[PotUS] Experience Colors Perception

Day 4,624, 20:36 • Published in USA USA • by Tyler Bubblar


Well this weekend has been an eventful one. I woke up Friday July 17th 2020 a little annoyed because I had to work on my day off for the third week in a row and the fourth out of the last five. I was also very excited to get home and put a digital pen to digital paper and write an article. Sadly this article is not the one I had in mind. That article is about an integrated government media national scavenger event with lots of prizes that should be a great deal of fun. If it is a success we plan to take it international. As I said this is not that article.

This is an article about departing an Alliance and the inevitable shit storm that accompanies such an event. At least it seems to when the eUSA hits the exits. Fair or not. Right or wrong there is a perception about the eUSA that we are: Fairweather friends, unreliable, flip-floppers, self interested, unwilling to sacrifice for other nations, etc. etc. It is not my intent to combat that pervasive view. At this point in a 12 year old game that is baked in. I have few illusions that this article will sway many from their already entrenched opinions. That said as President of the eUSA it is my responsibility to explain what we have done and why to the best of my ability.



I will begin by conducting what is hopefully an honest self assessment. Psychology theory states: our prior experiences color our current perceptions. I do not consider myself an exception to this. I believe strongly given my own background of coming from a home with no small amount of violence, rape, murder, and suicide that we can choose for ourselves how we allow these experiences to mold and shape us. I am proud to say I do not have a criminal record, I am gainfully employed, and I try hard to be a good person and a good father. Nonetheless my experiences have definitely colored my perspective on life and family. I have tried very hard for those negative experiences to guide me in a positive direction. Yet as the old saying goes: you can adjust your sails but you cannot change the wind. In short they happened and they will affect me one way or another.

So let’s address my prior eRepublik experiences. I am now in the midst of my Seventh term as President of the eUSA. My prior 4 terms ( September 2014, August 2014, July 2015, and May 2016) the eUSA was in Pacifica and for the most part all was well. For four years we enjoyed full bonuses and a very cooperative relationship with our Allies. Even prior to my terms as President I was Molly Emma’s Chief of Staff when we were ejected from SIRIUS and DMJ’s Vice President when we founded Pacifica with our Russian brothers. I have been around long enough to see the Geopolitical winds of eRepublik shift more than a few times.

Which takes me to August of 2018. I logged out late that month for what I thought would be a short hiatus. I had put in for and received a transfer to a Post Office in the Valley I grew up in; roughly 1800 miles away from the Louisiana swamp my family and I had been languishing in for the better part of a decade. Make no mistake I hated living in the South. I hated the heat, bugs, humidity, racism, pervasive attitude towards women/minorities, and so on. I was excited to go home. However, the house had not yet sold so I left first and crashed on a relative’s couch for two months until the house sold and we found an apartment that would both rent short term while we house hunted and allow our dogs.

Eventually we found and bought a home. I settled in at work, and was then promptly pulled in to be a union official in my office. All of these things were time consuming and energy draining. eRepublik fell further and further in the rear view mirror while I adventured in that crazy realm known as real life. I did not think I would ever return until my email pinged that I had a PM on the Federalist Party forum in March of this year. A little over two months later I am running for President. It’s been a fun crazy ride. Let's back up to August of 2018 and how my experience colors my perspective in terms of eRepublik.

In August of 2018 we were in the midst of a multi pronged wipe/train being run on the eUSA. Croatia and friends in response to an AS on Thai cores had come in droves. Embargoes were levied against us which effectively rendered my holdings useless in my own cores. It seemed quite clear at the time the intent was to hold us down indefinitely and grind our community to dust. That is what I left behind. I was more than a little surprised to see we were aligned with many of the very nations who seemed intent on our destruction a year and a half prior on my return. I am told we as an Alliance had some very good times together and for a while were ascendant on the eWorld stage. Those who tell me this are trusted friends so I have no reason to disbelieve them. That however has not been my experience as I missed those times.

When I was elected President May of 2020 it seemed fairly obvious that yet another wipe/indefinite train was headed our way. Asteria was coming in droves. During several Alliance meetings it was made clear no help for anyone was forthcoming. A boycott started a month or two prior was going to not just continue but spread to more players. The message from the Alliance was: focus on your communities. This did not sit well with me. I will be plain I consider this boycott to be pointless. It has not worked and will not work in forcing concessions from Plato. I made the decision that I would not lay down and let my community die in solidarity with the rest of the Alliance. Especially when this boycott that affects so many was decided without a vote or discussion. It was simply done.

So I approached the CPs of Serbia and Iran. I asked them what the endgame was. Serbia said their endgame was to end CODE TWs in North America. Iran said their initial intent was to punish the USA but in recognition of a 4 year old interaction I had with them they were willing to relent on that. So we struck a deal. A 6 month NAP with the option to renew for another 6. Some of the strongest hitters for Asteria would be in the USA cores to both farm TWs but also to prevent CODE from returning. The length of time was a bit tough to swallow but the rest of the terms were not odious or unreasonable.

Understandably this did not sit well with our Allies. We in the eUSA did not agree with the boycott yet we did our best to at least be understanding. I was hoping for something similar in regards to our NAP with Asteria. For the most part we did not get it. We were insulted and troll in CODE channels. At one point I left the CODE diplomacy channel in anger. It was decided after that I would let my team take Point in regards to communications and coordination with our Alliance. I returned to the channel, kept abreast on things, but spoke very little. I am many things, but patient with incessant rudeness and whining is not one of them. As the months went by my team and I became increasingly frustrated with the lack of direction and plans. Meetings were two hours of Furiosa doing her best to get volunteers or names of people who would be willing to contribute, lots of arguing, finger pointing, and ultimately little to nothing resolved. In truth I entered these channels not liking Furiosa or Thailand, but she and her nation gradually won my respect.

