NomicScum, Game 2

[Kcdaspot]

Lol jdga is a filibuster

Now we need a faction for keeping and enhancing existing rules, a faction for changing or getting rid of rules, and jdga can be a swing voter and boom! American congress!

[Lord Mhork]

MOAR PUBLIC OPINION POLLS!!!

Kcdaspot, you're up by five points, but remarks like that can easily push away your voting base, you know?

[Kcdaspot]

I LET THE PEOPLE CHOOSE.

VOX POPULI VOX DAE.

I'M HERE FOR YOU.

[Packbat]

People of the Mafiascum.net forum! Can you truly trust a Nomic player who cannot even spell "dei" correctly?

Vote for Pedro, and all your wildest dreams will come true.

[Kcdaspot]

PEDRO IS A WHORE.

TRUST THE GOP.

[Kcdaspot]

Dem teaparty tactics

[Xalxe]

I'm perfectly comfortable with a VP position. Best offer accepted*

*must not be a horrible human being**

**changed my mind, I'll settle for somebody with a decent command of the English language

[Lord Mhork]

I have a higher than average command of the English language! Plus I can read an analog clock. That's not a common skill, you know.

[Kcdaspot]

Hey. That wasn't english that I messed up. Vox populi vox dei is latin you jerk.

[Xalxe]

That was a general requirement. Did I touch a nerve?

[Kcdaspot]

The assumption that I don't grasp english is kinda reaching. I dislike being called illiterate.

[JDGA]

Lol jdga is a filibuster

I am writing to express my dismay and concern over MafiaScum's tendentious crusades. Read on, gentle reader, and hear what I have to say. MafiaScum has separate, oftentimes antipodal, interests from ours. For instance, it's intererested in shifting blame from those who benefit from oppression to those who suffer from it. In contrast, my interests—and perhaps yours as well—include telling people that MafiaScum is a heterogeneous conglomeration of everything high-handed, dirty, and illiberal. Please re-read and memorize that sentence if you still believe that MafiaScum is the arbiter of all things.

If MafiaScum had lived the short, sickly, miserable life of a chattel serf in the ages "before technocracy" it wouldn't be so keen to deflect attention from its unwillingness to support policies that benefit the average citizen. Maybe it'd even begin to realize that it is an organizations that invents nothing, originates nothing, and improves nothing. All MafiaScum does is pollute the great canon of English literature with references to its nasty canards. Although MafiaScum is only one turd floating in the moral cesspool that our society has become, we indeed can't afford to let it gag the innocent accused from protesting adventurism-motivated prosecutions. What I'm suggesting is that we stop this insanity. That's the key to opposing our human vices wherever they may be found—arrogance, hatred, jealousy, unfaithfulness, avarice, and so on—and it's the only way that most people will ever learn that it and its conveniently bribed allies have been locking people who need our help into a vicious cycle of indigence and ignorance. As bad as that is, it represents only the thin end of the wedge. One of these days, MafiaScum will likely concoct a version of reality that fully contradicts real life.

Although it's easy to sit in the press box and criticize, MafiaScum's disciples are merely ciphers. MafiaScum is the one who decides whether or not to condemn innocent people to death. MafiaScum is the one who gives out the orders to stir up one part of the population against another. And MafiaScum is the one trying to conceal how I can no longer get very excited about any revelation of its hypocrisy or crookedness. It's what I've come to expect by now. If we don't guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by MafiaScum and its band, then MafiaScum will soon become unstoppable. No borders will be able to detain it. No united global opinion will be able to isolate it. No international police or juridical institutions will be able to interdict it.

If you're interested in the finagling, double-dealing, chicanery, cheating, cajolery, cunning, rascality, and abject villainy by which MafiaScum may up the ante considerably one day, then you'll want to consider the following very carefully. You'll especially want to consider that MafiaScum distracts itself with chaotic relationships and shiny material possessions so it can avoid thinking about how the cry of "bigot" is raised mostly by bigots. This is not what I think; this is what I know. I additionally know that MafiaScum not only lies but brags about its lying to its agents provocateurs.

MafiaScum coins polysyllabic neologisms to make its actions sound like they're actually important. In fact, its treatises are filled to the brim with words that have yet to appear in any accepted dictionary. By rejecting MafiaScum's wayward imprecations we spit in the devil's eye. There's really no other conclusion you can reach. MafiaScum can write anything it wants about how things would be different were we to give into its demands and let it undermine the individualistic underpinnings of traditional jurisprudence, but it is a cardinal principle that just because you can do something does not mean it's okay to do it. No joke.

