The Trek Place

It's not what DEI means. It's about what it stands for.

Conservatives don't want to be told to treat people with decency. They want to treat however the fuck they want, and then tell you that you aren't treating them decently.

It's about wielding power.

YES, it's insane. It's like saying "be a decent person" and people going "Fuck you, commie bastards, I do what I want."

DEI is the current iteration of affirmative action, that’s all.

The problem with DEI is that it’s an imperfect solution that only came about because racists and other bigots couldn’t behave themselves. Forcing the hiring of specific demographics isn’t going to result in the best possible outcomes in every case but those groups also need opportunities even though they’ve been systemically given worse educations and have been generally shat upon. Removing race we’d also probably hire the white man more often but not because they’re inately better, but rather because they are simply more likely to be able to afford to have pretty looking resumés compared to disadvantaged minorities.

We wouldn’t need DEI in the first fucking place except people like an old boss, who saw an immigrant classmate of mine’s resumé come up and because of his African last name said “no thanks I want to keep jobs in Canada”, need to be forced to do the right thing. They create the problem and throw temper tantrums when we try to fix it. These people are obstacles and it’s getting tiring.

TL;DR: They feel as if they have a point because DEI can result in a more qualified person being turned away, which I get feels unfair. However, they refuse to acknowledge the fact that said person was only more qualified because we make it so difficult for minorities to fucking do anything. I’m getting so sick of right-wing bullshit.

The outrage the far-right spun over DEI is by trying to portray it as hiring vastly underqualified applicants simply because of their belonging to an underrepresented group (often even being portrayed as vastly underqualified because of their race as white supremacist rhetoric). Of course in reality this wasn't true and it was just a foghorn for racism/an ethnic slur, but that's how it started.

A lot of people seem to use "DEI" as a stand-in for the "n-word."

Yeah, I’ve heard it called “Didn’t Earn It” and the idea is that people are given preferential treatment in job or services based on their ethnicity and not their qualification. As with all things the truth is somewhere in the middle.

It was TNG that really established an ensemble cast formula; TOS was Kirk-Spock-McCoy and the rest. It took TNG a couple seasons before they got the idea of a true ensemble cast where everyone gets to star in some episodes. TOS wouldn't have had more than one episode starring Reginald Barcklay with Geordi and Dianna in supporting roles, but TNG had at least two.

“I'm a legit snack” - Nyota Uhura

Yes but that doesn’t mean we should never look back and see how far we’ve come, just as we look forward and see how far we have to go.

And new people who haven't figured out yet are born all the time!

excuse me, i have a degree in bullshit. We have figured out everything. 1+1=2. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.

It helps when every other planet is a severely flawed monocolutre.

I think that’s the real message of Star Trek in general!

That's a simple enough message to even get it from Warhammer 40k - Gender? Skin colour? Disabilities? Doesn't matter, pick up a Lasrifle and start shooting xenos

The one I always feel like I need to warn people about is the treatment of Rand in The Enemy Within. Particularly since that happens so early in the series.

That did really bother me, shoehorning all the queer people into their own little box after being far more progressive in previous seasons. Literally anyone else on the crew could have adopted Adira (who I didn't really care much for as a character anyway, she was basically SNW Uhura but not as good an actor), but they had it be Stamets and Culber. How about making it, say, Detmer?

but the most the gay couple gets is sitting next to each other, brushing teeth and a small kiss

While you're absolutely right, I think the record should show that tooth brushing scene is one of the sexiest scenes in television history. Those two have some serious on-screen chemistry.

I just wish a single ship weren't saving the Federation/Galaxy/Multiverse every season.

It also waffles hard between "The important part of the Federation is it's ideals" and "Section 31 is pretty badass right?".

it’s still good Trek

Everything with Pike and crew and pretty much everyone except Michael is decent Trek. Deus ex Burnham in every century Starfleet exists in is boring as shit and the nacelles not even being attached to the ship anymore is veering into Star Wars level of nonsensical ship design.

The only issue disco has ever actually had is their serialized episodes.

And not spending enough on light bulbs in some episodes. I wondered if my TV was broken, at one point. Lol.

