How Do Social Conservative Star Fans Enjoy Star Trek?

Star Trek has traditionally been way ahead of the curve in how it discusses and satirizes racism, religion, government, & authoritarianism.

 

Very well, thank you.

 

Go on, please.

 

Typically you tend to notice the more hardcore conservative Trek fans are the ones who are drawn to the ships and technology side of Star Trek. Note, I am not making a blanket statement like "ship/tech fans are alt-right." I know there are many on the left who like the ships and tech too. But there is a lot of evidence to support the ships and technology appeal to many conservatives.

 

It's not that difficult to enjoy entertainment without engaging with the messaging, provided the message isn't the primary focus.

I'm guessing it's harder for them now than it used to be as Trek used to deal with things almost exclusively through a sci-fi lens, whereas some of the modern stuff seems to just address the topics head-on, without metaphor.

If that's true, it would possibly explain the "Trek has gone woke!" explosion.

 

Trek has gone "obvious" because the conservatives either ignored or didn't get the subtle wokeness of the 1960s-1990s ST.

 

It's about people working together. I was always raised to treat people as equals regardless of differences. The human story of Trek appeals greatly, even if I disagree on some points.

 

I think it was in the issue of TIME magazine from 1994, when William Shatner and Patrick Stewart were on the cover to promote Generations, but I remember reading a blurb in the story about how the writers and producers would get letters from all sorts of groups arguing that they should be represented in the show. And that they had even gotten letters from neo-nazi skinheads arguing that they would be there in Star Trek's future.

To that end, remember that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, an anti-federalist who killed 168 people and was tied to white supremacist groups, was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and saw it as a model for the future, even though it features a united, multicultural humanity leading a socialist interstellar superstate.

Just spend a moment trying to square that circle.

I've had it explained to me that there's a certain type of right-wing racist that watches Star Trek and sees it in a sort of "White Man's Burden" perspective. That humanity travels the galaxy confronting all of these other cultures who are symbolic of societal issues (i.e., greed, war, etc.) and ends up lecturing them on how to be better. In their eyes, it's a future in which humanity educates the savages.

And there is a certain type of racism that boils down to a Henry Higgins-like wish about the other acting more like me. I think there are a boat-load of white-supremacist-lite sort of people who don’t mind people-of-color as long as they act like white people. They will complain about the guy listening to hip-hop on his cell phone but not about the black man sitting next to him wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. To them, those are not the same person — the former is who they complain about, the latter acceptable.

And, in a way, Star Trek shows a future where all of humanity seems to have blended into a united culture that (from what we've been shown of it from time to time) is somewhat homogenized.

 

I imagine they're big fans of the Abrams films: All pew-pew and no substance.

 

It's weird because I have had discussions w far right people who will stubbornly insist ST wasn't "woke" for it's time and I just want to Picard facepalm. I think people like what they like and will gaslight themselves into not seeing any conflict of interest.

 

No. I'm talking people who stubbornly insist the ST of 1960s-1990s weren't well ahead of their time.

 

They were.

Why should it bother me?

 

You seem more openminded than most social conservatives.

 

Probably because I've been told that the way through a problem is cooperation not being against people. My biggest thing is I don't trust the government. If people opt for behaviors I disagree with my shouting at them achieves nothing.

I always liked Kirk. Someone who acknowledges problems while willing to work with them. And I feel much like Spock, an outsider amongst humans.

 

I'm assuming they view the Federation as a stand-in for America, and the Federation is "always right." So portraying the Federation in a positive light means portraying America in a positive light, from their point-of-view.

They're usually Millennials who are too young to remember the 1960s and 1970s. So they take having blacks and women on the bridge for granted. And they watched TNG/DS9/VOY when they were growing up, so they didn't have any strong political leanings yet. So they have to rationalize what they liked before with how they think now, by saying things like "But that was different!" They pull the same shit with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor. "But that was different!" ENT leaned more right-wing than other Star Trek series, so it more closely aligned with their emerging political beliefs during the Post-9/11 Era.

 

This too. And I know exactly who you're thinking of.

Before anyone not in-the-know says anything, I'm talking about someone who posted here a long time ago.

 

I recently saw a video on YouTube that tackled this question. Rather well, I thought.

 

Does he share a first name with Captain Kirk?

 

Him too, and I had some run-ins with him at the time, but I was actually thinking of Dayton3.

 

Ah, ok. I don’t know that guy.