How Aex Played Me

HEM

former
Jorts Connoisseur
Honoured Citizen
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he / him / his
"How Aex Played Me"
Written by Calvin Coolidge
Op-Ed

2016 was coming to a close, and the barrage of celebrity deaths, dank memes, and holiday spirit was finally wearing down when a message came in from Aexnidaral Seymour on Discord.
The message acknowledged that we were not particularly close, but he respected the way I conduct myself, and he wanted me on his Cabinet as Grand Admiral. I accepted the position as soon as I got the message, and was genuinely excited at the prospect of having that position in the next term, should my planned run for the Presidency fail. Aex was equally excited at the prospect of having me aboard, then promised he would come back to me soon, and ask for my input on his platform, and any plans I would have for the position.
Two weeks went by before I was contacted again, and this time Aex let me into his private campaign planning server, where things could be further developed. I initially accepted the offer to join the group server, but immediately grew uneasy once I saw all the planning being done for all the other Cabinet positions. As I was still planning on running against Aex for the Presidency, I did not feel comfortable having access to all this potential information ahead of the race. I translated my concerns to Aex through the guise of being a Grand Admiral pick for another Presidential ticket, and he understood my concerns. I left the server, and told him that we could plan over PM, if he so wished.
Between both my time in the campaign server and the following weeks before the platform was released, Aex never actually reached out to me for planning once. In fact, Aex hardly reached out to me at all during that time, even when I released my “I Choose Not To Run” piece, and asked for his opinion. The platform for his Presidential ticket was released, and I was surprised I wasn’t consulted, but I figured Aex just decided to come up with the plan on his own, which is his right, as the candidate. The next message I got from Aex was about seven hours before the polls closed, when Aex told me he was dropping me from his Cabinet in favor of another candidate. I was shocked, and hurt.

Aex told me that at the time he was “considering me”, and had not tried to make this a “done deal”. However, inviting me to his campaign server, promising to get my vision in his platform, and even saying in another message “you’d be my GA” seems like a pretty done deal to me. I was never under any impression that I was not Aex’s final choice, until seven hours before the election ended. This was highly misleading by Aex and a great breach of trust. He can spin it however he wants, but this hurts me. I was looking forward to a position that I have trained for most of my time in Europeia. I have been in talks with multiple past Grand Admirals, asking for advice and guidance once I get to the position, and was ready to jump headfirst into this position.

I know that the final decision is up to Aex, and I’m not saying he can’t pick who he wants in his Cabinet, but the fact that I was misled for as long as I was is just wrong. He can say he made the decision late in the game, but he told me he made this decision while planning the platform with the other candidates for the position. Something he promised to do with me from the start, but never did. I can’t imagine why he would not do this with me, unless he had perhaps already made his choice in the other person’s favor and simply neglected to tell me, but that would be quite cruel if that were the case.

It’s simple to send a message and let someone know your mind has changed, but Aex couldn’t do it until pretty much the last possible second. He blindsided me when he absolutely didn’t have to. To me, this speaks volumes about how he will act as a leader, and as a President. This could have disastrous consequences if he carries these actions into Foreign Affairs, or other dealings with people not as familiar with how the government normally operates. Aex has even been caught up in a similar situation a while back when he promised multiple Senators the Deputy Speakership, before making his decision without informing the others. This is now a proven pattern for how Aex operates, and we can’t tolerate it anymore.

This was an Op-Ed submitted to ENN by an outside party. The views and opinions in this piece may or may not reflect ENN's.
 
It looks like some of the images fell out of order. Here is what the fourth message is supposed to be

My thanks to HEM for publishing this. I just want people to have more of a complete story behind this nomination, and the way things happened behind the scenes. Aex is free to choose who he wants, but there are better ways of going about it, in my book.
 
Yeah, man, I definitely handled this situation poorly and I genuinely apologize.
 
Aexnidaral Seymour said:
Yeah, man, I definitely handled this situation poorly and I genuinely apologize.
I guess the big question is why wait so late to tell Calvin once you changed your mind? Surely you didn't change your mind right before you told him.
 
I think the big question is why is this news?

A decision was made, Calvin didn't get nominated. It happens all the time. Still, I suppose a news article is more diplomatic than threatening to ruin someone's political career.
 
Ninja Kittens said:
I think the big question is why is this news?

A decision was made, Calvin didn't get nominated. It happens all the time. Still, I suppose a news article is more diplomatic than threatening to ruin someone's political career.
Because it's news. And it decidedly doesn't happen all the time. It's an interesting, if confirmatory, piece for me. That is, it isn't quite news to me and it's in large why I disagree with Aex on his fitness.

