How would you fix Star Trek?

[Yukaphile]

The fact people can go online and disagree, and feel strongly over that, proves that is not the case. Especially given who we put into power.

[Karha of Honor]

The fact people can go online and disagree, and feel strongly over that, proves that is not the case. Especially given who we put into power.

[Yukaphile]

Not talking about you here. The Internet in general proves people with different and passionate views can't come together and disagree in harmony. In fact, you wanna lose faith in humanity? Go online. It's entirely self-revealing to our inherent insanity as a species.

[CmdrKing]

What if i am legit not smart enough to grasp that. Wanna have a simple job, punch a clock, play sports once a week, fuck a wife and watch reality shows and action movies?

Then someone hurt you very badly, and you probably don't remember it. Sex and leisure and physical activity are all worthy pastimes, but that first bit, now, that's another matter.
That's the dirty lie we keep telling one another y'see. That people are born smart, or dumb, or only good for dumb labor.
TOTAL rubbish.
It's not really a matter of innate smarts, or really even innate drive to learn, nothing like that. Brains just work differently for everyone, and while all people are born with a drive to learn and explore, the things their thoughts will bend most easily to, what helps them learn and how they approach problems, those are all very unique. Someone with no aptitude for math might go full Gordian knot on observing animals in nature or something.
But since we want really badly to believe some people are better than others, we tell all the ones that don't seem smart right away that they're dumb, and only good for the grunt work. The cogs in the machine. Machines gotta have cogs after all. So we snuff out that drive to learn, and kids lose a little bit of themselves and their humanity, and by and by they say "all I can do is be a cog".

It's the saddest thing. And putting lie to that is exactly why I want the optimistic Trek I outlined earlier. Not everyone will want to watch a pony cartoon designed to sell girls toys, so it can be filled to bursting with that message and some folks will never hear it. But Star Trek? Well, that's a whole other demographic isn't it? Different vehicles for different destinations and all that.

[Yukaphile]

It's what SF Debris talked about in "The War Prayer." Someone could hold awful views, but it doesn't make them evil, and hurting them only pushes them further into the path of darkness. And I don't know if "dumb" is the way to describe most people so much as "sadly misinformed." Look at Germany, all the misinformed people who supported the Nazis, who weren't evil, but did so for various reasons. Or today, with all the Trump voters, and I refuse to believe 60,000,000 Americans are psychopaths who wanna see ethnic purges. I think most did it for the economy because people are too stupid to grasp how complex it is. Or that Trump had so many scandals, they were barely touched on, in contrast to "emails, emails, emails, emails, emails, EMAILS!" It gave the impression that, well, we expect scandals and lies from politicians, so he's no different. But they're covering emails for 500 days? She must be Satan!

[CmdrKing]

Oh, I wouldn't say that. Anyone supporting the current President of the United States is knowingly and willfully engaging in evil. Rather I think that people support and do evil in most cases because they find no value or opportunity in doing good. And the belief that they are only capable of thriving in the current (or some idealized past) paradigm would naturally lead to supporting someone who essentially promised to roll back the clock.
That is, ignoring the evil inherent in that vote and Trump's presidency is not something to be ignored. Doing so is folly. But recognizing the ways in which society encourages beliefs that foster such movements is important, and people unable to engage with other forms of activism may find skill in promoting healthier beliefs instead.

Put another way: remember how Star Trek always aspired to show strength in diversity and team building (with debatable success shall we say)? We need a return to a version of Trek that does that in a 21st century way.

[Karha of Honor]

What if i am legit not smart enough to grasp that. Wanna have a simple job, punch a clock, play sports once a week, fuck a wife and watch reality shows and action movies?

Then someone hurt you very badly, and you probably don't remember it. Sex and leisure and physical activity are all worthy pastimes, but that first bit, now, that's another matter.
That's the dirty lie we keep telling one another y'see. That people are born smart, or dumb, or only good for dumb labor.
TOTAL rubbish.
It's not really a matter of innate smarts, or really even innate drive to learn, nothing like that. Brains just work differently for everyone, and while all people are born with a drive to learn and explore, the things their thoughts will bend most easily to, what helps them learn and how they approach problems, those are all very unique. Someone with no aptitude for math might go full Gordian knot on observing animals in nature or something.
But since we want really badly to believe some people are better than others, we tell all the ones that don't seem smart right away that they're dumb, and only good for the grunt work. The cogs in the machine. Machines gotta have cogs after all. So we snuff out that drive to learn, and kids lose a little bit of themselves and their humanity, and by and by they say "all I can do is be a cog".

It's the saddest thing. And putting lie to that is exactly why I want the optimistic Trek I outlined earlier. Not everyone will want to watch a pony cartoon designed to sell girls toys, so it can be filled to bursting with that message and some folks will never hear it. But Star Trek? Well, that's a whole other demographic isn't it? Different vehicles for different destinations and all that.

Office workers, data crunchers or even teachers cannot be cogs?