Osiris Fraternal Order

I like your name.
I also like that you had a Draining the Swamp part of your manifesto.

Sygian wrote:Sat Dec 24, 2016 5:59 amI look forward to seeing how the Chief Vizier elections turn out, good luck PT!

Vaclav Vinograd wrote:Sat Dec 24, 2016 5:41 pmI also like that you had a Draining the Swamp part of your manifesto.

Thank you so much for your support! We're going to give Osiris back to the people, drain the swamp of the past, and MAKE OSIRIS FRATERNAL AGAIN!

Let me just start off by announcing that I read this whole thing. The whole damn thing. And I am a lazy motherfucker, but the importance of this election trumps that, at least to me. And I'm going to respond to it.

So let me just start by repeating an opinion I expressed on Discord a little while back about "democratic" leadership in online communities: I don't like it. I've seen it before, on MMOs, and it sucks. When the guy sitting at the top of a group online is "democratically" elected, it fosters an environment where antisocial cliques are climbing the fuck all over each other trying to sit at the top of the pyramid. It is ugly and nasty. And when I ventured off the website (Nationstates) itself and into the social aspect of this region and joined the forum and the Discord I admired that the Pharaoh wasn't "elected" or chosen in any sort of bullshit politics: he was the guy in charge who picked the next guy to be in charge based on them being right for the job. Yeah, there's a confirmation, but the leadership here has been solid enough to make a choice that nobody really has a problem with. And that's what I want to see in a game. If things weren't run that way, if I had found a bunch of people trying to fuck each other in order to be the guy on top, I frankly would have just left.

And things seemed pretty chill. So I worked on the polls, goofed off on the Discord, bugged people to join the forum and the map, spammed like an asshole, read things here and there on the forum, then kind of disappeared for a while to take care of exams. But I'm back and when I got back I found that shit was blowing up, and now I see this. And clearly things are not as laid back as I had imagined. But at this point I am rooted here and have friends here and am hardly at the stage where I would just leave. And if it is not obvious already, I will have you know that I support Adytus for this position and wouldn't even consider another candidate, but probably wouldn't be as aggressive as I'm being now if I hadn't read the shit I just fucking read.

Adytus is the reason I am here. When I came here in October, Adytus was the one who PMed me (or telegrammed) about getting involved. Adytus was the one who told me where to go, what to do, how to do it, and why. If I had a question Adytus would know the answer. And Adytus brought me into the government as vizier of community affairs and helped me figure out how things worked here when frankly I don't know if anyone would have if I had continued to just play on the site and not go out of my way to bother anybody. I have only ever seen the guy be nice and work hard, and when I replied to him with a stubborn asshole attitude he was only ever patient and persistent. And here I am reading this shit about "draining the swamp" and how Adytus isn't for "the people." Like, if I'm not "the people", and everyone else who likes Adytus (yeah, you got two nominations, but Adytus got EIGHT), who the fuck are the people? Please tell me. Because clearly it's not me.

So yeah, on that note, on to your posts. Drain the swamp? "Bring in new people into the political process who will run for government roles and bring in fresh, new ideas?" If me and Syg and Greyghost all running for Chief Scribe doesn't count to this, what fucking does? And all the other new people joining since I got here, and others who apparently showed up recently before then. And congrats to Syg; he won fair and square and didn't make a shit show out of our election and neither did I. Frankly he was more qualified and is doing a good job with that position, while I was kind of gone at the time. He could probably have attacked me on points but he didn't, and I had my guard down at the time and was partially absent and probably would have been easy to shit on. Anyway, you're talking about Cormac going back to the "bad old days", etc. etc. blah blah and how you stand against that. But first of all, you're not running against Cormac. And secondly, Cormac isn't even in charge any longer. In fact he's not even fucking here. So I don't know why you even brought him up.

As for the foreign affairs stuff, I can't really comment on that. And that is my flaw. That is something I intend to catch up on and fast, and I will talk to Griffin and Adytus and anyone informed in order to make that happen. Initially I had no interest but it's a hefty part of this game so fuck it. I'll figure it out. And I can probably help with that in the future. But I won't help you with it if you're elected. And I am a new person. So that is minus one "more person" involved in whatever your idea for diplomatic affairs may be. I will help Adytus. And if our relations with other regions are actually so fucking ugly, maybe they'd appreciate being sent somebody new like me.

Your other stuff is reasonable for a campaign. But these tilts at Adytus and this shit about "draining the swamp," which I can only assume I am a part of, have got me fucking steamed. So you do not have my support or my vote and if you lose you seem to have plenty of positions in other groups that I hope you and your 38 posts on this forum will go back to. As far as I know Adytus doesn't have a big portfolio of conflicts of interests and spends all of his time here, and it's pretty fucking obvious based on the amount of shit he gets done and amount of support he gets all-around. How much time would you be spending on other groups if you won and how would that detract from your ability to get shit done here? And what other interests would you be working for here? No thanks. I'll go with the guy who I know, whose loyalty I know, and whose work I respect. Not you.

(mic drop)

Holy shit wrek.

<democracy snip>

This must have been a filler paragraph to make it look like you were going to make some sort of point in the following sections (which you didn't) and it brought up some arguments that you brought into this thread, not The Great Wall of Mexico. The Chief Vizier and the Chief Scribe of Osiris are democratically elected, mind you, and we have an all-citizen legislature. The point you are making about the Pharaoh has nothing to do with The Great Wall of Mexico's (let's just call him TGWoM from now on, eh?) platform. The only thing that he mentioned regarding anything democratic was that he will choose an executive cabinet that the people are in favor of, not just his favorites. There is nothing wrong with that.