I can't quite believe just how confirmatory the last few hours have been --- he doesn't know how to man manage. He didn't as Speaker, he doesn't in his Cabinet picks and he hasn't with Calvin. And he's probably unconsciously aware of it too, otherwise why would he buck the trend and elevate NES to CoS?

I hope he gets better at it. Really.
 
I don't really think that's fair. Some of the cabinet picks may be controversial, but you've failed to give them a chance.

This situation was handled poorly, definitely, but it's hardly a confirmation of anything but a rocky start. Stop wagging your finger.
 
When Cal said "I accept," that was the time for any clarification if Aex wasn't sure.

Cal should rightly feel as if he were made the offer formally and accepted it, and that he was the pick.

Nothing wrong with a President changing his mind, but not communicating it is poor form. Appears Aex recognizes that.
 
Brunhilde said:
I don't really think that's fair. Some of the cabinet picks may be controversial, but you've failed to give them a chance.

This situation was handled poorly, definitely, but it's hardly a confirmation of anything but a rocky start. Stop wagging your finger.
I was tempted to include a proviso of "at least in the eyes of a few people right now", but that ruins the cadence. There are at least two people that I'm unconvinced by mostly because they been so dismissive of themselves. That and their historic record has been hit and miss, and definitely a miss with one of the two.

I'm interested in seeing how Aex manages the time of his team but a small part of me thinks that it won't be Aex doing this critical activity but NES. I hope I'm wrong and he's a better President than he was Speaker, or Senator for that matter (let's not forget that in #senate we see the same type of behaviour Calvin has been subjected to).

But to be fair, managing the goals, direction, energy and resources of the team is only a chunk of what it means to be President.

 
You know, one of the things I've noticed is that the longer since my joining Europeia, the more I tend to agree with Hy.
 
Cerian Quilor said:
You know, one of the things I've noticed is that the longer since my joining Europeia, the more I tend to agree with Hy.
Same.

You think... No... Maybe... Can't be...

Do you think he's always been right and that... Maybe we were wrong sometimes? :O
 
Seven Deaths said:
Cerian Quilor said:
You know, one of the things I've noticed is that the longer since my joining Europeia, the more I tend to agree with Hy.
Same.

You think... No... Maybe... Can't be...

Do you think he's always been right and that... Maybe we were wrong sometimes? :O
*Fake upper-class british accent*

What a truly dreadful thought, dear me! :gentleman:

----

The possibility has not escaped me. I think that is, to be fair, part of it. But I also think that many of our disagreements weren't ones that were necessarily right/wrong yes/no sort of issues, and instead, it's more than our views have changed or rather, our perspectives have changed.

But yeah... he was probably right some of the times we disagreed with him.

That or there's something in the water here.
 
I think you're broadly right Cerian. As I've said in my Hall of Fame interview, I've accepted that I can disagree and agree --- it's scarily novel for me.

Part of it comes from getting into the real-world and acknowledging failure. Back in 2007-2012 I was quite, well, the stereotypical hyanygo. That coincided with a period of success after success after success for me. In the real world, things are much more grey and success isn't so obvious so I've become more measured and suggestive.

I think a twenty-year old hy would be unfairly brusque --- I thankful that's mostly gone now.
 
hyanygo said:
I think you're broadly right Cerian. As I've said in my Hall of Fame interview, I've accepted that I can disagree and agree --- it's scarily novel for me.

Part of it comes from getting into the real-world and acknowledging failure. Back in 2007-2012 I was quite, well, the stereotypical hyanygo. That coincided with a period of success after success after success for me. In the real world, things are much more grey and success isn't so obvious so I've become more measured and suggestive.

I think a twenty-year old hy would be unfairly brusque --- I thankful that's mostly gone now.
Might also be, for me, all the time I spent on tumblr and in fandom these last two years. The enviroment is very different from Europeia, and so how you handle yourself and disagreement is very different - especially in fandom it is easy to see the other side of the argument. So you learn to do it all the time.

Plus, I do think I've matured myself in that time. But I have to agree with yout about the way RL can slap you in the face, hard, when compared to NS.
 
Deary me, tumblr and fandom. You used to podcast on Herodotus (I still have your mp3s by the by --- I knew I'd see you again). F--k me, what a fall from grace.

Tuts*
 
I was always in Fandom. Fandom and Fanfiction was the first thing I spent a lot of time on the internet on. I still do history, I just don't do history as a social matter - my online social life was Fandom Tumblr.
 
hyanygo said:
Deary me, tumblr and fandom. You used to podcast on Herodotus (I still have your mp3s by the by --- I knew I'd see you again). F--k me, what a fall from grace.

Tuts*
Lol. I think I don't actually have them. That was a computer ago, I believe.
 
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