Political propaganda has been a constant of humanity since the aggrandising pyramids of the pharaohs, so it's no surprise that it’s alive and well over 1,000 years into the future. Each of the galactic powers in Elite Dangerous wants you to know why submitting to their rule will cure all your ills, and who better to make their case than their loyal commanders within our own Elite community?
The overhaul of the faction war known as PowerPlay - which has gone down well, to judge by our PowerPlay 2.0 guide and review - was the perfect time to ask our members to create a propaganda video singing the praises of their chosen power. So if you want to know more about the Milky Way's factions of the future or submit to corpo-political messaging voluntarily for once, read on to experience the most passionate Elite Dangerous power propaganda that our veteran players can muster.
Utopia propaganda
It might surprise Elite Dangerous veterans that we're starting with the Utopia Movement, since it isn't one of the big three galactic superpowers, but we're only responding to our membership. Both the first- and third-place winners of our power propaganda contest made the case for Utopia, an independent power which is all about elevating humanity by embracing technology.
In first place is CMDR Henckes with this stirring piece of propaganda on behalf of Pranav Antal, the movement's visionary leader.
Antal's got another deadly propagandist in MQC, who took our third-place prize with a video that elegantly walks the line between fear and hope - a time-honoured trick of propagandists everywhere. “We live in an imperfect world,” argues MQC on behalf of Antal’s Utopians, so you may as well join the people who’ll graft a few microprocessors into your skeleton.
There’s plenty of room in the galaxy to make a life outside of the superpowers, and to judge by our entrants, it’s a pretty appealing one.
Alliance propaganda
The best piece of propaganda on behalf of one of Elite Dangerous’s superpowers came from Odinoji, who took second place with a video on behalf of Nakato Kaine, a councillor and prime ministerial candidate from the Alliance of Independent Systems.
The Alliance is a parliamentary democracy formed by secessionist systems in a highly contested area of space that eventually got tired of being fought over by the Federation and the Empire, meaning that, despite standing for harmony, its leaders are all too familiar with violence. In this video, Odinoji frames Kaine as a strong leader set to bring justice after the devastating Nine Martyrs terrorist attacks. Capitalising on instability: a classic propaganda tactic!
Empire propaganda
“For the Empire. For Arissa. For humanity.”
The stroppy and volatile middle child of the galactic big three, the Empire of Achenar is a hereditary monarchy that’s all about status and honour. Their reigning Emperor, Arissa Lavigny-Duval, once said “to the worms nesting so complacently in the heart of my beloved Empire, I say this: we see you, and we are coming for you.” You get the idea.
And so does our fourth-place winner USCSS, who strikes the same ominous tone in this powerful statement on behalf of their Emperor. You can check out a version in Spanish, too.
Federation propaganda
The Federation is the oldest and biggest of the big three, the hypercapitalist inheritors of Earth, Mars, and the solar system, and RicardosGaming was their biggest cheerleader in our propaganda contest. Here’s their campaign video on behalf of the Federation's current president, Felicia Winters:
We’re not sure what it is about the Federation, but it was the only power that our members felt animated to campaign against, and actually drew more hostile propaganda videos than favourable ones. Sorry, Ricardo.
XCezor took fifth place overall for this hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism, digging through all the facts to make one simple argument, neatly encapsulated in its title: Don’t Join The Federation!
LCU No Fool Like One follows XCezor’s journalism with a lovely bit of salty grumbling, producing a devastating one-two punch of serious and silly anti-Federation propaganda:
Bonus entry: Federation mudslinging
“It’s not an official entry as neither myself nor CMDR Exorcist are powers,” says LCU, adding an ominous “… yet!”, but their cover version of The Human League’s quintessentially ‘80s hit Don’t You Want Me was so much fun that we figured we’d include it anyway. Like the original, it’s a duelling duet, but the topic is which of the two is more worthy to be President of the Federation. In that sense, it’s political propaganda, and worthy of a place on this list. Felicia: you've got competition!
Which of these pieces of shameless recruitment propaganda did you find most convincing? Do you have any of your own to share, and what arguments would you make on behalf of your chosen faction? Let us know in the comments!
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: CMDR Henckes and Frontier Developments
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