As usual with the flare up of war we see an increase in propaganda. Some of it is fun and done in an endearing spirit mixing playful natured banter with art. We’re going to be taking a look at the other side of war propaganda: an analysis of try hard misinformation propaganda that is designed not to instruct, but rather misinform readers. To no one’s surprise this unfortunately requires us to read the nonsensical ramblings of Imperium State Media’s most prolific propagandist, Moomin Amatin. Not only that, but the results of some other comment section posters that display the results of taking game narrative far too seriously. We’ll be looking at the “Imperium vs PanFam: A Week of War” parts 1 and 2.
The analysis here will likely be ignored by him and his fellow Kool-Aid drinkers. Instead of counter arguments we will hear oft repeated barking that I’m simply some kind of NCPL loyalist spreading their propaganda. In truth I’ve written numerous articles critiquing NCPL, and on a personal level I don’t think many elements of their leadership are too fond of me because of this. (I story I might tell in another piece.) I’ve been writing critique pieces since 2011 so a lot of people from different alliances take cold indifferent analysis as a personal attack on their mother’s virginity, NCPL included. Specifically I find NCPL’s mode of doing things often lacking long term strategy. Their expulsion of Co2 from Tribute and their pushing TEST into the arms of Imperium Hegemony are just two massive mistakes they have made in the past few years. Despite these critiques I’m sure Moomin will continue to say I’m just “trying to get in the good graces of NCPL.” After all when you have a drip fed supply of Kool-Aid, your worldview is myopic. In his view if you are not with Goons, you must be an NC-PL-BOB loyalist. Now with that out of the way we can address the main point at hand.
We’ll start off by showing the claim being made and showing how it’s inaccurate, dishonest, or simply made up.
1. “PanFam have been throwing around their weight for years. Constantly threatening groups and extorting where they can.”
This first claim is set up to establish that PanFam are bad. They’re throwing their weight around for years…and extorting people! The irony of course is that Goonswarm had an “extortion campaign” in late 2015 where they attempted to coerce people into paying them protection money. This all hilariously backfired when various lowsec groups like TISHU, Snuff, Shadow Cartel and others banded together and proceeded to hyper-dunk Goons and their friends in lowsec. What happens when you take a zerg 0.0 spam-cheap-crap-at-the-enemy approach against Lowsec Voltron’s slaved blinged pirate ship doctrine? Hundreds of billions in Goon feeds in exchange for some moons that never paid for the losses. Furthermore this showed Eve the weakness of Goonswarm which in part prompted the culmination of World War Bee.
2. “PanFam retreating.”
Based on the reporting that PanFam are unanchoring certain structures in the north and pulling further east, INN writers are quick to claim some kind of victory over this. There’s major gloating over how IHUBs and system upgrades are being destroyed to the tune of gorillions of ISK. These seems ironic of Goons to do considering how in 2016 they justified their retreat from the 8 or so regions that make up the north as being a “Fabian Strategy.” Yet when PanFam does it it’s treated like some massive route of forces.
3. “We’ve beaten them in the north before.”
Referencing the war between DeadCo (Darkness and allies) and the Imperium in which PanFam sided with DeadCo, INN propagandists are claiming that they had beaten them already. The previous conflict however is misrepresented as most historical things at INN are. DeadCo and the Imperium had a war in which PanFam offered DeadCo their support. The conflict took a different focus once Circle-of-Two entered the conflict. Co2 is easily one of the single biggest reasons the Imperium lost World War Bee. Thus the focus and energy of the Imperium went into hitting Co2 which eventually folded into Pandemic Horde of PanFam. With their energy spent the Imperium quickly took the offer of DeadCo leader, Sort Dragon for peace in exchange for numerous faction citadels. If this was supposed to be a stunning defeat of PanFam what can we say about the Halloween War and the parallels there?
Both Imperium and Panfam had their respective beneficiaries they were propping up either as RUSRUS or DeadCo respectively. Yet the Imperium ceded territory and their ally folded with their territory being incorporated into PanFam’s renter empire. DeadCo for what it’s worth still stood after the more recent war. Only in the mind of a zealot can you have your ally destroyed, lose territory and still win the war as is the claim by Goons regarding the Halloween War. That’s not to say that PanFam won the war in the north when working with DeadCo. But we should work to put things in perspective.
4. “DeadCo backstabbed by PanFam.”