In the Old Testament, the Book of Kings relates how the priests of Baal were slain for deceiving the people. I'm not suggesting that there be any contemporary parallel involving MafiaScum, but MafiaScum's latest manifesto, like all the ones that preceded it, is a consummate anthology of disastrously bad writing teeming with misquotations and inaccuracies, an odyssey of anecdotes that are occasionally entertaining but certainly not informative. In a recent tell-all, a former member of MafiaScum's terrorist organization writes that "if a new Dark Age is about to descend upon us—as many believe it will—it will be the result of MafiaScum's vituperations". Those are some pretty harsh words even when one considers that MafiaScum wants me to stop trying to make it pay for its crimes against humanity. Instead, it'd rather I suffer endless humiliation. Sorry, but I don't accept defeat that easily. We can divide MafiaScum's bromides into three categories: delusional, ghastly, and vicious. I suppose it's predictable, though terribly sad, that uncompromising peddlers of snake-oil remedies with stronger voices than minds would revert to churlish behavior. But MafiaScum has long wanted to prevent anyone from stating publicly that it is proof that ignorance often drives misperceptions. Why do I bring that up? Because by studying its repression of ideas in its extreme, unambiguous form one may more clearly understand why MafiaScum acts as if it were King of the World. This hauteur is astonishing, staggering, and mind-boggling.

MafiaScum's propaganda machine once said that MafiaScum would never pull the levers of aspheterism and oil the gears of Satanism. So much for credibility! MafiaScum finds it convenient to blame all of society's woes on deluded, adversarial spongers. Doing so fits with the rest of its populist sloganeering and takes less intellectual effort than investigating the structural factors and material practices that may in fact be the true reason that MafiaScum has the nerve to call those of us who bring the communion of knowledge to all of us "conspiracy theorists". No, we're "conspiracy revealers" because we reveal that MafiaScum is secretly planning to divert our attention from serious issues. I realize that that may sound rather conspiratorial and far-fetched to most people, which is why you need to understand that I have no idea why MafiaScum believes that without its superior guidance, we will go nowhere. Perhaps the thought popped into its head during omphaloskepsis. In any case, MafiaScum likes to argue that it can make all of our problems go away merely by sprinkling some sort of magic pink pixie dust over everything that it considers cranky or morbid. Admitting the apparent correctness of this brusque argument, we may prove the contradictory of its conclusion by an unassailable argument of our own, which is called an elenchus. My elenchus begins with the observation that there are two related questions in this matter. The first is to what extent MafiaScum has tried to demand that Earth submit to the dominion of inarticulate cumber-grounds. The other is whether or not if MafiaScum's plan to terrorize our youngsters is to be discouraged then the wisest course of action is to move our nation forward into stratospheres of greatness. Before we start down that road I ought to remind you that if it had its way, schools would teach students that the world's salvation comes from whims, irrationality, and delusions. This is not education but indoctrination. It prevents students from learning about how MafiaScum has been making a ham-handed effort to show that "metanarratives" are the root of tyranny, lawlessness, overpopulation, racial hatred, world hunger, disease, and rank stupidity. I'm guessing that most people are starting to realize that such claims are a distortion of the truth and that we desperately need to combat these lies by moving our nation forward into stratospheres of greatness.

But there I go again, claiming that MafiaScum promises its cultists that as soon as it's finished sounding the standard "they're out to get us" call and rallying its apostles to publish blatantly alabandical rhetoric as "education" for children to learn in school, they'll all become rich beyond their wildest dreams. There's an obvious analogy here to the way that vultures eat a cadaver and from its rottenness insects and worms suck their food. The point is that it is hardly surprising that MafiaScum wants to legitimize the fear and hatred of the privileged for the oppressed. After all, this is the same flighty yobbo whose scabrous prattle informed us that it possesses infinite wisdom. MafiaScum's pleas are like an enormous sectarianism-spewing machine. We must begin dismantling that structure. We must put a monkey wrench in its gears. And we must keep the faith because I'm convinced that MafiaScum will force some to live by restrictive standards not applicable to others as soon as our backs are turned. No, I'm not in tinfoil-hat land; I have abundant evidence from reliable sources that this is the case. For instance, our battle with MafiaScum is a battle between spiritualism and Bulverism, between tradition and subversion, between the defenders of Western civilization and its enemies. With the battle lines drawn as such, it is abundantly clear that I do not have the time in one sitting to go into the long answer as to why MafiaScum goes ballistic every time I so much as hint that it enjoys the sense of control that comes from forcing someone else to do things the way it wants them done. But the short answer is that its hypocrisy is transparent. Even the least discerning among us can see right through it.

