Infynis

Yeah, the episodes where it's actually pitch black on a Star Fleet ship are few and far between. Off the top of my head, the main one I can think of is when Neelix tells ghost stories to the Borg children and Naomi

Uh ok neat, we are doing that here, virtually, and people have been doing this on the internet for two or three decades.

Which, I think, should be enough proof that this method doesn't work. Physical community ties are important. Look at red state medical gofundmes. That's basically socialized medicine (though the worst possible version of it lol), but they support it because they know the people they're supporting. Leftist policies consistently poll well across the board, but conservatives get elected anyway, because when these people go to church, their pastor tells them to vote for Trump. Or their family. Or their buddies from work. The people they interact with regularly, because those are the people that can use social normalcy to enforce their morals. You can't do that online.

We talk about making life uncomfortable for fascists because that kind of constant discomfort is what eventually gets people to self-reflect. You can't have a community hostile to Nazis, without first building up connections between people to enforce that hostility. That's why I put so much focus on just talking to your friends about a TV show. It's basically a Trojan horse. A way to start expanding the leftist community to people that haven't learned to debate, and don't know how to engage with media critically. Teach them.

He is incapable of comprehending enough Star Trek to do something like that, which would almost make sense

I mean, yeah, that's a deliberate part of their relationship. I think Harry complains about having to always be the sidekick at one point, and their friendship does evolve over the course of the show. Harry gets him back sometimes, or his cool head prevails. But mostly Harry is just there to suffer like O'Brien lol

Is that a personal record for Konsi, or does this often happen at this temple? Lol

Hello, would you like to destroy some evil today?

Yep, this is my read on it too. I don't think he did it on purpose, but it's what's happening, and it'll work out for him, because everything does. Seeing the R congressmen suck his dick on live TV has been disgusting and terrifying

That's what Project 2025 is, dude. He doesn't need to know how to do it. He just points to the people that say his name the most, and they get to run the most powerful military in the history of the world, and they're already prepared.

The difference is, with the sun, you can actually look up and see it. You can use a telescope to see it in detail. You can determine which of the 5000 statements is true. You can study and understand it. With religion, they all have an equal basis in reality

Based on the description of this community, I think this is it

The Muslim ban happened during his presidency, which was apparently too long ago for most of the electorate to remember. Honestly, it's an interesting insight into the workings of our political system. Maybe more presidents that lost their re-election bid should have tried again

Have you got any of those?

For one thing, this is what fiction is for!

If you're like me, you probably know some people that fit in that neo-liberal democrat space: nice people, but definitely the kind MLK talked about as being an obstacle to progress. A lot of the time, they're also the people that "aren't into politics," because they have straight white privilege, and these issues usually don't affect them directly.

One of the reasons the right has been so successful since Roe v Wade is because they get organized. They meet, they talk, they plan, they take small local action. And, of course, these are the kinds of things that leftists talk about. We need to organize, we need to work together, we need to stop in-fighting, etc. But we don't have the natural advantage the right does.

Third places. They're built for the privileged and wealthy, and they fight to keep them that way. See campaigns against libraries. It's way harder for a Jew, an Arab, and a gay man to walk into a bar and sit down for a discussion than it is for a bunch of old white ladies to talk about their Saturday plans at a church potluck. Spaces for left-leaning political discussion don't really exist. Except in the realm of fiction.

Star Trek is, of course, a very well known example of progressive fiction. I, personally, am a big Trekkie. Here on Lemmy, there have been memes about the Bell Riots (a two part episode from DS9, involving the crew time traveling to September 2024). We were making those jokes because those episodes, especially today, are very topical. AND THAT WORKS!

I've had great conversations about those episodes with my centrist parents, as well as several acquaintances: conversations that deal with real topics, like homelessness, civic duty, and citizen action.

The right builds their fortress on a foundation of anti-intellectualism because shutting down other conversations is their most powerful weapon, and they've employed it to devastating effect. The atmosphere in our country has been curated to be hostile to political speech and philosophy. Just think of how much ridicule one would receive for recommending something like a salon to a group of friends, rather than something like a boardgame night (this is also affected by lack of free time, so support your unions!). It's for the same reason they sow division between minorities.

But fiction doesn't have this weakness! Have your friends over to watch some Star Trek, or lend out your copy of Men at Arms, and get Sir Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness into the hands of an impressionable youth. AND THEN DISCUSS WHAT IT MEANS! Do some literary analysis. Talk about the realities that informed the art. Empathize with Jadzia as the cultural norms of her society demand she end her relationship with her former lover, simply because she's also a woman now. Then, suddenly you have your own group for leftist political discourse.

That's where it gets truly tough, but as was stated above, this is going to have to be a long term effort. This is a first step. It's up to us all to take one, and then the next, and then the next, just like those monsters that set out to repeal Roe v Wade 40 years ago, and only succeeded now.