The 2024 U.S. Presidential race

[Noodles]

. The characters, even that asshole Kirk, all champion diversity, education, compassion, altruism.

We started watching TOS basically just the week, as a sort of follow up to SNW, and in like 3 episodes we had an entire bit where Yeoman Rand was essentially being sexually harassed and Kirk had to explain to him why it's wrong to treat women like that.

Plus yeah, in addition to the diverse cast (where they apparently had to fight for Uhura), there are plenty of metaphors in the whole plot of every episode where "alien race is basically a stand in for some social issue."

 

[Free]

Plus yeah, in addition to the diverse cast (where they apparently had to fight for Uhura), there are plenty of metaphors in the whole plot of every episode where "alien race is basically a stand in for some social issue."

One could say it was often to the point of being overly blatant.

 

[Noodles]

Sometimes I question how much of the hate on Star Trek Discovery was actually because the show has its iffyness about feeling like Trek, and being focused on one character kind of makes it weird for a Star Trek show. And how much backlash was because it was really pushing progressive viewpoints. It kind of felt like almost every character was gay or bi, I don't think there were really any "straight while male" characters, eventually you had a They/Them character and their boyfriend who was never explicitly but felt heavily implied to be trans.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I never got past the first episode of Discovery, so can't really speak to why other people may not have liked its foundational perspective. I just thought the writing and acting sucked.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

But long before the 47-year-old [in 2013] franchise was breaking box office records, it was breaking ground as one of the most forward-thinking franchises in television and film history. Thanks largely to the (at the time) radical philosophy of creator Gene Roddenberry, the show attracted audiences with its adventure stories, but it kept them with its utopian optimism: the idea that the raging intolerance of the day would someday become a thing of the past, and anyone could explore the stars if they wanted.

Star Trek's History of Progressive Values — And Why It Faltered on LGBT Crew Members

The progressive values of the show seem to have faltered—and even started falling behind the mainstream—by failing to add LGBT members to the crew of the Enterprise.

www.wired.com

Roddenberry was a known progressive in his time. Remembering the original show aired in the late 1960s and the cast consisted of black, Ameri-white, Japanese, Italian, Scottish, Russian, and bi-racial (or bi-species? Remember, Spock is half human) characters. The idea that people think the show is only recently turning progressive is mind boggling. If anything, as the linked article is pointing out, the show's progressive nature has slowed if not stalled since Roddenberry's passing.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Soen Eber]

Oh no! The Republicans might have to actually run candidates that most people can agree with! The horror!! A $eriou$ minority of people may find them$elve$ with greatly reduced repre$entation!

 

[detrius]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I don't think it's so much that people genuinely think the show is suddenly turning progressive.

You know how they say that people often get more conservative as they get older? I think it's just that. These people liked Star Trek when they were younger and more open-minded; they weren't just completely oblivious about the messaging when like Data built a "child" and allowed it to experiment and choose its own gender, or with the almost constant reminders that future society had rejected money and profit. They accepted the show for what it was at the time.

It's just that they later changed. They were swept up in identity politics and reactionary ideology, and now have to reject all those things that they accepted years and decades ago. Their new identity doesn't square with the fond memories they have of the old shows they used to watch where gun-wielding heroes beat up abusive capitalists and brave spaceship crews fought against racism and sexism though, and the way they reconcile the difference is by editing their memories and pretending it was never like that, both because it's just easier and because it's situationally useful to be able to complain that yet another beloved thing is being ruined or taken away from them in the now by the people they're supposed to hate.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

So, what's the down side?

 

[Free]

So, what's the down side?

For them? More than a generation in the political wilderness.

 

[Lexxi]

As the time comes for Kamala Harris to pick a VP, we have various lists.
JD Vance said weird things about cats. So... VP candidates with animals.

Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, no cat found but:

Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation

Mark Kelly, US Senator Arizona, with service dog

J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois

Josh Shapiro, governor of PA

Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, petting a cat while campaigning.

 

[Lexxi]

 

[Veritable Quandry]

News is showing a bunch of black SUVs pulling up to Tim Walz's house. Either he's getting Secret Service protection or they are serving a warrant.

 

[Isabeau]

If it’s him for VP, I’m surprised (I was preparing to be disappointed)

 

[Noodles]

Man, I really like Pritzker, but I hope he isn't picked because I don't want someone else especially.not the last GOP pick who had previously lead a campaign to split Illinois off from Chicago.

 

[Free]

Walz has been my pick (Buttigieg was my want, but I wasn't expecting it), but I could live with any of them.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

For them? More than a generation in the political wilderness.

I'm okay with that.

 

[detrius]

As the time comes for Kamala Harris to pick a VP, we have various lists.
JD Vance said weird things about cats. So... VP candidates with animals.

Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, no cat found but:

Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation

Mark Kelly, US Senator Arizona, with service dog

J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois

Josh Shapiro, governor of PA

Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, petting a cat while campaigning.

Meanwhile...