The Trek Universe and Progressive Ideals

Well I didn’t think this was going to turn out so lengthy, so perhaps I will limit it to the Trek universe for now, though I was going to discuss Star Wars and Firefly as well. Please ignore references to a plurality for now. I’m not re-writing the post.

Anyone ever notice a glaring disconnection between the “values” that progressives idolize and the way they themselves portray idealized depictions of them in TV/movie fictional universes?

Equality, diversity and other nauseatingly and crudely concocted progressive ideals are certainly injected into many of the most popular fictional universes (I will focus on sci-fi), whether directly into the fabric of the universe, or by insight, clarification or political statements provided by cast members/creators and their writers. Now, I understand creativity and artistic license, and after all we are talking about creating a FICTION. I do not assume all creators are trying to create something they idealize, otherwise we wouldn’t have most of our literature, and more often than not if something is brought to TV or movies, then teams of writers, producers, director etc. all play a role in the creation. We also cannot take too seriously universes created for 30 minutes a week. However, that does not discount the very obvious and often callow themes and values that are nevertheless apparent in many of these fictions, often to comedic effect. I believe it is also important to bear in mind that the creations are ultimately products of their creators’ minds (obviously), and in that sense cannot be completely disconnected from each other. My intent is not to over analyze works of fiction but to poke fun at the fine swiss cheese.

Through media, we get the opportunity to see grand creations of peoples, cities, worlds and universes that flesh out over time, which we are able to observe in a good binge watching session :wink:. In sci-fi in particular we are quite often dealing with ‘the future’ or long, long ago in a galaxy that has far more advanced technology and stylized ‘futuristic’ humans than we do. I believe in some instances we get a picture of the creator(s)’ vision of (at least superficially) idealized versions of what these values will lead to or produce. The disconnections I am talking about are either blatant contradictions of their own values, or unintended revelation of flawed or broken aspects of their ideologies.

I am focusing on the TV/movie ports of these universes am not intending to get to ultra-virgin-nerd territory discussing minutiae of these universes, as that is not the general experience of the audience. Nor will I be acknowledging spin-off works by different authors/creators (eg. star wars novels) because there are often stark contradictions between them. There are also cases where some of these universes try to cram something in to fill some of the holes in their plots/structure. Oftentimes these are added much later in the life of the universe or are an obvious glossing. If I have made a major error in any of these examples, please point them out, I am not all knowing.

And of course, since we are dealing with fiction, and sci-fi in particular, we could make up anything we want and make it sound plausible, but I am working on the assumption that if it wasn’t important enough to explain, it is likely something of the ‘progressive’ variety to which I am trying to draw attention for the very reason that many prog values are just that, window dressing. We also have to consider that if we introduced ‘red tape’ to fix all the holes we wouldn’t have entertainment any more.

That being said:

Star Trek Universe - The Federation is an altruistic organization which is supposed to be the exemplar for “good” in the galaxy:

  1. Cross-species breeding. Talk about circle jerk. Ok yeah, the progenitor race planted DNA all over the galaxy somehow all engineered to EVOLVE into humanoid species, that are also capable of cross-producing. In some instances this doesn’t even make sense within the show (Vulcans with copper blood and humans with iron). Humans in this world must breed like rabbits in this world to offset the cross-species miscegenation.

  2. Human Federation or no? Of course there are many races within the federation, because it is so inclusive and diverse. However, more often than not when the star crew meets with another alien race in some sort of encounter/exchange as a monolithic entity, they are generally referred to as the humans. The take-away here "We are so highly developed and advanced and tolerant and puuuuuuuke, so we welcome all races, but we still need to represent humans monolithically, to the exclusion of the ‘hundreds of races’ in the Fed because all other races in this universe are pretty much “xenophobic” and pretty much any mixed-race alien is shunned by their race.

  3. Constant breaches of the Prime Directive. This is a perfect example of meaningless platitudes that are almost devoid of substance. A good portion of their military interventions are direct violations of their most sacred of tenets.

4.Free speech and other liberties. In “The Drumhead” (TNG) Jean-Luc Picard solemnly recounts a quote by a Federation judge. “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?! I dare you to find a ‘progressive’ today that would say any of those things with a straight face. And I don’t mean the useful idiots who think that’s the way progs work.

  1. Federation homeworld (and laughably sector 001) and headquarters is Earth. Humans would have a very particular interest in what activities the Fed gets up to. After all, if someone attacks the Fed they are attacking the human homeworld. Despite that you never see a representative of earth that is NOT a rep of the Fed. If the Fed represents human politicians then how can it be multi-racial and where the hell is the political system? If the Fed doesn’t represent humanity then how the hell can they do whatever without the consent of the rest of humanity?

Which brings me to:

6.The God Complex. As stated above they are constantly making executive decisions for humanity or other races, AND they have all the firepower, and don’t hesitate to use it when they think they know better than someone else (except if its a plot device). A liberal’s wet dream.

  1. Speciesist aka racist. The Trek universe is absolutely rife with ‘speciesism’ or as we can call it ‘galactic racism’. I like this one especially because it’s a double-whammy. Despite all their claims of equality and enlightenment (remember when Q put TNG crew on trial) they still can’t avoid human nature. Half the time they won’t shut up about the Prime Directive and tolerance for alien customs or culture, and the other half of the time they are making proclamations about the fundamental nature of other alien races and engage in the most fantastic displays of stereo-typing, ‘cultural appropriation’ and xenophobia.

Lastly,

  1. Diversity itself. This I find is the most laughable aspect. Never mind that the natural progression of “Diversity” is actually the destruction if diversity, we have large numbers of humans who are sequestered on starships or even better, colonies (if they are Fed colonies, why only humans?) marooned for 200 years, and yet they still have very distinct racial diversity. Or the entirety of humanity itself for that matter. You fools, you foolish fools! lol. oh my, I can never get over that one.

In Star Trek the federation is essentially a futurist communist organization. I’m somewhat of a Star Trek fan but understand that it in no way mirrors reality. It’s a work of fiction that will never transpire beyond an entertaining fictional abstraction.

I agree. The larger issue at hand is that this is relatively consistent, -though to greater or lesser degrees- across the board, not just the Trek universe. Though they are fictional abstractions they do exemplify idealized versions of their own fart smelling. We also shouldn’t ignore (not that I think you are) the fact that they are used as social engineering and virtue signaling props. If the abstraction is purposeful then it is all the more sinister. I am still firmly convinced that all “true” progressives know exactly how pathological, subversive and murderous their ideologies actually are, and they frequently rely on seduction to spread the virus to masses who are not self-aware (in any great degree). The “values” are themselves abstractions because they aren’t really values, they are turd polish, or tinsel. This is why they cannot engage in debate with facts. They have none.

To see a more realistic fictional vision of the future watch that new television series entitled, “Incorporated”.