I’m very confused, but I have to go into work. Can someone summarize for my lazy ass what the fuck is going on here?

I think it started with people saying “I would like to (do something very illegal) to (some person) in Minecraft.” Thinking that saying “in Minecraft” would shield them from any repercussions because they only wanted to do it in a simulated environment. Eventually some people would just shorten it to things like “…in Minecraft” and leave the obvious part unsaid.

But at least that’s an option. There is no non-spez instance of reddit, non-musk instance of twitter, or non-zuck instance of meta-stuff to jump to.

I took both of the other respondents suggestions. It only took a few minutes to get approved at both and now I can see Car Talk With Martok again.

I didn’t even know that the admin of my instance banning someone would prevent me from seeing posts made in another instance.

Am I being deprived of Stamets’ memes because of some thin-skinned power-tripping douche mod?

Time for a new instance. Any recommendations for a stable instance that federates with everyone (except for the worst, of course)?

Edit: If anyone is confused, I meant to reply to this comment that links to Stamets’ recent rundown on the whole kerfuffle.

Edit 2: I just learned something I’d like to share with anyone else that needs to know. If a user (Stamets, for example) is banned on your instance (startrek.website, for example) even here, a community on lemmy.world, you can’t see his posts. Not only that, but if he comments you can’t see any replies to his comment. There are a lot of comments in this thread startrek.website users can’t see.

If you don’t want overzealous admins curating your experience on other instances, you might want to find a new instance.

Seriously, I’d like to know too. I’ve always thought that you got them and then you were done. But maybe that was counting on there not being a bunch of disease vectors walking around.

But if we fixed it where would we get all our slaves undocumented workers?

I think the average bullet wound might result in slightly higher medical bills than the average car accident.

I was disappointed when this happened but now I’m glad I can’t find it anymore. I had become lazy, just putting it on everything. Now I have a variety of sauces I choose based on what I’m putting it on. There are a lot of good sauces out there. With proper pairing you might not miss Sriracha at all.

The thing I love about this, the thing I always find funny whenever this comes up, is that these midwits are just too dumb to make the obvious argument. The argument that is “in their face” and “being shoved down their throats.”

There is a rational, coherent argument to make their point. It’s one I disagree with. It’s one that, in my opinion, can only be made in bad faith with no purpose other than to be a concern troll, but it’s there.

They always bring up Adira, Gray, Jett, Stamets, Culber, and anything else that’s gone up their ass but never any of the actual social commentary because they’re so thick it went over their heads and they didn’t even notice it. You can see it in this thread. They mention the characters and people respond with “but they’re just existing, how does that bother you?” They just bring up the characters again to a response of “yeah, we heard you the first time, what are they doing that bothers you other than existing?” And it just goes in a circle.

There was never an episode of ToS where Uhura talked about how hard it was to be a black woman as a bridge officer, because it wasn’t. That’s the whole point. In the future Star Trek wants us to imagine, a black female officer is completely unremarkable. Whenever they wanted to engage in social commentary about race relations in the 60s they had to invent an allegorical race, time travel, or use some other device to make their point.

The same thing is happening in the newer series. All those characters are just existing. Their sexuality and gender identity is completely unremarkable in the future Star Trek shows us. If those dipshits had two brain cells to rub together they would see the new series are full of allegories about not just tolerance, or even acceptance, but appreciation for beings with non-conforming expressions of self. If any of that did manage to trickle through their thick skulls they probably just twisted it into “yeah, people shouldn’t make fun of me for having a relationship with a waifu pillow.”

If they weren’t so stupid they could easily give a half dozen examples and say “it’s too much,” “I got it the first time,” “focus on something else for a change,” or whatever other bullshit justification they came up with to oppose these themes. It would be a bad faith argument that I would disagree with but at least they could pretend they’re not bigots, instead of their current position which seems to be “I’ve got no problem with these people, I just don’t want to see them.”

I saw Starship Troopers shortly after it came out. Other than knowing his name and that he was a well known sci-fi author, I wasn’t familiar with Heinlein so I assumed he was a satirist. I picked up one of his other books and read half of it thinking I just wasn’t getting it before I suddenly realized “oh shit, this guy is being sincere.”

Saying something happened is not an example.

Which episode has “a 2020 style pronoun talk?”

Which episode has a plot involving Stamets and Culber that wouldn’t be essentially unchanged if it was a heterosexual relationship?

I will go rewatch them now and come back and apologize if these things actually exist.

No one is asking you for an apology, just an example.

Surely you can do that, right? This thing that’s so pervasive it’s ruined entire seasons for you, you must be able to remember one scene from one episode where it actually happens.

No, you made a claim. A claim that, so far, is unsupported.

I’m simply asking for one scene, outside of your own mind, where these things actually happened.

I only watched it once. I could be wrong. Please refresh my memory.

You seemed concerned when you tried to tell me what to do.

Concerned enough to claim a black gay friend to excuse yourself.

No, I’m asking for an example. Just one.

I’m not asking for any more arguments. I understand your position completely.

Respectfully, no, I’m not going to “try to be less judgemental.”

I see a show that continues it’s long tradition of inclusiveness and respect for all people by including characters that are sexual and gender minorities. I then see people who claim to be fans, not just of the show, but also of what it has always been trying to do, complaining about it doing what it’s always done.

I’m going to judge. I have judged, and I’ve found you wanting.

Maybe you could refresh my memory with an episode or some more details because I don’t remember it that way. I remember Adira stating their pronouns, everyone accepting that and using those pronouns and never mentioning it again. I’m pretty damn sure there wasn’t some Jordan Peterson type that refused to get with the program.

I’m also pretty sure there wasn’t any focus on Stamets’ and Culber’s “gay” relationship. Their relationship was part of several story elements but the gay aspect was not. Please remind me of any plots involving their relationship that would have to be changed if one of them was a woman.

You are the one making a big deal about these characters because you can’t get over their simple existence.

That’s what they did. Stamets and Culber were just there. Grey and Adira were just there. They used elements of the symbiote story as an allagory but their NB status just was. It seems like you’re making it bigger in your mind.

The first episode of Trek I ever saw was the ToS episode with aliens that had half-white and half-black faces and were engaged in a race war over which side was which. It has never been subtle, and for good reason. Nuance generally doesn’t work well with bigots. If you want to get people to examine their beliefs you need to shove the mirror in their face.

The only thing that’s changed is what is getting shoved in your face. ToS doesn’t make you uncomfortable? Good for you, you’re not a Jim Crow level racist. Some of the new stuff makes you uncomfortable? Maybe you think about why it makes you uncomfortable instead of complaining about it.

A little off the point: I actually think it’s less in your face. In the episodic series when they did something along these lines it was usually the main focus of the entire episode. With the newer serialized seasons it’s usually a b-plot. They can devote a little more time to the b-plots when they have a whole season to resolve the main story but it’s still not the main focus.

Vote and volunteer in local elections. I think most people would be surprised how few resources campaigns for state legislature have. You and a few friends can make a huge difference. Volunteer for the Dem (out of necessity) primary candidate that wants to replace ftp voting with ranked choice or another similar system, and show up to meetings regardless of election cycle to give input. It wouldn’t take much to get their resources up to the level of establishment candidates.

If a few good sized states could get this the others would get jealous about them having real choice and I believe it would start a snowball effect. It has to come from state legislatures though.