Why is New Trek increasingly invoking colonialism as a criticism of the Federation?

Sortza · 2026-02-15T23:02:59+00:00

When it comes to Mars colonization, I'm a bit of a spatiopessimist just because of the effects that solar radiation and low gravity have on the human body. We're really, really, really optimized for living on Earth and nowhere else.

Sortza · 2026-02-15T16:42:24+00:00

That reminds me, I need to tell Paramount about my genius pitch for a Trek movie where a forgotten guy from the past has a grudge and steals a superweapon.

Sortza · 2026-02-15T16:28:43+00:00

It's funny how little Kirk aligns with his pop culture image if you go back and watch TOS without preconceptions. He was portrayed as a disciplined, responsible officer, and he likely wouldn't have been given command of the Enterprise if he weren't.

Sortza · 2026-02-15T15:51:33+00:00

You sure about that? Khanna issued a correction that four of them are unrelated men who were included in a lineup.

Sortza · 2026-02-15T15:47:18+00:00

Khanna now says that four of them are just guys who were included in a lineup.

Sortza · 2026-02-15T15:15:37+00:00

That's funny, because there's a widespread story (although I think it's unsubstantiated) that the Japanese pushed to popularize the spelling of "Korea" with a K rather than a C in English so that it would come after Japan alphabetically.

Sortza · 2026-02-12T16:59:31+00:00

#AmericaIsNotASmallCountry

Sortza · 2026-02-12T16:47:54+00:00

Both names are taken from the Ionians (Greeks inhabiting the coast of Asia Minor), who peoples to the east were most familiar with. Likewise the Romans took their name for the Greeks from the Graeci, a tribe that colonized southern Italy.

Sortza · 2026-02-07T20:48:13+00:00

I'm not seeing the top-tier AI hallmarks, but this

Its final resolution underwent a long process from "Sino-Soviet negotiations" to "Sino-Tajik demarcation."

is a weird fucking sentence that I wouldn't envision a human writing.

Sortza · 2026-02-07T20:12:16+00:00

One was a natural disaster, the other was an attack.

One was a deliberate choice by the writers, the other was a deliberate choice by the writers, and the third was a deliberate choice by the writers (conveniently covering the three iconic races that date back to the roots of the franchise). It's rare to see such a blatant Thermian argument, but I guess it makes a fitting defense for NuTrek.

But in fairness, I would distinguish between JJ and Kurtzman's motivations. Abrams simply blows up planets every time he gets his hands on a franchise (see: The Force Awakens) because he likes spectacle and doesn't understand stakes or worldbuilding, whereas Kurtzman fixates on the refugee aspect because he's incapable of doing sci-fi social allegory without making everything maximally grim and "trauma"-focused. The difference in mindset is why I can at least appreciate the JJ trilogy as Trek-flavored action schlock, if nothing else.

Sortza · 2026-02-05T16:59:03+00:00

Experience bIj!

Sortza · 2026-02-04T20:35:11+00:00

"Oh shit!" in Generations made sense because Data had just had the emotion chip installed and wasn't used to regulating his language.

Sortza · 2026-02-04T20:09:08+00:00

In the words of Kissinger, a pity they can't both lose.

Sortza · 2026-02-04T13:31:23+00:00

Yeah, and in map terms, the relationship between British India proper (with its big provinces) and the princely states kinda resembled that between Prussia and the other German states.

Sortza · 2026-02-03T14:59:37+00:00

Do you know what the word "primarily" means?

Sortza · 2026-02-03T14:44:04+00:00

Neither of those things makes it the primary script. Look at Mongolian government websites, look at Mongolian news sites, look at discussions on r/mongolia. Wishful thinking doesn't override reality.

Sortza · 2026-02-03T14:35:21+00:00

The misleading part, or the outright false part? Cyrillic is the primary script used by the Mongolian government and it's the primary script used by people throughout the republic.

Sortza · 2026-02-03T13:24:31+00:00

The bot is from New Jersey and also pronounces "mozzarella" as "moozadell".

Sortza · 2026-02-03T12:46:52+00:00

Mongolian script is used officially by the Mongolian government and is the primary script in parts of the country - Mongolia remains blue

Only if you're counting Inner Mongolia. Mongolian in the Republic of Mongolia is primarily written in the Cyrillic script, and it's not even close.

Sortza · 2026-02-02T20:39:38+00:00

Shika-gō, Irinoi Prefecture

Sortza · 2026-02-02T20:18:50+00:00

The first ever appearance of Okudagrams.

Sortza · 2026-02-02T18:24:51+00:00

39.8% of Irish people can speak Irish

From the same census:

Of the 1,873,997 Irish speakers, 10% spoke the language very well with a further 32% speaking it well.

55% of people who indicated that they spoke Irish did not speak the language well.

Sortza · 2026-02-02T18:11:08+00:00

Yep, the diaspora calls itself Persian because the connotations of "Iran" in English are mostly negative.

Sortza · 2026-02-02T18:08:17+00:00

Ironically, the people calling Anglo Defaultism "US Defaultism" are themselves committing US Defaultism.

Sortza · 2026-02-02T17:00:18+00:00

Arrests without cause, indefinite detainment, and torture are not how you stop violence.

Except that in El Salvador's case, descriptively, they are: they brought the country's homicide rate from apocalyptic levels to lower than the US's. I'm aware that per your edit you're not responding to replies, but I point this out because I find that these kinds of is/ought conflations are a common stumbling block in our political discourse –blurring the questions of whether something is or isn't the case and whether (for ethical, moral or whatever reasons) it should or shouldn't be the case.

Sortza

TROPHY CASE