's next? Well, Calvin posted this article to vent and, more likely, weaken Aex's position. It's no secret that the cabal heavily mentored by Anumia that traditionally included Calvin, Kraken, and WL (though I feel he distanced himself over the last two terms) have often been opposed to Seymour, after all. And as with his first article, I think Calvin's emotions were justified, and I don't fault him for feeling slighted. I'm also not going to brush past Aex's screw-up in this case (he seriously needs to work on communication when it comes to nominations and picking people for a job :emb: ).

BUT the fact still stands that this is blatant hypocrisy. Ignoring the article breakdown above, Calvin failed to mention during this entire article that he was simultaneously planning his own Presidential run in secrecy. So secret, it seems, that HEM, Trinnien, and Mouse (iirc) were sworn to secrecy; the only snippets I heard about before weaseling it out of someone else were that it "was a former past President" and his short-list of VP's included HEM, Trinnien, and Rach. If you've sworn those in-the-know to secrecy and you're actively being coy - lying really - to the other Presidential candidate, that's politicking. That isn't any better than the political machinations that Aexnidaral is often criticized for, and honestly if Calvin isn't intentionally being this clever with his politics, then he is an idiot savant. :emb:

To be clear, Calvin isn't the only one guilty of playing politics regularly and criticizing Aex in public for those things. And it's not that I really like Aex or that I really hate Calvin. It's that I am both frustrated and disgusted with blatant hypocrisy, and if we want things to be on the up-and-up, then our behavior must reflect that desire.
me, basically (click)

A letter to a friend

By the Prophetical Blessing of Nethel, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic of Europeia and the states within, Destined Overseer of His rightful yet forgotten realms of Estalcia and Old Europe and Crystal Falls, Defender of the Faith and New Jersey, and Heir to the concept of Sarcasm
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Jahka
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My opinion is largely immaterial. However, I think Calvin's complaint is severely dampened by the fact he accepted the position while planning his own Presidential run. That is atleast just as disingenuous as what Aex did.
AMDG
“et verbum caro factum est”
Peace, Love, Jahka,
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Mousebumples
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If you give this mouse a cookie, she'll probably ask for some cheese.

Did anyone link this Grand Hall thread yet? I think it's been referenced, but anyhow.

My take is fairly straightforward: I think this was politicking, but that's not inherently a bad thing since we are a political region.

I don't know if Aex is trying to play this off as being an accident and completely unintentional or not since I'm not sure how to read some of his comments, but that I'd call bullshit on. He clearly knows how to phrase an offer as not being an explicit offer - as indicated in the phrasing he gave to Fort in that thread. If he wants to continue to operate in such a way, that's his prerogative. Since I don't plan to be in Cabinet again, it won't really affect me, but this should perhaps serve as the second notice to Europeians that all offers of positions from Aex should be considered soft until actually publicly announced.
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hyanygo


Cerian Quilor
Jan 30 2017, 08:32 PM

Many of the metas and analyses I have read there have been as complex and deep or more so than some of the best stuff I've read here in Euro and the rest of NS.
wot m8

Nuttin is better den euro
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