GoodbyeBlueMonday

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

I certainly agree that there's more crying than I'm used to in Trek, but I wouldn't call that wokeness (unless the crying was about a reason that was "woke", I guess?). Mostly I chalk that up to popular entertainment dripping with CW style shows (for the worse, of course). That said there was a fair amount of crying/emotional outbursts from Sisko and others on DS9, especially if we take the Maquis into account - like Sisko said, it's easy to be a saint in paradise. Doesn't jive with the perfect crews we've seen on the Enterprises, but like DS9 being a run-of-the-mill station that got swept up in religious politics and galactic war, Discovery was "just" a bleeding edge science ship that went through hell, so it does kind of make sense that people would be more than a little traumatized and outburst-y.

Totally agree that the casts being treated like it was normal is a great message to send without focusing on it, but they did touch on it occasionally. In the TNG pilot itself, Geordi and Crusher talk pretty openly about his blindness IIRC, and he says something to the effect of "I was born this way", and he rejects potential "cures", showing how comfortable he was with what others would consider a curse.

Also there most certainly episodes reassuring Data he was part of the crew. An entire episode reassuring him he was sentient, right? It was central to his (and others') growth over the series. Whether he was truly a sentient being or not definitely draws parallels to dehumanization in the real world, and was pretty blatant about it.

Plenty of folks on TNG had to talk through their problems - that was pretty much the point of Guinan, in a lot of ways, and even having a Betazoid on the bridge. Feelings and emotion were being pretty openly explored in a way that's just different to the way things are now. Mental illness has over the decades been normalized in a way that is kind of incredible. Again though, the amount of crying does irk me (that much I agree with, especially when shit is literally on fire). I just don't consider that to be wokeness in my face, just shoddy writing.

I'm not downvoting either of you, and I hope this doesn't sound like me being argumentative, I just want to know what you're seeing in Discovery that I haven't seen in all the other Trek series (see me other comment in this thread, I guess). Morality lectures are central to Trek, IMHO.

What about Discovery felt like it had a spotlight on it more than "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"? Or that TOS put a diverse cast front and center on the screen, including folks hailing from nations that were currently/recently enemies of the USA at the time? I grew up watching TNG, and the way Geordi turned the concept of what it meant to be 'disabled' on its head felt really pointed, even for child me. Likewise the dehumanization of Data.

I'm happy to gripe about worse writing, but if someone wrote a shoddy story that included a couple giraffes (because giraffes were more popular nation-wide), I wouldn't get mad about "giraffe messages" in entertainment, I'd get mad about shit writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo&t=559s

There is a good visualization in this video (These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us by Not Just Bikes) at the timestamp I linked (roughly 9 minutes 19 seconds), cited from KidsAndCars.org

Can they murder people on their property? Or is there some limit to their ability to make rules?

When I say I'm dying to see the new Godzilla movie again (it was excellent, by the way), I'm not literally dying.

That said, I honestly don't know what the Obamas are doing, and they certainly don't need me defending them. I wouldn't rely on what makes it to wikipedia as a source of how much they're trying to improve the world, though. Given the backlash she received for trying to reduce childhood obesity, and the backlash Barack received just for existing, I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to donate/contribute with as little fanfare as possible to avoid further backlash. Just my opinion, though.

It’s difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state.

To add to this: while it may sound hyperbolic to some folks, for plenty of us we've seen this brewing for decades. White evangelicals and right-wing politics unified in the 1980s in a way that was a clear danger to democracy, and they've only solidified their power since, given how mainstream their views are now.

IMHO Frank Zappa said it best in 1986: he got called out as being hyperbolic, but he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He's of course not the most scholarly source, but damn it Jim I'm a biologist, not a historian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlePLLlfH4Q

Have you considered she may be empathetic to those who don't have the money to easily move to any country on the planet? It's a good thing to be concerned for the welfare of others IMHO.

I appreciate you taking the time to say that! Thank you. My favorite song by him is probably Desperados Under the Eaves, if you'd ever like to hear the best of his music.

Reminds me of what Warren Zevon had to say about rich people problems, off Preludes. It came out a few years after his death, and the back half of the album has snippets from some radio interview(s?) he did. Neat musings by a complex dude: he was creative genius in a lot of ways, and a titanic asshole in a lot of other ways (he asked his ex-wife to write his biography, and to not go easy on him - alcoholism, violence, absentee parenting...it's all there).

Anyway, that's a preface for the folks who don't know about him: he probably could have been a bigger financial success had he not been a disaster of a human, but maybe his dirty life and times gave him enough material to feed his creativity...who knows.

WZ: I was real lucky, because I always had some kind of work that came along - at the last minute, anyway.

I was always able to make some kind of living as a musician

I also never really got rich, and that might have been lucky too, ya know?

Interviewer: in what way?

WZ: Well, because the less time you spend with the issues of being rich

they're like the issues of being famous

they're not real issues

so they're not real life.

Interviewer: And it leaves more time to be creative?

WZ: There's more of an exchange - a human exchange of ideas and feelings to be had on the bus stop than over the phone with your accountant, and if you're rich you spend a lot of time on the phone with your accountant. it's necessary, I believe.

I know I'm happy and that means I must be lucky. That I know.

EDIT: this is not to say I wouldn't be grateful for more money, myself, but I chose the life of a biologist - in ecology and evolution, no less. I'm happy to make a living, and it's always a little shocking to see folks make double/triple what I do and say it's "not much these days". Those of us scraping by have a wildly different perspective, and I'd love to give folks a tour of what it looks like long-term.

Also, if you bailed after driving the hovercraft, maybe you didn't get to Black Mesa East, or Ravenholm? IMHO that's where things really ramp up: story-wise (you meet more allies), and you get a better glimpse at the endgame. You get a neat tool to use (which also was mind-blowing in 2004, less so almost twenty years later), too.

If you don't dig it though, I wouldn't force it. I'm a fan of science fiction more than fantasy, so I've never finished a Dishonored game, but I love Prey. Just doesn't hook me the way I know it could...just not my particular vibe I guess, which I think is OK.

This could be the cover for a cyberpunk Far Cry 7