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labingiI have written a modest Substack rant about ST:TNW showing MAGA-style thinking with its recurrent prioritization of in-group loyalty over other moral considerations.
I've saved my less polished rant on season 4, episode 4 for here (spoilers for the ep.):
This episode wants to argue that bending/breaking rules to fight injustice can be the higher good, which I agree with. But it ends up showing that Starfleet officers are idiots who can’t think through consequences like responsible adults. Number One, M’Benga, and Uhura have to covertly venture into Klingon space and are forced to hide on a nearby planet lest their presence restart a war with the Klingons.
On the planet, Number One is mistaken for one of the native inhabitants. Any sensible person in this situation would open with, “Sorry, you have the wrong person,” but she opens with pretending to be a complete stranger in a foreign culture. Number One, then, takes on role of the dead woman she is mistaken for by becoming a resistance leader in the model of the French Resistance in World War II.
Leaving aside how implausible it is that this ruse could succeed, her insistence on helping the resistance vastly increases the odds that their presence as Starfleet officers will be discovered and, thus, ignite that war. So even were the resistance successful on a miraculous level, freeing millions, it would plausibly be at the cost of starting a war that could cost the lives of billions. It’s a glaring example of putting “good vibes” ahead of ethical reasoning. Now, one could make an ethical argument that, in this case, the present suffering outweighs the potential future suffering of many more people. I wouldn’t agree with that, but it’s a case that could be made. But they don’t make it. It’s like they forget that the war is a possibility. The basic moral contention seems to be “Whoever is in front of my face is more important than any abstract I’m not seeing right now,” which is MAGA-style thinking; it's what puts the right to a cheap hamburger ahead of fighting climate change: “the culture and traditions I see threatened right in front of my face outweigh this abstract carbon stuff.”
I've saved my less polished rant on season 4, episode 4 for here (spoilers for the ep.):
This episode wants to argue that bending/breaking rules to fight injustice can be the higher good, which I agree with. But it ends up showing that Starfleet officers are idiots who can’t think through consequences like responsible adults. Number One, M’Benga, and Uhura have to covertly venture into Klingon space and are forced to hide on a nearby planet lest their presence restart a war with the Klingons.
On the planet, Number One is mistaken for one of the native inhabitants. Any sensible person in this situation would open with, “Sorry, you have the wrong person,” but she opens with pretending to be a complete stranger in a foreign culture. Number One, then, takes on role of the dead woman she is mistaken for by becoming a resistance leader in the model of the French Resistance in World War II.
Leaving aside how implausible it is that this ruse could succeed, her insistence on helping the resistance vastly increases the odds that their presence as Starfleet officers will be discovered and, thus, ignite that war. So even were the resistance successful on a miraculous level, freeing millions, it would plausibly be at the cost of starting a war that could cost the lives of billions. It’s a glaring example of putting “good vibes” ahead of ethical reasoning. Now, one could make an ethical argument that, in this case, the present suffering outweighs the potential future suffering of many more people. I wouldn’t agree with that, but it’s a case that could be made. But they don’t make it. It’s like they forget that the war is a possibility. The basic moral contention seems to be “Whoever is in front of my face is more important than any abstract I’m not seeing right now,” which is MAGA-style thinking; it's what puts the right to a cheap hamburger ahead of fighting climate change: “the culture and traditions I see threatened right in front of my face outweigh this abstract carbon stuff.”
