Joseph Cao for the Senate at-large special election

Bloomington–Normal, Illinois

A very good evening and warm greetings to the people of Atlasia – thank you for tuning in.

I first greeted you all this way just a little over three years ago. Then as now there was a newish elected official on the right who won an election despite the controversy already gathering around him; then as now he was elected to a legislature where he could have provided a needed ideological counterweight. Then, as now, that controversy caught up with him and he did not swear in legally, and in this way a special election was precipitated. The comparison to a paleocon like Grassr00ts is unfair and OriAr did not try to log in from a PS5 or any such hilarious thing, but the situations are uncannily similar.

Once again I have to observe, as I did then, that we are in the grip of a dire crisis no less dangerous to the state of the game than the coronavirus pandemic was to our nation. The secessionist effort advanced as far as it did because of a fostered climate in the South and in offshore Discord channels that brooked no dissent. Last year too the Downfall operation was pushed by people buying into the nihilist narrative of another offshore Discord channel that diverged further and further away from reality. And though others who lived through them will be happy to fill in the details, it is the same script and the same talking points from the other destabilizing attempts of pre-reset.

For my part I've pushed back against this echo chamber refuse where I could, how I could, both before and after I was banned from both of those offshore Discord channels in question. In hindsight even my very active veto pen wasn't active enough – but it was not for a lack of trying. The tragedy of that special three years ago is the ultimately dead Lincoln Council that prevailed for three months without anyone to voice dissent. My first run for office was about pushing back however I could, and my commitment to it in the intervening three years has been here on these boards for everyone to see.

If the Senate is anywhere near in danger of swinging back to the same lack of debate and dissent that gave both groups of wreckers the false confidence that their schemes would work, I think someone should do something about that.

If the chamber needs a safe pair of hands to help out with the vast and substantial reconstruction work ahead of us, someone who can be trusted to have the game's best interests in mind no matter what is being argued for or against, even a former administrator who can at least give advice on whatever new situation has tripped the PPT up: well, I think someone can do something about that.

I am running to get this game and this Senate back into shape in whatever little way I can. That always requires pushing back. When the voting booth opens this weekend, will you help me do something about that?

	Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? April 19, 2024, 09:24:52 AM

News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more