Come on, MafiaScum; I know you're capable of thoughtful social behavior. You might have heard the story that MafiaScum once agreed to help us supply the missing ingredient that could stop the worldwide slide into fascism. No one has located the document in which MafiaScum said that. No one has identified when or where MafiaScum said that. That's because it never said it. As you might have suspected, we have a choice. Either we let ourselves be led like lambs to the slaughter by MafiaScum and its yeomen or we unite rich and poor, young and old. While I don't expect you to have much trouble making up your mind you should nevertheless consider that if MafiaScum manages to develop a Pavlovian reflex in us, to make us afraid to criticize its manifestos publicly for their formalistic categories, their spurious claims of neutrality, and their blindness to the abuse of private power, civilization will crumble almost immediately. Investigators from a future era will need to sift through the charred wreckage of our society looking for the black box to figure out what happened. Maybe they'll even discover that MafiaScum's ideological colors may have changed over the years. Nevertheless, its core principle has remained the same: to suborn revolting zobs to enthrone falsehood in the very center of human thought. If you don't believe me then note that MafiaScum has occasionally been successful at encouraging individuals to disregard other people, to become fully self-absorbed. Upon such points its natural character always exhibits itself most determinedly as it further strives to blend together incendiarism and moral relativism in a train wreck of monumental proportions.

I can't live with cold-blooded patrioteers who rub salt into our wounds. By somewhat the same token, although I admit it's not an exact parallel, it attracts prudish rascals to its camp by telling them that the few of us who complain regularly about its shell games are simply spoiling the party. I suppose the people to whom it tells such things just want to believe lies that make them feel intellectually and spiritually superior to others. Whether or not that's the case, MafiaScum relies heavily on "useful idiots", that is, people who unwittingly do MafiaScum's dirty work for it. Without its swarms of useful idiots, MafiaScum would not have been able to conceal the fact that there isn't a man, woman, or child alive today who thinks that merit is adequately measured by its methods and qualifications, so let's toss out that ridiculous argument of MafiaScum's from the get-go. Okay, this letter has become much too long so I'll just jump right to the punchline: MafiaScum's anecdotes disgust and infuriate me.

UNVOTE: Nay
VOTE: Yay

[Xalxe]

tl;dr but thanks for the vote.

[Chevre]

Crazy JDGA. But thanks hun

[T-Bone]

Unvote: Yay, Vote: Nay

Sorry, it occurred to me simple majority is a bad idea. I don't want unanimity, but I don't want to allow for a super-block alliance the new system would allow for either. I'll change my vote back if the proposition is reconsidered to be 3/4s of the player list instead of 51%. I implore others to do the same.

[Xalxe]

Unvote: Yay, Vote: Nay

Sorry, it occurred to me simple majority is a bad idea. I don't want unanimity, but I don't want to allow for a super-block alliance the new system would allow for either. I'll change my vote back if the proposition is reconsidered to be 3/4s of the player list instead of 51%. I implore others to do the same.

New embargo gogogogogogogo

[T-Bone]

We'll never pass any rules unless the change to this proposal I want is considered.

[Packbat]

We'll never pass any rules unless the change to this proposal I want is considered.

The change

has been

considered. The change

is being

considered. The change

will be

considered. But

consideration

cannot enact a change - only votes can.

[Packbat]

Not to mention:

VOTE: Nay
Sorry for raining on the parade, but I still think a supermajority of some sort is a good idea to make sure silly proposals that give you a PERMANENT disadvantage for simply being busy for a day don't get through. (Hint hint, ani)

If we were looking at a majority-vote situation, I (for one) would be pickier with my vote.

Particularly when he realizes that whatever supermajority rule he thinks is appropriate will be a lot easier to pass with a simple-majority rule in effect.

I am willing to accord with the malthusis plan - and, should he recover his senses, I am willing to go to bat for a hypothetical supermajority rule JDGA may propose on his turn. I do not oppose the idea; only the tactics.

[Chevre]

Operation "malthusis plan but replace all instances of 'JDGA' with 'T-Bone'" is agogo

[T-Bone]

Again, currently we all have to agree, and JDGA changed my mind. He succumbed to the pressure, but I'm not so easily swayed.

Since we need everyone to vote yes, you do have to entertain my objections. The current proposal allows for a majority block player that are barely half the player list the opportunity to control. I don't think half + 1 is enough to decide our fate in the game. Which is why I want a 75% majority rule instead of a 51%.

[T-Bone]

I'll just filibuster the game to death and that won't be any fun. Your fate in this matter is sealed. Ani's rule could have probably paved the way from preventing any one player from stalling the game forever, but that got shot down. But, currently I can vote no this round, and then hold onto my vote for quite a long time, needlessly prolonging the game. JDGA was right we hastily went into this vote, I should have stood with him then.

[Cybele]

I'm currently willing to sublimate to my more bullheaded inclinations and say 'shut up; dont care' here. I suspect someone else would like to try to be a bit more diplomatic, though , so I'll leave the floor to them.

[Chevre]

Um, half plus one is called a majority, and the majority is what holds power. So if you aren't in this supposed "superalliance," too bad so sad.

[Chevre]

and don't EVEN tell me we rushed into this vote. I switched to this because there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY everyone was going agree on changing the time limit. Whenever we got reasonably close, someone would bring up something new that they would want incorporated into the bill.