And just to finally hammer down the nail I give you the latest chronicle, The Plague Years.
http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=29-11-10
Are you still so sure that every other NPC is wrong and Sansha loyalist's aren't dupes?
How is it a 'hammer in the nail' when you are reading primarily from the perspective of the person opposed, who
poisoned his guest, and then
shot him in the head when there was no hostility involved? Usually there is meaning to the picture illustrated to the moment made in the chron. When you initially look at the picture before reading, isn't the first thing that pops into your mind 'Who is the victim?'. This doesn't change here in this story, regardless of what flag our character holds as we play them.
How do you say otherwise, when the victim of the story, was the one trying to reason? Negotiate? Display a wide range of emotions throughout the whole 'scene' of the short story, while the main character calls his side 'mindless drones' and 'zombies'? There is alot more going on here that meets the eye, nor will we fully understand what happened in the past that was discussed as it seemed it was an opportunity that was never allowed to prove itself.
It's the same overbearing irrational fear present that mirrors what the coalition side has believed and spread in propaganda. So much so the point where they overexaggerate and jump to conclusions where things they say to doesn't matter anymore. Where truth or fabricated lie become indistriguishable from each other, and everyone feeds off each other in the momentum to justify killing more Sansha.
Again, think of the Liberty pill incident, which paints the fear of both the standard capsuleer and stories they are told about Nation, and the position civilians have riled themselves over from this pressure cooker of being between a rock and a hard place. Where the image of the capsuleer is death incarnate, and Nation is the biggest boogieman story told in the cluster.
Is Nation these shining beacons of hope? Arvo will say yes, but I of course can objectively say not so much. Are the civilians at the sites all coming willingly? Of course not, but you would likely be surprised it would be more than you'd think if you looked in the right places for 'why'. Are Nation the 'good guys'? For this event, I'm inclined to say 'yes' in light of the timing and other things surrounding them, but remember all the factions are gray. If all anyone ever does is listen to one side of the story for all purposes of us looking into the grand stage that is the cluster, we surrender ourselves into being ignorant and becoming a
statistic in a TV trope.
What frustrates myself as roleplaying a loyalist to Nation is not only the lack of support offered by the expansion, but the fact there is great pile of circumstanial evidence surrounding the faction to suggest there is much more than the evil one-dimensional villains everyone who briefly glances at them, wishes them to be. I begin to wonder what can I do as a player, in order to do in my part of the sandbox, to allow Nation in some way be dispelled of some of the fear that surrounds them and can be brought as another acknowleged nation in the cluster. Will there be some sort of new piece of knowledge unfound or has yet to be revealed to further validate themselves in a way that once done, the storyline will acknowledge it as one of us manage to make that impact as ILF has proven? Or will the sandbox be 'fixed' in such a way that CCP will do so only in a future expansion after Incursion on their own terms?
Those are the things I worry about.