Well, I suppose someone had to be brave enough to actually read Medium content.
The worst part, I think, is that I think he’s actually serious and thinks what he’s saying is meaningful and important.
SJWs take themselves super seriously.
Super cereal!1!!!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!!!!!1
Supercilious?
😉
Superfluous.
=^_^=
I wonder what the job prospects are like for an anthropology PhD who wrote a dissertation on “queering up space”.
An endowed chair at Nutjob University.
Why should we care?
“The author has chosen not to show responses on this story.”
I should not be astonished.
Hah! You beat me to it!
That’s strange because he called for comments that he would use to refine his thinking and edit his oped. Maybe he only wants certain people to comment and for everyone else, its their turn to feel the suffering of the marginalized.
I found this sufficiently “queer” to comment on it here, because the author is not allowing comments and discussion on their site:
“Aside from a few examples, why have sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences and humanities left space science and exploration alone — why do they consistently fail to recognize the importance of work by those who do research in these areas?”
That’s simple, ….they don’t want to be embarrassed by not being able to calculate when something happens because of orbital mechanics instead of because someone “isn’t comfortable” with how others use their plumbing. It’s called self-knowledge.
Can’t be for real. Can it?
From the article:
“ I want to use it to call for more people of color, more indigenous voices, more women…”
Um, unless the space agencies of the world are recruiting from the Area 51 immigrant population, I don’t believe that’s a possible area of sociological expansion.
White people don’t count as human beings to him.
What on earth does indigenous mean with relation to the whole planet? Aren’t we all indigenous?
He isn’t queering up anything but rather just proposing neo-marxist control of everyone in space without having the courage to say that up front. He also comes off as racist but would probably say he couldn’t be racist for whatever reason that has nothing to do with his views and everything to do with a get out of jail free card.
The problem is that this type of thinking is growing increasingly popular and that people who hold this ideology have a lot of power, contrary to their claims of being victims. This means that their ideology must be rhetorically countered and not just mocked. It is incredibly hard because their ideology isn’t based on rational thought but identity, dogma, and the desire for power and punishment.
” rather just proposing neo-marxist control of everyone in space without having the courage to say that up front.”
I don’t know where you see that! Here was my reaction: People who are interested in space colonization because it will allow them to create whatever kind of society they want without interference should respond to the author by telling him that they’ve been working toward something he would like, and hey, in space there is room for everyone!
(This is the advantage of non-planet-bound colonization schemes — we might fight over the destiny of Mars or the Moon, but’ not over O’Neil-style colonies.)
And to answer Joseph Hertzlinger’s question “Why should we care?”, I’d say the answer is “to the extent that space activities benefit from political support, you should make friends, not enemies, and get votes for your side.”
Well, Bob Werb decided the best strategy was to “make space a Democratic issue.” How did that work out?
By making his space agenda a partisan issue, he guaranteed that Republicans would oppose it, no matter how aligned it might be with their supposed free-market principles.
Political pandering is a dangerous game.
The space socialists will never be on the side of free men and women pursuing their own interests. So the “why it matters?” question isn’t one of how to compromise and appease them but rather how to best counter and minimize their impact.
Ideally, this means removing control of space based activities from government workers who serve their own interests rather than those of the populace. The more liberal government is, will allow more people to do what they want and people who want to dictate how queer things should be will have less influence.
Wodun: I didn’t see anything in the article about dictating.
Edward Wright: When government is involved, I think space activities should be cast as non-partisan as much as possible, so that space-related activities will appeal to as many people as possible and get as much political support as possible.
Both of you: I’m saying libertarians should reply to the author by saying this:
“Great! We agree! We think space will create an opportunity to do your own thing, and you clearly want people to be able to do their own thing in space too! Also, thank you! Thank you for encouraging more people to be excited about space-related activities!”
He doesn’t want people to be able to create whatever societies they want. He wants to control what everyone does while pretending that with control comes liberation.
I agree with you though. Let’s see him and his fellow travelers start their own colonies and test his social theories on willing participants rather than force their ways on others in the name of justice.
I have found that justice to these people is racial/gender/ism favoritism and vengeance and punishment of scapegoats. Its a disgusting and insidious ideology. Not surprising it comes from the same party that started the KKK only to cast them off when it was viewed as more beneficial to run that same strategy with a multitude of ethnic, religious, racial, gender, size, and age based groups.
