Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Monday, October 03, 2016

Trek Against Trump



Star Trek has always offered a positive vision of the future, a vision of hope and optimism, and most importantly, a vision of inclusion, where people of all races are accorded equal respect and dignity, where individual beliefs and lifestyles are respected so long as they pose no threat to others. We cannot turn our backs on what is happening in the upcoming election. Never has there been a presidential candidate who stands in such complete opposition to the ideals of the Star Trek universe as Donald Trump. His election would take this country backward, perhaps disastrously. We need to elect a president who will move this country forward into the kind of future we all dream of: where personal differences are understood and accepted, where science overrules superstition, where people work together instead of against each other.
The resolution of conflicts on Star Trek was never easy. Don’t remain aloof –vote! We have heard people say they will vote Green or Libertarian or not at all because the two major candidates are equally flawed. That is both illogical and inaccurate. Either Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump will occupy the White House. One is an amateur with a contemptuous ignorance of national laws and international realities, while the other has devoted her life to public service, and has deep and valuable experience with the proven ability to work with Congress to pass desperately needed legislation. If, as some say, the government is broken, a protest vote will not fix it.
Have you just turned 18? Have you moved? Have you never voted before? Some states have early registration (early October) and/or absentee ballots. You can’t vote if you are not registered. So make it so. Go to https://www.rockthevote.com , a non-profit, non-partisan organization, and fulfill your civic duty. Because, damn it, you are a citizen of the USA, with an obligation to take part in our democracy! Do this not merely for yourself but for all the generations that follow. Vote for a future of enlightenment and inclusion, a future that will someday lead us to the stars.
Endorsed by:
J.J. Abrams
Allan Apone
Richard Arnold
René Auberjonois
Scott Bakula
Ira Steven Behr
Rick Berman
John Billingsley
Christopher Black
Paula Block
Paul Boehmer
André Bormanis
Brannon Braga
Mark Robert Brown
LeVar Burton
Terri Potts-Chattaway
John Cho
Tracee Cocco
George Colucci
Mimi Cozzens
Denise Crosby
Dan Curry
Joseph D'Agosta
Peter David
Nicole de Boer
Keith R.A. DeCandido
John de Lancie
Jonathan Del Arco
John DeMita
Chris Doohan
Paul Eiding
Aron Eisenberg
Terry Erdmann
Terry Farrell
Lolita Fatjo
David C. Fein
Juan Carlos Fernandez
Louise Fletcher
Jonathan Frakes
Bryan Fuller
Dave Galanter
Tim Gaskill
David Gerrold
Robert Greenberger
Bruce Greenwood
Max Grodénchik
Martha Hackett
Glenn Hauman
Manu Intiraymi
Michael Jan Friedman
Dominic Keating
John Knoll
Walter Koenig
Alex Kurtzman
Judith Levitt
Jeff Lewis
Justin Lin
David Mack
Dennis Madalone
Chase Masterson
Dakin Matthews
Gates McFadden
Robert Duncan McNeill
Nicholas Meyer
Anthony Montgomery
Ronald B. Moore
Tom Morga
Kate Mulgrew
Larry Nemecek
Adam Nimoy
Susan Nimoy
Robert O'Reilly
Linda Park
Leslie Parrish
Robb Pearlman
Simon Pegg
Randy Pflug
Ethan Phillips
Robert Picardo
Sandra Piller
Chris Pine
Emmett Plant
Zachary Quinto
Michael Reisz
Andrew Robinson
Eugene & Heidi Roddenberry
Marvin Rush
Tim Russ
Zoe Saldana
Ralph Senensky
Naren Shankar
Armin Shimerman
Gregory Smith
Brent Spiner
Rick Sternbach
Peter Sternlicht
Eric Stillwell
Jay Stobie
Sandy Stone
Carel Struycken
Marina Sirtis
Michael Sussman
Kitty Swink
George Takei
Michael Taylor
Hallie Todd Withrow
Connor Trinneer
Karl Urban
Wil Wheaton
Herman Zimmerman

UPDATE: Joseph Gatt, Melissa Harrison, Jeri Ryan, Susan Shwartz, Tucker Smallwood, and Scott Trimble have endorsed the statement!
Further Endorsements (Received after initial release of statement):
Rhonda Aldrich
Jim Beaver
Christopher L. Bennett
Kirsten Beyer
Molly Brink
Art Codron
Michael Dorn
Doug Drexler
Dorothy Duder
Harlan Ellison
Joseph Gatt
Rich Handley
Melissa Harrison
Hana Hatae
Robert Hewitt-Wolfe
Michael Klastorin
Denise Okuda
Michael Okuda
Robert Pine
Jeri Ryan
Nick Sagan
Robert Sallin
Susan Shwartz
Tucker Smallwood
Kurtwood Smith
Melinda M. Snodgrass
Arne Starr
Scott Trimble
Garrett Wang
Celeste Yarnall

8 comments:

jimf said...

Nichelle Nichols and Dorothy Fontana are, no doubt,
on vacation this week. ;->

jimf said...

But leave Captain Kirk out of it.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/26/william-shatner-ted-cruz-captain-kirk-republican
-------------
William Shatner responds after Ted Cruz says Captain Kirk was likely a Republican
by Jessica Derschowitz

. . .

When asked where he thinks Kirk stands politically, Cruz replied,
“I think it is quite likely that Kirk is a Republican and Picard
is a Democrat.”

Shatner responded to Cruz’s comments this week on Twitter, saying
that Star Trek “wasn’t political.”

“Star Trek wasn’t political. I’m not political; I can’t even vote
in the US,” he wrote. “So to put a geocentric label on interstellar
characters is silly.”
====

Dale Carrico said...

