DS9: Tacking into the Wind

[The Romulan Republic]

I saw it a long time ago, but I remember Tacking Into the Wind being a favourite of mine.

I do have to express my profound annoyance (though "annoyance" doesn't really seem strong enough) at the Douglas Adams bit Chuck quoted, though. I like Douglas Adams, but the ever-present repetition, in various forms, of the "both sides are the same/just as bad" line in any political discussion has become not only an insufferably trite, over-simplistic cliche, but an actively dangerous one. It stifles nuanced political discussion and intelligent thought by substituting a simplistic slogan, encourages both cynical apathy and extremism by telling people that the system is broken and their's no point trying to fix it or expect anything better, and legitimizes the worst aspects of politics by treating them as no worse than anybody else. Its a also used as a deflection tactic- when one side is criticized, they can respond by saying "Well the other side is just as bad" (regardless of weather its true), as if this is somehow a defence (Vladimir Putin is particularly notorious for using it in this manner).

Regardless of which side you're on, you should be able to come up with a more intelligent, and more honest, criticism of than that. This ever-present yet profoundly poisonous meme grates on my brain like nails on a chalkboard.

And since I just saw our "President" employ it to respond to a car being driven into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters by suggesting that both sides were similarly at fault, I'm feeling particularly bitter toward it today.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, I think that just because one side is bad, doesn't mean the other side can't be worse.

Imagine if the Federation refused to ally with the Klingons because the Klingons did really bad things. And they really did; they just attacked for little reason 2 years ago and were the cause of the Dominion's presence in Cardassia, plus even when Martok was exposed to be Changeling, they didn't care. But clearly the Dominion was the worst even if they were both bad in a sense.

Good thing Worf didn't have that problem. While Martok might not have been perfect, the chances were better than under Gowron.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, pretty much.

Its not criticizing the legitimate shortcomings of both sides that I have a problem with. Its the intellectually lazy and frankly dishonest oversimplification of "both sides are the same" or "both sides are just as bad". Which frankly should offend everyone, regardless of what side you're on.

That's not substantive criticism. Its an overused slogan.