All

https://discord.gg/kaZccwbPV

As the years went by and I watched ever more Star Trek, combined with the enlightenment of Marxism, I came to the conclusion that a similar societal way, historical determinism, was described by Marx and others. The Federation and its ideology are socialist by nature.

Observing the federation through a realistic picture of the possible progress of humanity, we will assume that the universe and our environment are capable of supporting life outside the Earth. At the moment of our enlightenment with this information, humanity will find itself at a turning point.  Abolish the self-destructive economic hierarchy of the world, destroy the social constructs that keep us in shackles, or remain just one broken world of semi-sapient monkeys.

The idea of the Federation, in my opinion, is the perfect idea of the end of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the beginning of a classless society, and the beginning of a communist utopia.  The very assumption that a classless society begins with the federation as we know it through the series gives oxygen to an optimistic mind that looks at all this through the eyes of a Marxist.

What do you think about it?  Is the Federation something that modern, real Marxists should strive for?  Are the ideals of the Federation compatible with the ideas of communism?

TLDR: Do you think that the Federation is a stepping stone to a classless society?

S02E03

Just sharing this info because it feels good to see it acknowledged.

edit: removed a spoiler because apparently the spoiler tags don't hide the text when the post appears in lists

During the pilot episode of season two, someone is keeping a (somewhat) low profile when they suddenly see a friendly face in the crowd. The friendly person places their index finger under their eye.

I don't know exactly what this gesture means. Can anyone illuminate me?

The Dominion = NATO

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF DS9 THROUGHOUT

Okokok.

This is the first post in a series I plan to make depending on interaction.

I really want to delve deep into Marxist-Leninist's thoughts regarding these important issues affecting all of us in the Alpha quadrant.

Issues such as...

The Maquis. They're explicitly named after a French resistance group that included prominent communist leadership. They do a lil terrorism to preserve their land that was ceded to the enemy. This included their homes and farms.

But like are they kinda actin' like kulaks rn?

It's explained to us that all of the settlers were offered free and immediate resettlement. The Maquis refused on ideological grounds... in perhaps unfairly literal terms, their right to property. They could have been just as comfortable or even moreso had they took the Federation up on its offer, but their personal "connection to the land" (that was once again, a settlement or colony) is making them refuse to relocate.

Refusing to relocate threatens peace for the entire Federation. Cardassians, who have fought a long and bloody war in living memory against the Federation, now have an intergalactically recognized right to the land, including from the Federation itself. There is a horrible regional conflict playing out between settlers of either side and it seems to many like the Federation is too weak or too foolish to protect its people any longer.

Ben Sisko, in a chat with Eddington (IIRC), insinuates that he no longer believes that the correct choices were made when it came to the Maquis' existence or the plight of the settlers. I see a couple of things that could have happened had things turned out differently, from the Maquis becoming a paramilitary wing of the Federation (a la Azov in Ukraine, except this time it's based and not neo-Nazis), to the Federation actually affording a higher level of security in the region to protect against violence instead of letting Cardassian "peacekeepers" allow murder to occur.

What do you think of the Maquis, though? I synpathize with the connection element, but when we are aware that they were offered free, comfortable resettlement it certainly demystifies their ideological foundation.

I liked Section 31 and even found myself mostly agreeing with them and supporting their existence within the universe.

Starfleet Intelligence exists, of course. But intelligence can only go so far. An officially unaffiliated group that can bend the rules to defend the Federation, to defend fucking Eden, Gaia, the paradise that Earth has become is incredible! By any means necessary!

Ehheheh. Then, the attempted fucking genocide.

Oh, bother. I believe the showrunners intended to demonstrate in part how self-proclaimed "strong men who protect weak men" willing to justify the means at any cost tend not to be great, and giving these people completely unchecked power to kill and destroy is probably a bad idea. A major theme in the show is that killing and destroying is usually a bad idea anyway, so.

What do you think? Section 31: based successors of their NKVD and Stasi ancestors, or disturbed feds attempting to recreate the foreign policy of a thankfully long dead Amerika? Does their portrayal as le not epic genociders rub you the wrong way at all -- a bit Kilmonger-y maybe?

I wanna see some intense ass critique, comrades. I wanna see those downvotes pop off. 👎👎👎

I have to say this has got me very excited.

