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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   28889 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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its a hamfisted fable about Anglo-Saxons perfecting the universe by killing off fascists and commies in outer space while flying starships staffed by every race and nation in the galaxy.

I've had an ongoing frustration with my favorite space operas about how they portray humanity relative to other species in the galaxy, until I realized, embarrassingly recently, how every single sci-fi story I enjoyed is just Americans talking about how they see their place in the world.

Berman Trek gets embarrassing about this when Sisko/Picard are drawn into helping vaguely pro democracy dissidents from the Romans and Cardassians or dealing with terrorists. Cold War never changes, I guess.

And Mass Effect is very, very early 2000s America

Except Mass Effect, where humans are the Canadians.

It is very American 😀 In Deep Space Nine, we see Sisko rejuvenating baseball, which has fallen out of favour as a national pastime. They go up against a Vulcan team (and of course beat them). Personally, I have no idea why an Irish guy like Miles O'Brien would bother with baseball, but it's an American show for majority American viewers, so we're going to see American culture represented there.

I think they might have had some self-realisation about this, with the root beer scene.

Didn't they lose and then troll the Vulcan team into oblivion anyway? I remember their victory being that they successfully pissed off a bunch of guys who aren't supposed to show emotions.

Yeah they get hammered 10-1, but "win" because Sisko realized his competitiveness was getting in the way of actually playing the game for fun which is the most important thing, and lets their worst player in (who then scores them their only run by accident), and then their celebrations annoy the Vulcans.

I'm more concerned about why O'Brien was infusing the gum with Scotch and not Irish whiskey...

they get hammered 10-1

In basketball? That's an improbably bordering on impossibly low score, even if everyone's just learning. Getting shut out except for one free throw (the only way you could get exactly one point) is particularly weird.

Baseball not basketball. So more understandable.

FarNearEverywhere’s original comment said “baseball”.

It's more the "Humanity just showed up on the scene, they barely have history relative to the other species, but are surprisingly resourceful, which is how they are making a such splash, punching above their weight. Due to that, to other species sometimes they come off as admirable, sometimes as arrogant, sometimes as dangerous" that bothered me. Star Trek, Mass Effect, Star Control... take your pick. Baseball, root beer, and other American cultural artifacts are presented as American cultural artifacts, so they don't bother me at all. Kinda implying that America represents the spirit of humanity, does.

It's more the "Humanity just showed up on the scene, they barely have history relative to the other species, but are surprisingly resourceful, which is how they are making a such splash, punching above their weight. Due to that, to other species sometimes they come off as admirable, sometimes as arrogant, sometimes as dangerous" that bothered me.

It's the approach that is the most conducive to telling a story with some action.

  • "Humanity has showed up on the scene, and everyone else is still learning how to make stone tools." What's the point of doing this story in space? Set it in the Andamans.
  • "Humanity has showed up on the scene, and they are so far behind that other civilizations find them quaint and appropriate human culture in various offensive ways if they don't simply squash them like cockroaches." Cool idea, but not an action movie. Also, Liu Cixin had already written that.
  • "Humanity has showed up on the scene, and everyone else is at about the same level of development despite being spacefaring civilizations for thousands of years." Requires quite a bit of handwaving, Fifth Element was like that, but they just intoned the MST3K mantra. People who like worldbuilding will loudly complain.

Trying to come up with a counter-example I end up refuting my previous claim that this characterizes all American stories, but another one of Roddenberry's creations - Earth: The Final Conflict - has humanity in a position that gives off the same vibes living at the American periphery does. At least that's how I remember it, it's been ages since I watched it.

Also, it's not like we absolutely need to have stories where we just showed up at the scene. Set it in the year 10K like Herbert. I don't know the first thing about Warhammer, but I assume 40K also comes from the approximate date?

40k, yes, it is often referred to as the 41st Millennium for that reason.

Set it in the year 10K like Herbert.

IIRC that's 10K their calendar, something more like 20k ours.

Americans thought that America represented the spirit of humanity long before they were plausibly correct to do so. Novus Ordo Seclorum is definitely making that claim. Arguably Americans thought that America represented the spirit of humanity long before there was an America - John Winthrop's City upon a hill speech is arguably making the claim in 1630.

Well then, that does explain the kind of art they create, but as much as I can appreciate the American spirit as long as it stays in America, I resent the claim that it represents me.

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