The Railroad have an admirable mission in the form of liberating synths from the Institute, but they have no long term goals or plans for actually rebuilding the Wasteland. The Brotherhood are one of the few factions able to offer some semblance of stability and safety – at the expense of civil liberties, racism, discrimination and concentrating all power in the hands of a fascist dictatorship. I actually quite liked that none of the factions are black and white good/evil. If the supposedly trustworthy governments and corporations that created all the tech couldn’t be trusted not to abuse it, I definitely don’t want it in the hands of some jet fiend raider with schizophrenia and an axe to grind! The racism side of things is sad, but there are pretty solid reasons behind why they’re so stringent about control of technology. The war itself just reinforced that the tech developed by those that came before was dangerous, that humans are generally too reckless to wield it and that if it’s not controlled it will probably lead to another disaster, if not wipe humanity out altogether. Look no further than VaultTec for a prime example of the depths of corruption that were par for the course. The Brotherhood was founded because abuse of technology (pre-war), particularly the FEV virus, had reached ridiculously unethical levels. Their mindset isn’t an unsympathetic one. The beauty of a well-written character or group is that there’s no clear distinction between good and bad =) I think the Brotherhood fits that bill pretty nicely. Also, once you join them, you can’t leave them! If only there was an option where one of the other factions could destroy their castle stronghold. Preston Garvey won’t stop sending me on boring/soul-crushing respawned missions. But, god forbid, if there were a synth in there, they’ll sacrifice their agents to try and save the japanese sex robot. – The Railroad nonchalantly blow up facilities without evacuating human lives. – The Brotherhood unlawfully confiscate technology and cause more collateral damage thanks to their constantly falling and exploding vertibirds. They constantly say they’re saving the commonwealth but it’s clear they don’t care about its current inhabitants. – The Institute kidnap and procure resources with trigger-happy terminators. – Every faction doesn’t care who they hurt, as long as they forward their own agenda. – Each faction stand on their own obnoxious moral high ground, and they’re an asshole to anyone who isn’t a resident of their group.

Brotherhood of steel in fallout 4