The PTO Tactic and Its Inherent Political Hypocrisy

Day 677, 19:00 • Published in USA Bolivia • by Arjay Phoenician

My first experience with the vaunted PTO tactic was in June, when I was a newbie in the United States. GLaDOS spooked the country by announcing PEACE was attempting to take over several political parties at once. My party, the Socialist Freedom Party felt safe, at the time there were only about 80 members, we were active and organized, and were someone to run for Party President we were not familiar with, we weren’t fooled. Osmany Ramon won re-election handily, and every US party remained safe. Having said that, there was wall-to-wall panic, which may have been the point all along, to wig the Americans out of their arrogance and comfort. Me, I was amused by it, GLaDOS says Boo, and everyone was running for the hills. I was a newbie, what did I know?

Shortly after that, in Bolivia, we had to deal with THREE PTO attempts in one election, succumbing to the dreaded AFK Party. Ever since then, this has been one of my driving forces, to expose PTO groups, to assist countries who are dealing with PTO problems, and to eventually rid the world of the tactic once and for all.

The new citizenship module didn’t stop the tactic, it only meant the groups conducting them had to get more creative. The basic concept of sweeping in on a small country a couple days before an election to steal it and the treasury changed only in that PTO groups had to become precise in their attacks, taking on new countries before their first Congress can be elected, thereby shutting the door on free citizenship in that country. That was the case in Bolivia. That was also the case in South Africa and South Korea last month, when both countries returned to the world after several months in oblivion, in both cases, PTO groups tried to take advantage of the community which had spend weeks in negotiation with their parent nations (usually the very country which wiped them off the map in the first place).

I’ve heard of some rather creative ways of getting around the citizenship module to continue the tactic. The most outlandish thing I heard was the Romanian attempt to PTO Hungary by means of reviving dead multi’s; apparently you can plant a multi in a country, let him die, and when he is revived, he is automatically a citizen of that country.

People actually think of these things? They actually get in groups and discuss how they’re going to PTO a country, breaking down every nuance, looking for a new angle to exploit? While most of us are building businesses or careers or contact bases, there are actually people who sit up all night and hatch plots like this.

I think the most disgusting aspect of the PTO, however, is not the PTO itself, there’s always going to be thugs out there seeking to take what they didn’t build for themselves. I don’t find anything redeemable in commiting your life to such treachery, but that’s not the worst. The worst is the acceptance of the act, not just as a way of life in eRepublik, but as a tactic to be employed and even encouraged, letting some gang of mercenaries do the dirty work so their national benefactors can claim innocence in the matter.

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking about the so-called Theocrats in South Korea, and truly, they are just as nasty and shameless a cast of characters as I’ve encountered. They are punks on the level of the AFK, eTakeOver, and every other PTO gang I’ve dealt with.

While I consider their theft of an election by use of multi’s reprehensible and even criminal, what bothers me the most is how willing and even enthusiastic so many are to support them. The so-called Theocrats, they’re a known quantity, they’re parasites who live off the blood of others, just like so many others. The fact that their actions are embraced by so many, however, galls me to no end.

How the Ajay Bruno cult could be so universally demonized for trying to PTO South Africa, yet the so-called Theocrats are patted on the back for doing the exact same thing in South Korea, just boggles my mind. Further, it’s usually the same people engaging in this doublethink, calling one PTO group bastards and another PTO group friends.

I’ve solved the problem for myself. I loathe them all. Period. I remain consistent in my belief that PTO groups are a stain that needs to be removed. You’re welcome to agree or disagree with me on this, but this is my stand, this is where I plant my flag. I don’t cry bloody murder when a PTO group sets up camp in my country, then either act apathetic when they move onto another country, or worse, root for the PTO and support it.

This is one of the deepest hypocrisies in eRepublik, and I don’t use the word hypocrisy often for fear of rendering the word useless if overused. When a PTO is targeting your country, you beg the rest of the world to send help, you beg for voters to come to your country to rescue you and your political community. All too frequently these days, these same countries who were crying for help last month, this month they’re patting PTO groups on the back. This is something I just don’t get, if you were threatened with a PTO and scrounging the rest of the world for spare voters to come and save you from them, aren’t you saying that the PTO is something bad? If you’re posting bulletins in the media of other countries begging for help, aren’t you saying that you want the PTO to end, because it is a danger to you?

You can’t blame me for calling you a hypocrite if you did all that, then you turn around and support a PTO group for taking over some other country.

Either the PTO is a tactic that should be rejected by the decent community at eRepublik, or it should be wholeheartedly embraced, if you have any shred of consistency. If you reject it, reject them all, don’t carry favor for those who seem willing to kick your political enemies in the shin. If you embrace it, embrace it fully, but don’t cry for help when one comes to take your Congress and treasury; if you approve the concept, then you need to deal with the PTO attempt yourself, quietly, in your own country, and not suddenly act like it’s a big deal that you may lose your sovereignty and national wealth.

I know where I stand.

I also know where the AFK, eTakeOver, and the so-called Theocrats stand. Not only do they see nothing wrong with the tactic, they’ll tell you how they’re doing the world a favor in doing it. Talk to them sometime, they’ll tell you all about how they believe it’s they alone who make the game worth playing. Some will try to obscure the truth a little, play some logic games with you, but by and large, their basic reply is, yeah, we PTO’s this country, what are you going to do about it?

So I’m consistent, and they’re consistent.

When a country supports the PTO of a given country, conveniently forgetting how so recently they had to plead with the rest of the world for a few voters to counter the same tactic and save their political elite, that’s not consistent. That’s being a hypocrite, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

I’d think basic decency would dictate that, were your country ever threatened by a PTO, you’d have a little sympathy for any other country under the same threat. How easy it is to turn a blind eye when it’s not your party, your nation, dealing with it. How easy it is to talk about the politics of the whole thing, to dummy the event down with talk of loyalty. This PTO group fought on our side once upon a time, we support them doing their thing on another country, so long as it’s not OUR country.

The so-called Theocrats are just the thugs-du-jour, they could have gone after another country, they just so happened to go after South Korea. Had they sought to PTO, say, Malaysia, I would have been consistent, I’d be in this with Malaysia, trying to drum up voters to counter the election theft, speaking out about the thieves trying to make off with their Congress and treasury. I’ve done it in the past, I’ll continue to do it. The PTO group would have been consistent as well, they’d be talking trash and telling you to get the hell out of THEIR country. The rest of you, I guarantee you, you’d be moistening your fingers in your mouths, then holding them up to the wind to determine where you stood on the issue.

You don’t have to worry, if you ask Arjay Phoenician for help staving off a PTO, Arjay Phoenician will do everything possible to help, to seek out caches of voters, to distribute information, to buy moving tickets. I’m not going to look up your political history and wonder if you merit my help. PTO’s are disgusting, I feel a sense of duty to help in any way I can. I’ve seen them up close, they’re ugly acts committed by soulless people. No country should have to deal with them. I’m honored to help if I can. You can count on me to be consistent. You can be hypocrites if you want to; you can try to save your own ass from the tactic, then turn around and give other communities in the same predicament the middle finger if you so choose. You can call PTO gangs a bunch of thieves when they’re coming after you, then call them heroes when they’re going after your neighbors. I’ll still help, because it’s the right thing to do. Fending off PTO attempts is higher on my list of priorities than wondering whether or not you’re two-faced.