I know I need to get off of FB but I got this in a Star Wars EU group I'm in and I simply asked the guy who posted it if he thinks he is saying something important? I definitely noticed a big change within the past years in certain fandoms so that isn't just my imagination. But anyways, how would y'all respond and since this is a common thing about current woke "fans" is there anything to rebut this? I know Eric July did a video a while back in regards to comic books.
Forever taking risks since TOS. FOR THE UNEDUCATED. • X-Men is about civil rights. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get X-Men. • Black Panther is about civil rights. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get Black Panther. • Captain America literally fought nazis. He is the embodiment of fighting the alt-right. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get Captain America. • The Empire in Star Wars is fascist. The Rebel alliance are Anti-Fascist. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get Star Wars. • Doctor Who was about an alien fighting for all of humanity in spite of totalitarian regimes. If you don't get that, you don't get Doctor Who. • The Punisher isn’t meant to be a role model for police or armed forces. So much so that the writers of The Punisher made him actively speak out against it in a comic. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get The Punisher. • Deadpool is queer. He’s pansexual. Fact. If you didn’t get that you didn’t get Deadpool. • Star Trek is about equality for all genders, races and sexualities. As early as the mid-60s it was taking a pro-choice stance and defending women’s right to choose. One of its clearest themes is accepting different cultures and appearances and working together for peace. (It’s also anti-capitalist and pro-vegan). If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get Star Trek. • Superman and Wonder Woman (and a whole host of other superheroes) are immigrants. The stance of those comics is pro-immigration and pro-equality and acceptance. If you didn’t get that, you didn’t get Superman or Wonder Woman. • Stan Lee said, “Racism and bigotry are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” If you’re bigoted or racist, you didn’t get any of the characters Stan Lee created. • The stories we grew up with all taught us to value other people and cultures and to treasure the differences between us. Only villains were xenophobic, or sexist, or racist, or totalitarian. I can’t understand how anyone can have missed that. • If you’re upset that there’s a black Spider-Man, or a black Captain America, or a female Thor, or that Ms. Marvel is Muslim, or that Captain Marvel was pro-feminism or any of the other things right-wing “fans” say is “stealing their childhood” - you never got it in the first place. The things you claim are now “pandering to the lefties” were never on your side, to begin with. If you consider yourself a fan of these things, but you still think the LGBTQ+ community is too “in your face”, or have a problem with Black Lives Matter, or want to “take the country back from immigrants”, then you’re not really a fan at all. Geek culture isn’t suddenly left-wing... it always was. You just grew up to be intolerant. You became the villain in the stories you used to love.
"Far Beyond the Stars" (Sisko lives out a vision of himself as a writer in the 50s experiencing racial discrimination) was a good episode in spite of it's woke/progressive plot, not because of it. The connection to the actual story line of the show was extremely thin, but seeing all the regulars without makeup but still portraying similar-in-spirit characters was really neat. And as usual the show was extremely well written, produced, and acted (with possible exception to Avery Brooks magnum opus performance at the end "IT'S REEEEAL". I liked it cause I like over-the-top).
Despite Sisko being widely touted in the press as Star Trek's "first black captain" (before the second first black captain dropped in Discovery), the character's race was never mentioned previously on the show, nor did the show feature any plot lines or stories that could be construed as relating to contemporary racial politics (minor xenophobia towards aliens portrayed as literal space nazis was about as far as it went).
Because of that the "commentary" contained in the episode was pretty much "racism happened in the 50s, and it was bad". No allusion or allegory whatsoever to any present tense issue. Really the only reason the episode was made is because Avery Brooks wanted to make it (and direct it).
Of course nowadays with NuTrek it's even worse as contemporary woke politics is inserted for similarly zero reasons with regard to plot, but also with the assumption that those politics still exist in the exact same way 400 or 1000 years from now. And instead of being shoehorned into one or two episodes they are endemic. And the writing and acting suck.
And remember when they went to save that hologram? At first he didn’t want to then he changed his mind. It was cool seeing those actors without makeup. Trying to figure out who was who was part of the fun. Avery Brooks has also said playing the best captain was his goal.
You mean "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang", the one where Vic's lounge is taken over by mobsters? Sisko's outburst about the racial realities of a period holodeck program was pretty random, and even more clearly driven by the actor. It was also dropped as quick as it came.
My takeaway from that scene is that black people must still be bitter about how their people were treated 500 years ago. I seriously doubt anyone now besides medieval/early modern historians could recall much less relate to social politics of the 1500's.
If anything the takeaway should be how far progressive politics had degenerated even from the 60s to the 90s, as when Uhura was called a "negress" by time traveling Abe Lincoln, she didn't even bat an eye, and when the unprompted apology came, she just said "why would I take offense? I don't fear words".
Really this scene is the ultimate counter to "Star Trek was always woke": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BBOWsWODX4
Since wokeness is the opposite of not fearing words, and not being bitter about a distant past (and being "delighted with who you are", as Kirk states, is anathema to the trans agenda).
During that episode I too was a bit puzzled that he would be bitter after centuries. But yea Uhura not getting worked up over a word is definitely the epitome non woke. Thanks.
It's also not very consistent with Past Tense where he acknowledges Earth had issues, but completely understands that it was a different time period. Drastically different from the 40s to us but to him they would be the same ancient era, and seeing how people were treated inferior based on race would probably only make him laugh. Best thing about Past Tense was at the end he doesn't make some moralizing speech about Federation values being better - with a wink to the audience about homelessness and poverty - when asked how a society could end up that bad he simply says "I don't know."