A.S.S.H.O.L.E: The Political Debacle

Day 730, 12:12 • Published in Canada Canada • by saltydog

Many of you will have been party to the brief existence of the Anti-Serious Society of Homeboys Objecting to Losers in Erepublik (A.S.S.H.O.L.E). On November 18th, 2009, the admins of eRep arbitrarily decided to curtail my political expression by forcibly changing the name of the A.S.S.H.O.L.E party to "Edited party name." What follows are the charges laid against me:

"You have not respected the 2nd eRepublik Citizen Law, concerning insults.
2. No citizen should oppress another citizen.
2.2 No insult, public accusation without proof, or indirect attack on a citizen is allowed.
---
Offensive party name"

Let me examine these charges as they have been laid.


"No citizen should oppress another citizen"
I agree fully. This is why I reformed the ACC into the A.S.S.H.O.L.E party, so as to give a voice to those who play this game realising that IT IS JUST A GAME! By forming such a party, I meant to actively play a meaningful part in eCanadian politics by having a political forum and body for those who felt alienated by the boringly stagnant mosquito-breeding pool that is our political scene.

Who would feel alienated? The kind of people that watch the flame wars that go on within our political elite between people who have forgotten that THIS IS THE INTERNET, and a GAME no less! The people who realise how stupid this is are the people that the A.S.S.H.O.L.E party represents. To arbitrarily redact the name of a party such as this is to excise its entire meaning - having a LAUGH about things.


"No insult, public accusation without proof, or indirect attack on a citizen is allowed."
I have not insulted any player.
I have not made any public accusations of any kind, let alone an accusation made without proof.
I have not indirectly, nor directly attacked any citizen.

I defy the admins of eRep to provide a single piece of evidence that shows contrary.
The only possible likeness to evidence is the portion of the Party name that defines the Party as "Objecting to Losers in Erepublik." However, this does not constitute any form of insult or attack. In order to be able to insult an individual or group within the game, "Losers in Erepublik" would have to constitute a readily identifiable individual or group. Given that the Party has made no public delineations of who is considered to be a "loser," the effect of "Losers in Erepublik" is null. To engage in insult, you have to have an identifiable party being denigrated; no such identities have been referenced by the Party or by myself.

More generally, let us consider the Party name in reference to the following elaboration on what constitutes an "insult," which can be found in the "Rules Addendum":
"Ironic content and propaganda will not be considered as an attempt to insult other citizens."

If you cannot sense the irony inherent in this very situation - where a party is created as a voice against the political correctness of those who bear such little sense of humour, and is then forcibly redacted by the very same powers; if you cannot witness the incongruity of wanting to work with but against those people and then being disallowed from doing so from the start... well, if you don't get it now, you probably never will.



"Offensive party name"
The laws which they have cited as allegedly being violated (2, 2.2) bear NO MENTION of party names. Moreover, as illustrated by the purposeful use of periods between the letters, A.S.S.H.O.L.E is an acronym for "Anti-Serious Society of Homeboys Objecting to Losers in Erepublik." There is no rule extant in the eRepublik cannon that bars "likenesses to offensive words." Until there is, A.S.S.H.O.L.E cannot constitute an "offensive party name," by virtue of it being an acronym and not a name. The reasoning behind using an acronym for the Party name was driven by the limitations of the eRepublik system itself - a paltry limit on characters in party names left no other choice but to resort to the use of an acronym for the Party. I would be happy to register the Party in its full name if the admins would actually allow a reasonable amount of characters.

This ends the analytical portion of this piece.


Why am I doing this?
It's a fair question. It's not to be immature, it's not to be offensive, nor crude, nor to simply push buttons. I formed the A.S.S.H.O.L.E party because I wanted people to step back and actually think about the fact that they are playing a game. I am playing a role in this game just like each and every one of us is. The whole point of role play games is to do what you probably couldn't do in RL - that's what makes them fun.
So why can't we be reasonable people and see the humour in this?
Why can't we choose to see the satire in it, instead of taking it for its surface appearance?
Why can't we just laugh at things, and realise that it does us no real harm to see a marginal party with a colourful name?

Perhaps we are best left with something said to me by our respected General Coda while chatting on IRC:

"Coda[CAN]: all politicians are assholes so I think you have captured your name effectively. Your the only truthful party, and I thank you for that."

Are we really so obtuse? I hope not.

Sincerely,
saltydog
Supreme Dear Leader of the Anti-Serious Society of Homeboys Objecting to Losers in Erepublik


P.S. What has become of the A.S.S.H.O.L.E Party? Check out the history of the creation of The Adult Party here.