How Aex Played Me

Kaboom said:
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, and the feel I want for this article is more ENN than Panda's Pen, if you feel me. Also, I wanted the support of an independent publisher when disclosing this issue.
 
Calvin Coolidge said:
Kaboom said:
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, and the feel I want for this article is more ENN than Panda's Pen, if you feel me. Also, I wanted the support of an independent publisher when disclosing this issue.
Oh, I see. Sounds fair.
 
Pichtonia said:
I can't know or speak for his intentions.

What I can say, however, is that this article and the discussion evolving around it are, either purposefully or unintentionally, an overreaction -- Which ever so often comes from the same individuals. You are correct that my comments probably aren't helpful, and neither is this whole thing. Truthfully those who villainize Aex will continue to do it either publicly or secretly no matter what is said. I'm just not interested in letting this degenerate into a one-sided celebration of how bad and insidious our President is.
I am growing so weary of this "poor Aex is always attacked" narrative. Aex plays NS for keeps, I respect him for doing so, but since coming back to Europeia I do not believe he has been treated fundamentally unfairly. For instance: betting odds say Aex is about to get his entire Cabinet confirmed, despite the unorthodox picks and questionable management methods used to arrive at those picks. Wheras I remember a few months back a new, eager president who had his first Cabinet picks stonewalled by Aex (and others). ;)

Which is like, fine. But let's not all soak up the melodrama and pretend the world is out to get the man. He just won an uncontested election Jesus Christ. I think Aex has proven he can win without the dramatic pity (cc: Lethen).
 
Cerian Quilor said:
Fandom Tumblr.
Isn't this code for "increasingly shameful and fetishistic pornography"? :blink:
 
Potchen said:
Cerian Quilor said:
Fandom Tumblr.
Isn't this code for "increasingly shameful and fetishistic pornography"? :blink:
Nope.

Is there weird and fetishistic porn on tumblr? Yeah, it's the internet. About the only corners of the internet wherein you can't find porn are places where it is explicitly banned, and sometimes not even then. But fanfiction is not just 'porn' and neither is fandom Tumblr. It's just a lot of people who like a given book/show/movie and want to talk about it, the characters and the themes, etc.

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.
 
Calvin Coolidge said:
Kaboom said:
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 said:
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Cerian Quilor said:
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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