or~ BB
45: Propaganda
"This edition of
the Blog Banter is forged from suggestions from #tweetfleet members
@KaedaMaxwell, @RocWieler and @TigerlilyFenix.
In a socially-driven
game environment such as EVE Online's, everyone has an agenda. CCP promotes its
products and has an army of volunteers to do the same; corporations and
alliances deliver entertaining recruitment drives, CSM election candidates
solicit for voter favor, bloggers and podcasters opine to their audiences.
In this intricate web of
communication, influence and control, “what part does propaganda play in
your game?”
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I had not been having much luck coming up with ‘words’
for this one… Propaganda does not work well on those who are capable and
prepared for it. Hence it does not play a ‘part’ as such in my personal game
and HBHI does not propagandize or even advertise. SYJ does not either, what
propaganda they put out is written on the side of their missiles and
projectiles… we send our propaganda the old fashioned way… with DPS!! HAHA!
Anyway…
Then I re-read my post on Mittens the Goonborn v
the EVEborn (Borgin
For the LULZ…) this connected in my mind with my brief, unpleasant yet
sickening foray onto James315’s blog… and my muse cried “Ah HAH!” grabbed my
brain with both hands and squeezed... and the words just started to flow…
Now, you may be asking what I meant by “Propaganda
does not work well on those who are capable and prepared for it”… to wit:
By “capable” I mean a person who is self
confident in his own morals, beliefs and personal understanding of right &
wrong… IE, someone who is comfortable with his understanding of the differences
between Good & Bad as he sees it, his personal Rules-of-Conducts (RoC) as
twere.
By “prepared” I mean a person who looks at all
communication with a care… with a pound or two of the old ‘grain-of-salt’ as
they say… someone who compares what he hears and reads against his own moral
compass and beliefs and RoC and then makes his own decisions.
This person is comfortable going against the
tide of the group or even mass opinion if it does not adhere to his personal
RoC. He accepts that this may put him in danger, that this decision will most
likely have costs and consequences. He accepts these as the cost of personal
integrity. If you ever made a decision that went against your friends, your ‘group’
or your family because of the ‘principle of the thing’… then you know the
persona of whom I speak. However… if you have always followed the herd, stayed
with the group, caved to peer pressure and done-what-yer-told… then you know well
the mind of that great mass of people that propaganda is aimed at, and works on
so well… like these guys here…
The bulk of the Goons (not all, not all) are
just such types I am willing to believe. To stay with the heard, to remain in
the group, to be “accepted” by your peers is a very very strong force in human
nature. Plus keep in mind the “Goon Born” vs the “EVE Born”… Goons are
inculcated into the herd BEFORE they join EVE Online… they, and I quote La
Mittens one-more-time: (excerpt from “The EVE-Born”)
“The
experience of a new Goonswarm player is radically different from that of the
EVE-born.”
”…when they install the
game they are an extension of an existing community [that takes precedence
over the EVE community]…”
“Rather than learning
the basics alone in hisec, on their first day newbie Goons podjump to deep
nullsec. There, they are surrounded by their fellows, ushered into massive
alliance warfleets, mentored by veteran players, and showered with ISK and
ships.” [brackets mine]
Thus being PRE-propagandized and inculcated into
the Goon mindset and culture prior to joining EVE leads to this:
“A
community-born [Goonborn] player is
able to entirely skip the dreaded ‘mining veld in a Bantam’ phase. Instead of a
positive kill/death ratio, external communities place a greater value on enthusiasm
and a willingness to die for the group.”
“In practice, this means
that Goons, Broskis and Redditors can be outright bastards to everyone else
in the EVE - besides their allies, of course - and get away with it. The
game’s normal culture of honor doesn’t apply…” [brackets mine]
That pretty much sums up my argument… If you can
CONTROL a person’s access to information from cradle to grave, (and from virtual
cradle to virtual grave) you can exert a form of ‘mind control’, IE ‘will
control’. If you control what they understand about a given situation, you can
control their reactions to a given situation… and thereby control the mob. And the
political mob and tactical mob (IE Blob) in EVE can be a very powerful force.