Declaring Star Trek nonpolitical is one of the most manifestly ridiculous things one could say. I think he means non-partisan, which is much more arguable (but the Trump phenomenon feels extraordinary on that score, hence this unprecedented reaction). I dunno about Nichols. If I were recovering from a recent stroke I might sit this stressful election year out myself, and I love her. Also, too, Joy Reid's Uhura cosplay is totes adorbs.

jimf said...

> Declaring Star Trek nonpolitical is one of the most manifestly
> ridiculous things one could say.

A Reddit post from our old pal Mark "Plus" (Potts),
a.k.a. "advancedatheist":

(via https://www.reddit.com/user/advancedatheist/ )
-------------
> At what period of history would you have rather lived in?
> by LE_MEME_FACE in Incels

advancedatheist 17 hours ago

The 24th Century:

http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/24thcenturymedicine.html

Also I think we'll see the restoration of a healthy traditional,
patriarchal & hierarchical society by then, instead of Star Trek's
version which is an extrapolation or caricature of current
"progressive" fantasies. Think of the society of Dune in
its early stages.
====


Chacun a son SF.


Oh, and guess who's a recent interviewee on Dave Rubin's
YouTube channel. Zoltan!

Dale Carrico said...

With the robocultists the misses just keep coming...

jimf said...

I have to say, it warms my heart to realize that the inspired,
forward-thinking cryonics pioneers who are poised to leapfrog
us blinkered, benighted mehums into the glorious future
will be carrying with them the very best of contemporary
thought.

To wit:

(also via https://www.reddit.com/user/advancedatheist/ )
---------------
> Who do you consider as the leading minds of transhumanism?
> by Khiv_ in transhumanism

advancedatheist 5 days ago

I think Anissimov will look better in about 20 years as
the Radical Enlightenment's social fantasy collapses and
we see the restoration of traditional, hierarchical &
patriarchal societies.

, , ,


> We have a lot in common with transgender people.
> by _Ryo_Hazuki in Incels

advancedatheist 20 days ago

"Transgender" people aren't real. They're a propaganda construct,
like "witches" a few centuries back.

. . .


> Federal Employee prefers to be fired instead of watch LGBT inclusion video,
> because Jesus doesn't want him to see it
> by capnobvi in atheism

advancedatheist 26 days ago

Christians have good instincts about gays, even if they use religious
language to express what about male homosexuality makes them uncomfortable.
The gay man is the fulfillment of the Radical Enlightenment's vision of
the atomistic individual who has no history, family, tribe, nation, community,
religion, society or a commitment to the future. Gay men often don't
even bother with acknowledging each other's personhood by introducing
themselves and asking for names when they engage in sex acts with strangers
in their seedy venues. They practice a sterile parody of miscegenation by
buggering gay men of other races, as we saw in the Omar Mateen story a
few weeks back. And the ones with passports and disposable income travel
to nonwhite countries to do more of the same with the impoverished men
in these places.

I can see why gay men have become the shock troops in our elites' project
of destroying Western civilization. They are nearly perfect for the task.

. . .

> How to raise a genius: lessons from a 45-year study of super-smart children
> by eleitl [Eugen Leitl, I presume] in transhumanism

advancedatheist 28 days ago

Education can't turn dumb kids into smart kids. That has to come
from genetics.

. . .

jimf said...

> How to Stop The Alt-Right
> by vlad_pravda in altright

advancedatheist 28 days ago

You can stop the Alt Right by stopping and reversing white dispossession
in white countries. These social-justice degenerates and their cuckservative
enablers just don't want to talk about the real issue here.

. . .

> What awakened you?
> by WildernessOne in altright

advancedatheist 1 month ago

Partly from negro fatigue. I've just had it with hearing about how
blacks' chronic, self-induced fuckups are somehow white people's fault.

I also have a transhumanist background (long story), and I realize that
the browning of the planet by breeding whites with the world's
diversity trash will just make humans dumber on average - and that
is simply incompatible with what transhumanists want to do.

. . .

> Is this sub a tongue and cheek attempt at satire?
> by badoosh123 in Incels

advancedatheist 1 month ago

I'm genuinely like that, especially when I pass along Neoreactionary
wisdom. I'm like a time traveler from the 22nd Century, after the collapse
of the Enlightenment Delusion, delivering what is considered mainstream
wisdom in my time - which sounds a lot like mainstream wisdom before
the Enlightenment.

. . .

> Gay or Trans Incels?
> by [deleted] in Incels

advancedatheist 1 month ago

Gays have no business engaging in their degrading sexual compulsions
any way. The late Oliver Sacks lived sexually abstinent for decades
because his Orthodox Jewish parents shamed him successfully about
his homosexuality. Despite Sacks's fame as an author, no one wants
to talk about the example he set for gay men.

[etc.]
====


"Negro fatigue." Presumably, that means Mr. P. won't be standing
in line to see _Birth of a Nation_.

Dale Carrico said...

I think Anissimov will look better in about 20 years as
the Radical Enlightenment's social fantasy collapses and
we see the restoration of traditional, hierarchical &
patriarchal societies.


The futurologists have seen The Future... and it is a white penis.

How many years have I been saying it? Some folks appreciated the joke, but it was never only a joke. The robocultic reactionary "technoprogressivism" is patriarchal and white supremacist and celebrates status-quo amplification qua "change."

I really have to wonder if James Hughes' terror of death is still enough to keep him collegial after all this time with that strange transhumanoid attractor of generation after generation of right-wing know-nothing know-it-all white boys.