It’s always funny to see Imperium narrative change regarding Sort Dragon. He’s ridiculed when he is not useful to the Imperium (See Asher’s Pavlov’s Dragon article) or more recently gets good boy head pats when he is useful by speaking out against PanFam. Love him or hate him, Sort Dragon’s a survivor, the Walder Frey of Eve Online, unable to directly dictate what goes on in Eve, but always useful to someone who does.
The claim that PanFam betrayed DeadCo comes from PanFam resetting him after helping defend his space for several months, and some verbal frustration expressed by PanFam leadership regarding DeadCo’s lackluster performance. On top of that Pandemic Horde in conjunction with Black Legion blew up some DeadCo stuff in Branch. This is the “betrayal” and “attack” by Panfam Moomin is referring to. Hardly some massive PanFam campaign against Darkness. More accurately this is a convenient excuse for Sort Dragon to keep his space safe from the Imperium. But who knows? Perhaps even this is a play by Sort Dragon waiting for the right moment to side with PanFam and counter push on the Goons.
5. “Flow of War favoring Imperium.”
This claim is debatable to say the least. Short story made even shorter is that PanFam are not bothering with structures while the only meaningful battle so far has ended in a land slide victory or Panfam.
Hmm ceding territory to tire out the attacker and only defending secure positions. Almost like some kind of Fabian Strategy employed or something. In any case sov, much less Tribute itself, doesn’t much matter. In the first case because the mechanics of the game itself have made sov and territorial loss much less meaningful.
In the second case, because Tribute itself had always struck me more as a buffer zone with Vale of the Silent being more of a “core valuable territory.”
6. “PanFam saying Imperium are evil.”
Moomin also claims that there is some narrative about Imperium being evil and that it had been extensively used in World War Bee as well. First off nobody used any such narrative to call the Imperium evil. There were a few no-name spergs but where generally mocked by everyone. Imagine thinking being evil in Eve is a negative thing. The only one that made any serious claims was Darius Johnson, former leader of the Goons and that was addressing the extensive doxxing culture in in Goons. But none of this was used to “rally the people against the Imperium.”
"The reason I left Goonswarm is because it is run by irredeemable garbage people with no moral grounding, perspective or loyalty." — Darius JOHNSON from Eve
https://pastebin.com/vEtvruze
7. “Asking reddit for help.”
Moomin claims that “a number of posts have been spotted” trying to ask for help against Goons. Literally where though? Of course he doesn’t cite them either because they don’t exist or they are made by sock puppet accounts/nobodies. Not much else for this point just lulz.
8. Numbers numbers numbers.
Moomin finally claims that PanFam and Imperium actually have “even numbers” in this conflict. The reality is that he’s counting over 10,000 renters and several alliances that aren’t even in PanFam or even involved in the current conflict up north. And once again like some PTSD riddled parrot, he brings up World War Bee and Goons having to fight off Literally All Of EvE (TM.) I guess when the only thing you’ve done this war is hit undefended structures and getting dunked in the one battle so far, you gotta bring up “The Casino War.” (Imagine thinking loser’s opinions of the names of war matter though.) Because I questioned this narrative in the INN comment section I was met with several loyal members fanatically defending the claim. Instead of sticking to the topic I was accused of “insulting” others and acting unethical. When I pointed out I simply questioned the notion of adding renters and non PanFam members onto Panfam’s numbers, the same person claimed that they were merely “baiting” me and that I was too stupid to catch on. Uh huh. Later on the same individual stated that they were “quite sincere in treating you with the contempt you deserve” and that I was having a psychotic meltdown. Clearly pointing out that WERMT and BoT are not relevant to actual combat viable numbers in the article is a “melt down” but calling someone “stupid” and thinking they deserved to be “treated with contempt” over spaceship video game pixels is reasonable.
Moomin and his fellow comrades attempt to project their own failures onto PanFam in some glazed over traumatized triggering stupor. Looking through and analyzing their mode of propaganda one begins to conclude that all of this is not so much about providing accurate critique of Panfam, of which there is plenty, but rather to project their own failures onto others. Engaging in this Orwellian mode of double think bringing to the fore front your own failures to project onto others while simultaneously memory holing the very fact that you were the originator of said mistake is exactly why I’ve grown such a distaste for large blocs. It requires one to suspend too much of your critical thinking for me to be comfortable with. Given enough time one develops a cult-like loyalty for what essentially is a neckbeard repository for poorly socialized manchildren. If you notice any of this or disagree with the narrative…well citizen…you’re just having a meltdown.