I know there is a mod for Stellaris (Which I've not been able to get to work on my GOG version of the game) but a fully fledged Star Trek grand strategy game is completely my bag.

Very excited about this news.

After a marathon couple of months where I finished Disc season 2-4, SNW a full TNG run and a full DS9 run I've run out of steam come season 4 of Voyager (It's always been my least favourite show and although some seems better than I remember, overall it just lacks something)

So decided to give Lower Decks a go and I have to say it's absolutely brilliant. I'm not a huge fan of animated shows but this series really does a great job and it will be interesting to see how they are in the new SNW series.

On S4 E16, time 17:48, but I had to pause the episode to talk about this. Beware spoilers throughout.

Are you KIDDING ME? Part of a small lingering complaint I've had in my head is that they have been somewhat understandably shy about using many opaquely radical terms: communism, socialism, revolution, etc. But now we're going ham into pro-union storytelling with no shame and no relent.

How can this show keep getting exponentially based-er? They can't keep getting away with it!

As in...

! ! ! !

I was not aware that scifi could be this good.

Only on S1 E17 ("only" as if I didn't start watching this like 3 days ago) and I'm told it only gets better. It has not disappointed me yet even with its wildest shit.

how I feel abt some of the characters

Sisko is the chad Old Guard Stalinist who makes questionable decisions at times and is a hardass boss but his intent and his impact are always in service to the people, all people.

Kira is my forever unrequited love (as she is fictional). Kira is absolutely amazing, the revolutionary who actually seized power and is now dealing with the ugly consequences of having said power. She's the forever-revolutionary and at least so far a goddamn aspirational one and a Bajoran global hero.

Julian needs to keep his libido in check. Thirsty as fuck and has some xenorientalism to work through. Incredible doctor and is devoted the cause when it makes necessary demands.

O'Brien is an absolute Stakhanovite and I love him for it. Wish I was raised by him instead of my dad.

Odo is so badass. So far he only has a fleeting understanding of his species, but at least from the perspective of some, Odo is a living relic. People tell ancient myths about changelings! He is perhaps the last of his kind (idk, s1 e17) and I think he stands as a wonderful representative of his people. The People's Constable through and through.

I hope Quark has a mindbreak and becomes a communist or he's murdered on-screen. I understand the series goes into more detail about the reasons why the Ferengi are like that... but to be completely honest, in the Star Trek universe at least, I would almost definitely be quite racist against Ferengi. Sisko didn't want Jake to hang out with Nog and I sympathized. I like that he came to his senses later that xenoracism is uncool, but Nog so far has only gotten worse and worse in his profit-before-people shit. Hope it changes.

Dax is interesting. I like the Trill lore. I'm not sure if the Curzon Dax stuff has more context in earlier iterations or not, but it hasn't hampered my enjoyment of Dax's character. Old man. ___

Blows my mind that this came out in 1993. It feels like communist art. Diplomacy first, always. Profiteering is disgusting and condemnable and humans should have no desire to do it, to the extent that it would be literally alien to us to fuck over others just for economic gain. The Bajoran politics are fascinating and, like I said, I love Kira and stan whatever carbombings she had to do to win independence.

Also, the Cardassians are fucking horrifying and look like animated and decaying Greco/Roman statues. I get major Rome and Amerika vibes from them, though the Ferengi are also quite Amerikan.

Can't believe I've put off Star Trek for this long. Also can't believe there was ever a freakin' debate between whether Star Trek or Star Wars is better, I'm feeling a radical difference in tone. In DS9 at least, there's rarely been le good guys and le bad guys the way there is in Star Wars especially post-Disney. I feel Star Wars also plays up the heroic fantasy to the 14th level, which is ok, but not necessarily interesting aside from visually, at least to me.

Anyway, I love this show and would like to see what people wanna say about it.

I'm referring to their DS9 incarnation, not the new show.

I kinda come down on the side of space KGB.

Most of the actions they did, was just standard spycraft that you would see in any war, and the dominion war was as brutal as you could get.

The worst action you could say that Sloan and section 31 attempted, was trying to genocide the founders via that genetic virus plot. Probably okay because the founders were all collectively involved (excepting Odo) in brutal space imperialism, subjecting the entire delta and alpha quadrants to subjugation and enslavement from their home planet, that was the target of the virus.