this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Star Trek memes and shitposts
Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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I'm not defending the straw man in this screenshot of a tweet, but this is a bad comparison. Roddenberry created a world in which the ideas of equality, freedom, diplomacy, and justice could be explored organically. He shifted the underlying economic motivations for the existence of political systems. He fought constantly with the studio system and his own writers to bring about a revolutionary vision of the future.
Since Roddenberry's death, Star Trek: The Franchise has been slowly oscillating downwards: away from a universe whose observation reveals the objective value of virtue into one in which virtue is paid lip service at the cost of strong "physics" -- that is, the sense of a coherent universe. Star Trek is now a product researched, marketed, designed, produced, tested, distributed, and defended by committee. Where once we had revolutionary subversions of what was allowed on television, we now find performative affirmations of popular lifestyle. If you have to compare yourself to 90's broadcast television in order to feel revolutionary, you're not.
The use of "woke" and "political" in this hypercontextualist style is so vague as to border on non-expression. Reacting to a reaction to a reaction to a reaction to a form of expression in which my reply wouldn't be allowed due to a character limit is not critical thinking. We can do better than this. Roddenberry already did.
The use of "woke" is vague?
Unfathomable, no way anyone would use the term "woke" in a vague way, especially not a presidental candidate.
Edit: Or here -- https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/star-trek-starship-enterprise-democrat-woke-david-marcus
You're completely missing the more useful point. The right says "woke and political," implicitly referencing the complex change I described above. The left quotes the right saying "woke and political" as an implicit dismissal of civil rights, diversity, representation, etc. Both of these lazy-ass anachronisms suck big huge elephant dicks and ruin the political discourse in the media.
You are entirely making that up.
Here are 200+ different things that are "woke" according to Fox: https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/200-things-fox-news-has-labeled-woke
I don't think the output of a media outlet is a useful handle on what individuals mean when they use politicized terms. To put it another way, if you're going to quote Fox you should also quote HuffPo.
It's a huge number of examples of that right wing individuals using "woke" in a vague way.
Show me one example of a right wing individual using "woke" in a specific way.
You're misreading me and moving the goalposts. There is a media trend which can be (very poorly) described as "woke and political." One of the reasons why people who are bothered by this trend should refrain from using this code/shorthand is that it allows other people to project hate onto it, which is, in my view, equally shitty. Outlets like Fox deliberately court this behavior because it drives engagement. You shared their viral content for them. I wonder if you even viewed one of their ads on the way.
Yeah I'm browsing the fediverse but I don't know how to install AdBlock on my browser.
"woke" has always been vague, on purpose. It's so you can retcon any "implicit" meaning you want, as you tried to.
Right wingers don't use "woke" in a specific way and we both know it, that's why you can't muster a single example to back up your claim.
I'll even help you out: here is a time when a right wing individual specifically defined "woke":
https://www.fox13news.com/news/what-does-woke-mean-gov-desantis-officials-answer-during-andrew-warren-trial
There is nothing to do with the writing quality of any TV show in there.
But even that arbitrary definition doesn't seem to encapsulate other things commonly described as woke that are not systemic injustices, like the existence of trans people or climate change.
How does creating a product through research and committee equate to being "woke?" Countless products have been and are created to appeal to specific audiences. If you just define any product that is designed by committee, researched, focus tested, and made to appeal to a certain lifestyle or segment of the population, then everything is woke.
Country music is woke because it's made to appeal to rural audiences who believe in rugged individualism. The Fast and Furious movies are woke because they're made to appeal to people who are part of the car culture and like racing and modding their cars. Sennheiser headphones are woke because they're designed for audiophiles who are willing to spend thousands of dollars for the best audio quality.
And blaming bad writing on some vague undefined notion as "woke" makes no sense. I don't like Discovery. My criticisms are based on plots not making sense, characters doing dumb things, characters and plots not being inconsistent, episodes ignoring previously established plot points or lore, etc. It's the same kinds of criticisms I have towards any bad movie/show/book. For example, the Michael Bay Transformers movies were bad. Why were they bad? Plots not making sense, characters doing dumb things, people ignoring previously established plot points or lore, etc. The quality of those movies have nothing to do with the presence or lack of "wokeness." Saying that Discovery is bad because it's "woke" is like saying Michael Bay's Transformers movies are bad because they have explosions.