I will have you know that I support Adytus for this position and wouldn't even consider another candidate, but probably wouldn't be as aggressive as I'm being now if I hadn't read the shit I just fucking read.

I am not here to defend TGWoM's candidacy, but I am here to defend him as a person because this is the one of the exact problems that he is trying to get across. You clearly did not read the whole thing if you did not deduce the following statement from it: he believes that the people of Osiris need to open their minds to a new government with new leadership.

So yeah, on that note, on to your posts... <snip>

The point was not "no new people are in the government, we need to get rid of all of the old dudes". The point was exactly what he said "bring in new people into the political process who will run for government roles and bring in fresh, new ideas". There are plenty of roles for new people to fill, and the filling has already begun. He is only advocating that we continue to integrate the new people into offices that convey fresh, new ideas. Also, thanks for the shoutout. <3

these tilts at Adytus and this shit about "draining the swamp,"... have got me fucking steamed.

I am still undecided on who I am going to vote for, but as I was reading this campaign thread (yes, it was long, and I still read it. Yay me!) I did not notice any low-blow ad hominem bullshit going on and trust me, I look for that stuff. Accusing TGWoM of attacking Adytus is hypocritical.

So you do not have my support or my vote and if you lose you seem to have plenty of positions in other groups that I hope you and your 38 posts on this forum will go back to. As far as I know Adytus doesn't have a big portfolio of conflicts of interests and spends all of his time here, and it's pretty fucking obvious based on the amount of shit he gets done and amount of support he gets all-around.

From what I know, which is what he included in his conflict of interest, is that he has two positions in different raider regions and he is a citizen of another region. That is a grand total of FOUR positions on his "big portfolio". It would have been hell of a lot wiser to make up this argument when you were running against me for Chief Scribe and I posted my conflict of interest that included the FOUR positions that I was in. Also... really dude? The "you don't have many posts here so you're irrelevant" argument? First off, this argument never worked for Cormac. Second, over half of your posts are probably "aye", "nay", or just posts in the spam forum.

Like I said, I am undecided on who I will vote for in this election. I am here to defend a friend against false accusations, not to defend his candidacy. That's his job. Both TGWoM and Adytus are fantastic candidates and I cannot wait to read more of what they have to offer.

Sygian

Hi there, Wrek!

I understand that this is the holiday season and this is also the time when emotions flair up. So let me clarify a couple things:

I only started this campaign because I believe that I have a better plan going forward and that I have the political experience to get those goals done. I also sensed that some others wanted to see change. Adytus has been a very nice person to me on Discord and if he does win, I will be the first one to congratulate him. As I have said, "I know Adytus is a tremendous person. He really is. But we need new leadership who will take us in a new direction."

For the record, those ten nominations were placed before people knew there was a second option. I originally had zero intention of running, initially casting my nomination for Adytus for a lack of a better candidate that I knew of. But after Treize nominated me, I said to myself, "Actually, you know what? There are changes in Osiris that I believe it desperately needs. I dislike that Adytus, the incumbent Chief Vizier, is running without any competition." We need new ideas and people to stimulate Osirian politics and we need to embrace them. Without them, we're stuck in the past.

My campaign is all about bringing people into the political process. In fact, I was the first person to congratulate Sygian on his Chief Scribe victory. He is a dear friend of mine and I voted for him because his policies were the most likely to advance Osiris forward. Greyghost is also another friend of mine, working with me in HYDRA Command, and I'm glad she ran (and she had good ideas too!). I'm also glad that you ran too: it diversifies the options that we have and it leads to a healthy democracy.

Cormac's departure was a transition from an old age to a new age. Draining the swamp is all about bringing those new people and ideas into the marketplace of ideas and letting our future replace our past.

I have read through Adytus' policy positions and we have common ground. For example, we both wish to enlarge the military, albeit for different reasons. But at the same time, we have disagreements like our approach to the GCR Sovereignty Accords where I want to fix a glaring gap in the deal as opposed to his view that it is fine as is. We need to open up the marketplace of ideas where we can debate out the bad ideas instead of trying to shut people down.

We must also remember that the office of Chief Vizier is a democratically elected position. This means that the people will choose the Chief Vizier who will then represent the people through his/her internal and external affairs. I have personally opted for a democratically appointed cabinet as I have not been a citizen here for three months and because I want the people to get more involved in politics.

To reduce the chances of a power struggle happening, the first bill I'm going to get through the the Council of Viziers and Council of Scribes is a bill that replaces our first-past-the-post system in favor of an instant run-off vote or any other type of ranked voting system. This will reduce the effects of Duverger's Law to the point where newcomers can fair better. In a FPTP system, people will always try to strategically vote against the other which always causes a two-party system and cause that discourse you were mentioning.

If you compare my conflicts of interests to Adytus', quantities wise they both have four items. Quality wise, both of the raider groups I've been in are on the downturn for activity, which gives me more time to dedicate to Osiris. I hardly speak in The Region That Has No Big Banks and I hardly talk in Balder chat anymore. If I do win, then I will focus less on raiding and more on you: the people, the community, the region. So no, not much time will be detracted if I won; I am on Discord virtually all the time and I encourage people to give me their suggestions and ideas.

If you want to talk about this some more, I am always on Discord and I'll be happy to answer all of your concerns and questions.

Signed,
The Great Wall of Mexico (aka PT Huo)