DMJ has already explained in his article how Yui came to be SG of CODE so I will skip that. Which brings us to the events of Yesterday. Last week it was brought to my attention that Ireland has agitated multiple times via backchannels for Asteria to invade the eUSA. This happened according to what I have been shown in January, April, and also very recently. My response was posted in a public section of the Congressional section of the eUSA forums. Shortly after I received a somewhat insulting PM from the current CP of Ireland. A day or so after that this exchange is published in an article. Which brings us to Friday July 17th 2020. DMJ in an Executive Discord Channel makes it known our Allies in the Code diplomacy channel are hounding him on behalf of Ireland.



I joined in this conversation and do my best to make it known in no uncertain terms that I neither appreciate nor will I allow the Alliance to interfere in how the eUSA conducts diplomacy. Proof was demanded and it was stated plainly that unless proof was produced DMJ and I were liars.. More insulting references were made to our NAP/TWs with Asteria. Some of the proof from January and April is posted above, there has been more recent activity shown to us but we have been asked to keep it in confidence. That said there have been three that we know of occurrences this year of Ireland agitating for hostile action against the eUSA. Not leaking sources is a fundamental part of diplomacy in eRepublik and I suspect in real life. If someone has important information but for whatever reason does not wish to be outed that needs to be respected. We explained this again and again. Eventually I stated that it was obvious the eUSA was neither trusted nor valued by a significant portion of the member nations of CODE. If we are not trusted then we cannot in turn give our trust. I consider this an untenable position to be in. As part of this declaration I stated I would be going to Congress and asking them to vote on leaving our Alliance.

Maybe I am mixing too much real life with this game, but I believe when a relationship turns and becomes toxic it is time to make a change. I sincerely believe staying any longer would have only made this even worse. I also believe leaving would have never been well received regardless of how we did this. Ireland left and it is obvious from yesterday’s events that they are still very well regarded amongst the CODE family. SK left more recently, and while no one was happy about it they were not castigated (at least anywhere I could see) for their choice to leave. I waited a bit after stating my intentions to put leaving up for a vote. An Alliance meeting was less than an hour away. I decided to see how that meeting went. The subject of an embargo on Ireland was brought up again. Things were not in my view satisfactorily resolved. No apologies were made for aspersions thrown our way, and as I stated above it seemed obvious that the time to hit the exits had arrived. I feel the shouts and actions of our former Allies since I put the proposal up confirm it was not just time, but past time to go.

I know not everyone agrees with me on this. I both understand and respect that. I learned long ago in this game that it is impossible to juggle the wants and needs of everyone. All you can do is your best. I have also made it my personal philosophy to not leave something for a potential successor to deal with simply because it would be difficult or unpleasant. During my first two terms as President of the eUSA we spent more than half of our treasury deflecting two different AS one in New York (September 11, 2014) and the other the following month into Mexico. I had already determined I was not going to run for reelection, but I knew given the state of our reserves taxes needed to go up. For any other President this likely would not have been a hard thing to do. I had however spent the better part of a year fighting and eventually succeeding in getting taxes lowered. The optics of reversing that hard fought result were horrendous, but doing so was necessary so that is what I recommended to Congress.

For many departing here in the eUSA the objections over leaving CODE have been about two things. How it looks and the timing. It is not easy to expose oneself to ridicule and derision. Human nature being what it is, the easy thing is to duck your head, bring no attention to yourself, and just go along to get along. Optics are important but they are not everything. In terms of timing I look at it like this: If I want to divorce someone or break up with them and the main question about it is when and not if then the decision has already been made. My personal view on such a situation is it is better to just rip the band-aid off rather than delay. For others they view this as switching sides.

As I said above, experience colors perspective. From my perspective if someone attacks you, beats you down, and then lets you back up so long as you do what they want that’s not friendship. That’s being held hostage. For those who view that as friendship there is a term for your condition: Stockholm Syndrome. It’s a real thing there’s Doctors for it and everything. Again that is my perspective. I was not around for the good times such as they were. Others object to the lack of communication. That is 100% on me. I was working while all of this occurred, and when I was finally home I was suffering from a bit of heat stress it was near 100° F and when I am lucky I work outside. When I'm not so lucky I'm delivering out of a 30 year old vehicle with no AC and windows that act like a greenhouse. It's typically 10 to 20 degrees warmer in a mail truck than outside of it. Due to this I was absolutely fried when I came home last night.

Throughout these last three months we have been diplomatically engaged with both sides by necessity of our NAP. I can say unequivocally that we have been treated with far more respect and courtesy by Asteria than our Allies in CODE. I raised this point several times over the last few months and the only answer I received was this courtesy was only extended because they wanted something from us. If that is the starting point for courtesy at least in the eyes of our now former Allies then clearly CODE wanted nothing from us as we at least during my time at the helm were not treated with much in the way of courtesy. In the coming days and weeks I will be working with Congress to chart a path forward. We have a plethora of options.

Before I close this article I want to state that I am well aware and prepared for the slings and arrows that will no doubt ensue in the comments. You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain that has been my mantra since my first tenure as President of the eUSA 6 years ago. I knowingly take that on each and every time I run for a position of responsibility. I would, however, caution those who disagree with me to be careful in how they counter what I have written. Reasonable people can and do disagree, but I will not allow distortions, half- truths, and outright lies to go unchecked. I have logs that out of decorum I will keep to myself unless pushed to do otherwise. As I said before I consider leaking from private channels and conversations to be particularly odious. With that I thank you as always for taking the time to read. My next article will be much more fun and will be launching the National Scavenger hunt.