Post #118475
January 30, 2018, 08:30:23 PM
I'd like to first off mention that I was elected to serve the will of the people—even if that isn't formally the duty of a Skrifa, it's always been part of my platform. And the people's will is clear: in the Citizens' Platform poll, only one person opposed the PNG status, making it nearly unanimous in favor (as we've established multiple times in the past, abstentions do not count as votes).
However, up until last night, I was considering an abstention. But after watching Govindia's two defense/response videos in their entirety, I think that's no longer possible.
Gov said that his ideas are best expressed in video form, that they're the best way for him to organize and express his thoughts, and repeatedly bugged people to watch them in full. So I went into the videos hoping to hear some new defense from Gov, some new ideas from his perspective, perhaps something that would solidify my abstention or even change it into a nay vote... Instead, all I hear are repeated versions of the same things that Gov has already said, many times—from demands that people be straightforward when dealing with him, to the whole "meet people halfway" thing, to the claim that "nobody has attempted to try" to rehabilitate Gov at all—which have already been addressed by many people, multiple times. Instead of either apologizing for guilt-tripping or explaining why he isn't guilt-tripping (or addressing any of people's arguments regarding this subject), he simply calls those accusations "ridiculous and stupid," and continues the same behavior that led to those accusations.
And aside from these rehashed defenses, almost the entire rest of the videos was insulting and arguably outright attacking well-respected members of the community. He calls Aethelia "prejudiced and bigoted," and accuses Chanku of "feel[ing] entitled to respect while treating [Gov] like shit" (to be fair, given the long-standing feud between these two people, this attack is somewhat understable) and thus "very hypocritical," among other things. Gov also digs up some incredibly old incidents and grudges, from talking about an old runoff election vote involving Chanku to accusing Emoticonius of "decid[ing] to throw [him] under the bus" back in Spiritus (which IIRC occurred, like, three or four years ago, and which Gov just mentioned as if it were common knowledge when many if not most Wintreans probably aren't even aware that this occurred, or that Spiritus even is a thing).
I'm really not sure what Gov was trying to accomplish with these long and difficult-to-understand digressions, except perhaps trying to shift blame away from himself. Because if Gov was intending to advocate for his cause and his side of the story, despite my trying to go into the videos with an open mind, watching him repeatedly insult fellow Wintreans instead of defending himself really had the opposite effect. In this context, it is hard to see what he means when he calls for "a reasonable solution" in the concluding remarks of his defense.
So yeah, I'm voting aye.
