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ive always wondered about the imperium citizen's view on the 41st milleneum. Would they be allowed freedom of speech on planets untouched by war (unlikely) And how much information would be kept from them if the planet was invaded

Probably not much free speech unless it was different adjectives on just how awesome big E is.
mostly little free speech but a bad planetary leader person wouldn't be able to enforce that so you get chaos cults protesting burning idols and such.
Some planets are quite well off and don't need to stop free speech but i'd guess those are particularly rare IMO.

Possibly quite a lot of planets have a considerable degree of freedom of speech.

Positive reinforcement (rewards) are more effective in controlling people than negative reinforcement (punishments).

When you consider the huge size of the IoM, the toll on each planet is probably fairly small.

For example, the 10,000 psykers a day eaten alive by the Emporer, amount to fewer than four people per Imperial planet per year. In comparison, 30,000 people are killed with guns every year in the USA alone.

Obviously the psyckers would be clustered, however I think you can assume that even if 1,000 times more psychers were taken from some planets, it would hardly be noticed against the general background of accidents, murders, childhood cancers, and so on.

OTOH the whole Empire is based on savage repression of independent thought on religious grounds. So perhaps there is absolutely no freedom of speech anywhere.

You never know when some sneaky little bastard might invent a better light bulb or something. Best to stop them even thinking about it before they start.

Kilkrazy wrote:Possibly quite a lot of planets have a considerable degree of freedom of speech.

Positive reinforcement (rewards) are more effective in controlling people than negative reinforcement (punishments).

When you consider the huge size of the IoM, the toll on each planet is probably fairly small.

For example, the 10,000 psykers a day eaten alive by the Emporer, amount to fewer than four people per Imperial planet per year. In comparison, 30,000 people are killed with guns every year in the USA alone.

Obviously the psyckers would be clustered, however I think you can assume that even if 1,000 times more psychers were taken from some planets, it would hardly be noticed against the general background of accidents, murders, childhood cancers, and so on.

OTOH the whole Empire is based on savage repression of independent thought on religious grounds. So perhaps there is absolutely no freedom of speech anywhere.

You never know when some sneaky little bastard might invent a better light bulb or something. Best to stop them even thinking about it before they start.

I guess that's what the inquisition and commisars are for. You do have a good point about the size of the IoM

Inquisition, commissars, the Adeptes Astartes, the Sisters of Battle, there is a massive set of organisations whose raison d'etre is to suppress dissension from the Imperial creed.

iwould also think propoganda would mostly be focuses on the great deeds of the past, it doesnt take much to show the space marines or the emperor as almighty thugs.

If you want to know about propaganda the Ciaphus Cain novels are a good example.

The main thrust is that defeats are generally excised, in a similar manner to WWI and WWII efforts, with an effort to promote "vitories" regardless of worth overall - so the Gunheads novel has Sarge Wulfe being told his compatriots would not get a medal as it was Zealot rated classified. (or something else "Z" class...)

Privilege also has its perks, with Peers and Nobles going to great lengths to exclude imperial authorities where possible - there are numerous examples of this in both the comic books (Dan Abnett novel where they hid mutants) through to Dark Heresy. However these books *do* show that the slightest hint of heresy, even at the highest levels, can and WILL bring the might of Arbites or Judges down on you. If it is a garrison world then the local civilians may be under IG authority.

Amongst guardsmen *no* free speech is allowed: openly saying a mission may fail is enough to get a private lashed (or worse, depending on the commisar) for dissent - hell, even reading the primer upside down is punishable by death....

As with everything in 40k, it really depends on the planet your talking about e.g a hive world is far more likely to have more propaganda and less freedom of speech than say a backwater agri world. If you want an example of imperial propaganda I suggest you read "The imperial infantryman's uplifting primer"

vodo40k wrote:As with everything in 40k, it really depends on the planet your talking about e.g a hive world is far more likely to have more propaganda and less freedom of speech than say a backwater agri world. If you want an example of imperial propaganda I suggest you read "The imperial infantryman's uplifting primer"

thats the one where they claim they will never ever use propaganda like the tau do right?

Is the imperial infantryman's uplifting primer a good read? I heard it's got some subtle but funny humour in it.

I think that there is some considerable free speech on planets and even in the Guard. From all of the Dan Abbnet novels I've read I have even heard what amounts to the questioning of orders but military personnel. Obviously this type of dissent is frowned upon, but not aways met with extreme forms of punishment. Its not like everytime someone speaks their mind they get smoked. As Killkrazy said positive reinforcement is better than punishment.


That is unless someone says something heretical. If that happens, the gak has truely hit the fan for that person, they are or are soon to be dead.


In the end, I suppose the moral of the story is to watch what you say in the Emperor's universe.

Munch Munch! wrote:Is the imperial infantryman's uplifting primer a good read? I heard it's got some subtle but funny humour in it.

It does have some amusing tidbits in it, and I especially like the beginning. Nearly every possible crime from being drunk on duty to being a heretic ends with the phrase. "....will be shot." But yeah, in replying to the op, the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer does have lots of nice things about Guardsmen always being watched. ALWAYS

I guess most attention about supporting the emperor would be focused on the military then.

IGUP is a beauty. suggest it to you all.

munotorum is helpful for IoM fluff guns.