• 5 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • Young men may be drawn to Trump because he pushes against societal pressure that men need to be apologetic for being themselves.

    “Not being apologetic for being [myself]” is why I’m voting for Harris. I swear that conservatives want everyone to fit into confining, pre-defined boxes for everything. I found that among conservatives, I’ve always had to “apologize” for not being hyper-masculine and interested in “softer” and “feminine” things.

    If someone is very masculine, that’s cool, too. No one is saying that you can’t be hyper-masculine if that’s what you’re into. BUT if you constantly are apologizing for “being yourself,” maybe you’re just an asshole trying to hide behind masculinity.




  • This is why I believe scientists should be required to take liberal arts classes; especially related to written and spoken language.

    And yes, I also think liberal arts students should be required to take some level of hard STEM classes (not watered-down “libarts-compatible” stuff, but actual physics, chemistry, biology, etc) as well.

    Yes to both points! I’m eternally grateful to my high school AP English teachers for teaching me how to write and communicate.

    My somewhat unpopular opinion is that we’d be better off as a society if everyone in college took “real” STEM and liberal arts classes. The STEM folks can understand the why and societal implications of what they study (as well as just communication), and the liberal arts types can learn a bit about how the world actually works in a concrete way.

    Unfortunately, I’ve been continually struck by how incurious people are. I get that everyone has their interests, but that shouldn’t be to the exclusion of all other study. So, I don’t think this will happen. :/



  • This right here. I liked how TNG did it. Series premier bring an oldster in to launch, maybe have a special episode or two with another.

    If we really wanted Colm back, have it in the premier of Starfleet Academy where the new cadets are going through a hall of distinguished professors and have an elderly O’Brien do a cameo with a sample of one of his lectures. Nice to connect the show to lore and nostalgia but short enough to let the new cast stand on their own.

    That said, I agree with Colm. Let O’Brien stay as he is. He had a perfect send-off.





  • Yes-ish. The characters were villains, but the organization wasn’t necessarily. For instance, in Discovery season 2, Leland and his crew were the villains, but Section 31 was portrayed less as an extremist cabal and more as a misguided morally-grey organization. Less a blight upon the Federation and more an uncomfortable, but integral, part of it.

    @[email protected] captures it well. Instead of being a cabal of extremists doing illegal and immoral things because they think they’re connected to a higher purpose, they’re a semi-official CIA-like organization.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that Section 31 isn’t supposed to be a cool or semi-legitimate organization (with ships, insignia, etc.) but rather shadowy and absolutely beyond the pale of legitimacy where very few can stomach what they do. From an artistic/thematic POV, Section 31 should be there to show us that a good society requires work to maintain and that its undoing can come from within by those claiming to protect it by eschewing that society’s values. In other words, the ends don’t justify the means.


  • It should be a conspiracy of like-minded individuals that exists parasitically within Starfleet, not an official (or an “unofficial official” agency).

    I agree. When 31 was first introduced, and Sloan explained that Section 31 was sanctioned by Starfleet under Article 14, Section 31 of the Starfleet Charter, the implication was that they were people who misinterpreted or construed a (probably minor) part of the Starfleet Charter and used it to justify damn near anything.

    Personally, I hate how Section 31 has been changed to be misunderstood, cool good guy/anti-hero types who are doing the wrong things for the right reason. DS9 had it right with portraying them as the villains within who should be snuffed out because the ends don’t justify the means.









  • Honestly, that 180 day window thing is nominal. The execution of all of that will take way longer with all of the litigation that would happen, and it’ll take a couple of years to get it all enacted (slow at first then accelerating as more gets enacted).

    Personally, I’d prefer if it were fast. The sudden change would wake people up, and cause way more civil unrest. If it’s slow, we end up as frogs slowly boiling. Fewer people will protest or cause issues if things unfold slowly. It’s the idea of the frog in the boiling water. If the changes are swift, there’s a higher chance of ordinary people taking notice and fighting to reverse them.