Right wing tech bros: we love Star Trek but it's too woke nowadays. Too preachy. Kirk's show wasn't like this.
Average TOS episode: AI is bad and should never be allowed to run a society. Also, make peace because nationalism kills and every life form must be respected equally.
RWTB: Oh but surely Picard's Enterprise wasn't like this.
Average TNG Episode: Will Riker is falling for a trans person from an agender society. Meanwhile, the genius Black disabled chief engineer and his autism-coded android best friend just saved another planet through science education.
@theleftistlawyer also average TNG episode: Irish people are always drunk, and we just murdered a baby with zero discussion because they were a clone
@phooky @theleftistlawyer Hey, this is a terrible episode in many ways, but while they -were- a bunch of cringey stereotypes, it was just the one drunk Irish person, and he only -wanted- to get drunk (IIRC, he'd run out).
And it was not a baby. It was a half-grown, adult-sized clone that wasn't yet properly alive. At ethically worst it was an abortion. It certainly raised similar bodily autonomy concerns.
It's a bad episode, but call it out for what it is.
Sheryl Weikal
phooky
Trip