There are those who will argue that Goons, being
people in RL who have access to the ‘Net and all it contains cannot be ‘brain
washed’ or ‘mind controlled’ because they have free access to more information
than any other group at any other time in the history of the world… I agree and
this is true, but I am not arguing that they are all poor North Korean Trolls
(not the forum kind, I mean the mindless horde kind) who have never had access
to a radio much less the ‘Net…
My argument is that propaganda’s main weapon, “Go
along with ‘us’ or be cast OUT!” works on mature and semi-mature people and that
no matter how much information you have access to, if one’s beliefs are set
(early in the Reddit/Broski/Goon forum crèche/Madrasa) then just having access
to counter information rarely changes a person’s world view, be that world real
or virtual. No, the truly Goonborn see all counter data as ‘propaganda’ against
their kind… and react with aggression and hatred against it Irregardless of
truth or right & wrong.
As I said before, to stay with the heard, to
remain in the group, to be “accepted” by your peers is a very very strong force
in human nature. Propaganda plays directly to this strong emotional force… one
old time proven example is…
“YOU will burn for ETERNITY in HELL if you don’t toe the (insert religion of your choice) line!!!!”
“YOU will burn for ETERNITY in HELL if you don’t toe the (insert religion of your choice) line!!!!”
The corollary being the…
“ALL the rest
of us GOOD people will lay in comfort on clouds, LOL at you while eating grapes
from the hands of nubile, randy, horney virgins FOREVER because we were good
and did as (insert religion of your choice) told us to."
On an aside, and a question for the student:
“Why do the Jihadists get to have sex in heaven
while Christians of all colors evidently don’t?”
Answer: DAMN good piece of propaganda right there all by itself.
Answer: DAMN good piece of propaganda right there all by itself.
So, on to the New Eden Propaganda
Vulnerability Test…
It’s quite simple really. You see there is a new
political movement in New Eden, oh it’s actually an age old movement really,
but it is being dressed and dolled up and trotted out like it’s something new.
And it has a new charismatic Führer… oh, umm, I meant leader… who is using all the
time honored skills and tools of propaganda to further his personal goals and
agenda… I of course speak of James 315, his cult of The New Order and his run
for CSM8 on a platform of ultimately, “Ridding Hisec of The Carebear Menace.”
(nope no links, go look ‘im up yerself…) I give you just a small taste if what
James315 is all about…
The test? Go and read a few posts on
Minerbumping.com then score yourself below:
(1) If you find you are stunned by the utter
lack of any actual intelligent reasoning and or any ‘real’ content in any post on his
site, give yourself a score of ‘1’ [Not gullible].
You are a mature and intelligent person capable and
prepared to make your own decisions.
(2) If you can continue to read after 2 full
posts or more, and you find yourself, against your better judgment mind you
(that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach), asking yourself if there really
might be something worthwhile there… give yourself a score of ‘2’, [Potentially
Gullible].
You may possibly be gullible to rhetoric and propaganda
and cults etc., etc. If you stop, take a good hard look at your values and the
teachings of your family and culture, if you are willing to stand up for what
you know is right, then you can still take full control of yourself and your
life… but, you are at risk.
(3) If you not only can read several of James315’s
posts back to back but find yourself grinning and LOLing a little and agreeing
with ‘any’ part of his rhetoric… if you see ALL those people who have
contributed and commented so positively as being any kind of recommendation of
his position or platform, give yourself a score of ‘3’, [Gullible].
You are someone who can be swayed by public opinion
(real or made up), you are someone who looks to the crowd for guidance and who
wants to be accepted and one-of-the-guys more than you care about right and
wrong… you are very much at risk of being nothing more than a follower and a
hanger-on.
(4) If, after reading a few posts, you feel a
strong need to look up James315’s other rhetoric and posts on forums and elsewhere,
if you decide to send him ISK, if you post a comment in support of his policies…
give yourself a score of ‘4’ [Fully Gullible]
And relax… you are not at risk, you are, or will
be one day soon, a good mindless sheep, a follower of others thoughts and fulfiller
of others needs and desires living your life in lockstep with legions of
mindless masses… In fact, once you spent some time on James315’s site I doubt
you came back here at all…
Fly Safe and see you in the Sky =/|)=
NOTE: If, as you read this, you saw just how blatantly
I tried to propagandize my beliefs and feelings against all that James 315 and
his ilk stand for, then you pass, have a cookie.
If you didn’t, well… James is always looking for
a few good sycophants.
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