Roddenberry was both a genuinely progressive guy and an extremely 20th century man. "In the future we're going to cure disease and hunger and everyone of all races and creeds will work together there's gonna be a black woman, an asian guy, a Russian and an alien with funny ears on the bridge all working as a team and the women will all wear wrist length gogo dresses and there's gonna be an episode where the crew is utterly baffled at the very concept of racism. We're gonna paint some actors with half of their faces white and half of their faces black and they're gonna be really horrible to each other and when asked why they're gonna say "They're white on the left side and we're white on the right side" and it's gonna make racism sound really dumb."

I struggle to have a problem with a guy whose message is "Systematic hatred is extremely bad and stupid, let's look at sexy legs instead."

I'm an old fart too. I had a friend who said all they did on TNG was sit up straight and say, "Engage."

to say nothing of Star Trek IV

"Double dumbass on you!"

Just like how "Last Train to Clarksville" is about Vietnam.

TIL. That is a really subtle reference (at least from the perspective of somebody born a couple of decades after the fact, anyway).

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

EDIT: I only noticed the username after I posted this, since it's clear this is what you were making reference to ha

We really should never have left the oceans.

Always was

Truth is, with NuTrek, it doesn’t have a single progressive bone in its body, and the writers don’t have the skill to pull off any sort of commentary.

It’s not that bad, though I don’t totally disagree.

Also… I’d argue a problem is having their hands tied. Ironically, anything that would hit really hard couldn’t be aired in this day and age. The whole franchise would probably be mothballed if they pushed the envelope as hard as TOS.

Also Orville - particularly the latest season - has been incredible. Everything Star Trek is supposed to be.

That show surprised the hell out of me, especially because the first season has more of Seth's typical touch, but then he drops some of the silliness and dives right into being a Trek replacement. It feels like every episode or two has some powerful commentary and things don't always go the way you think they should because situations are more complex than simply right-or-wrong... Like old Trek.

Lower Decks remains very good.

It's finished. The final episode aired last week.

I am still bummed Lower Decks is over. Great finale, and I'm glad they wrapped up the story nicely. My only complaint is to Paramount not giving us more seasons.

The crossover episode with Strange New Worlds was my favorite episode of any Star Trek since TNG.

Haven't watched strange new worlds. Everyone and their mother hyped discovery, and not only was it toe curling cringy bad, it was toxic. Had nothing to do with star trek.

Then there was Picard. Yay, the crew comes back toge... O wait. 3 godawful seasons where they managed to ruin Picard, then Q, then the entire TNG cast. The last season of Picard was based on a mind bogglingly dumb premise, characters were all different (as per usual in the Picard show). Watching Beverly go from risking her life and disobeying a direct order in order to save a victim to being a cold and efficient killernis just... Uugghh. The shape shifters have been turned into drek, manage to ruin that too, and well, the Borg was already castrated by Voyager, but that show at least still gave a damn. New trek does not.

After that Picard s3 I was done. No more. I used to watch trek at least once per week, haven't watched anything anymore ever since Picard.

Now everyone is raving about strange new worlds, and I'm not going to do it. I watched the Orville instead and LOVE it, adore it, it's the new star trek. Too bad it seems to have died an early dead, especially with Covid. Oh well.

Eithe

If it wasn't clear, the part about toxicity is about the fandom. Star Trek fandom has become quite toxic but quite in the opposite of what you'd think.

If you say that discovery is godawful (it is) then you're immediately antieoke and *phobic

I'm neither. I just don't want to watch a show that places virtue signalling above actually being a good show.

I also want a fandom that is honest enough to see that any post enterprise trek is NOT the same writing/acting/progressive quality as pre all that.

I've said this multiple times, on Reddit and Lemmy and so far most responses are "you're a Nazi" or something in that direction

In the defense of people who constantly post the meme, they've never given enough thought to Star Trek to consider that some random Tumblr screen grab isn't accurate.

I'm always stunned how many people on this subreddit come off as vocally progressive, but don't bother actually watching the show. I guess that would take a modicum of effort.

At The Earth's Core is about how you can't mesmerize british people, and big mac boxes can breathe fire. I'm not sure if that's political or not.