He doesn’t want people to be able to create whatever societies they want. He wants to control what everyone does while pretending that with control comes liberation.
Exactly.
There isn’t any reference to that in the article! The author is calling for other people to speak up. He isn’t calling for anyone to be controlled!
SJWs always lie.
The author is calling for other people to speak up.
Maybe you should scroll down to the part where the author blocked comments.
I don’t know where you see that!
How about here:
We need to think about the ways that terraforming is not always a utopian idea, but can also be seen as a violent imposition of earthly normativity on landscapes elsewhere, a colonialization of existing queer-otherworld landscapes.
The implication is pretty obvious that the author would not only look favorably upon some regime of socialist control over the entire universe, but is actively calling for such to prevent “colonial” depredations by those evil white cis-hetero males he raves on and on about.
He’s also openly in favor of transplanting Earth-based notions of compulsory “affirmative action” into space:
So in this way queer is also, if you’ll permit it, a call-out to mad pride, Black power, sex workers, disability pride, Native pride, polyamory, abolitionist veganism, the elderly, imprisoned people, indigenous revolutionaries, impoverished people, anarchism, linguistic minorities, people living under occupation, and much more.
Interesting list. Let’s take it in order.
“Mad pride” is SJW code for crazy people who feel they are an oppresed minority and have a right not to take their meds and to act out in any way their addled psyches impel them without consequences. Sure, let’s establish a quota for unmedicated paranoid schizophrenics in the astronaut corps. What could possibly go wrong?
“Black power” in space. Whuzzat? Space habs and lunar settlements totally free of “white devil” honkies and crackers? And this differs from “Jim Crow in space” how, exactly?
“Sex workers.” Doesn’t strike me as needing worrying about. As soon as there are “camps” in space, there will be camp followers. Hell, it’ll probably be a perk of employment in space to have one’s ashes hauled on a regular basis. I strongly suspect the attitude of future space settlers toward sex workers will be much like that of an unnamed bit player character in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, “Tell ’em send hoors! Tousands an tousands of hoors! I marry ’em all, you betcha!”
“Disability pride.” Space is not likely to be ADA-compliant for a long time. I wouldn’t recommend space settlement to the blind, deaf, paraplegic or quadriplegic, for example. There might be certain space activity niches that modestly favor certain types of amputees. By the time space settlement is significantly underway, though, regenerative medical science is likely to have eliminated most common disabilities anyway.
“Native pride.” See Black power.
“Polyamory.” See “Sex workers.” See also The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
“Abolitionist veganism.” The first meat products produced in space will likely be vat-grown or reformed worm/insect-based. Don’t see where the first gives aggressive vegans any purchase at all. Even in the second case, it’s hard to flog up a lot of enthusiasm in the average non-left-loony breast about “saving” bugs and worms. Good luck with that.
“The elderly.” I think Elon’s already got this one covered with his “Del Webb community on Mars” idea.
“Imprisoned people.” And people laugh when I say that SJW’s are the shop stewards of the Thieves Guild. Somehow “We need more violent sociopaths in space!” doesn’t strike me as a slogan likely to get much traction. One suspects criminal justice practice in space will have more in common with 19th-century frontier justice than with today’s Bar Association Nation.
“Indigenous revolutionaries.” See “Black power.” Also, as there are no current indigenes in space, everyone in space in the early going will be an “invader.” After a generation or two, though, I have complete confidence that new local patriotisms will arise to fill the mental ecological niche of current tribalisms, sectarianisms and nationalisms in human psyches. Soccer hooligans we may always have with us. Or maybe not – see “Imprisoned people.”
“Impoverished people.” The Projects in space. Low-income housing in space. Hoovervilles in space. Shantytowns in space. Right. Good luck with that. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Anarchism.” Yeah, good luck with that. The history of utopian ideologically-based social experiments on Earth is not encouraging. But, hey, have at it. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Linguistic minorities.” No one is going to be able to prevent future space settlers from speaking however they want around whatever the equivalent of the hearth fire turns out to be. Each Free Trader ship in Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy had a “ship’s language.” In the particular case of Sisu, the ship the protagonist, Thorby Baslim, was on for much of the book that language was Finnish. But it takes a significant population or considerable isolation to keep a minor language alive beyond a generation or so. Founders of minor language space settlements – assuming there ever are any – will likely find their kids mostly speaking whatever the lingua franca of space turns out to be. I’m betting it’ll be English. Even those who chose to speak some legacy language at home better be able to handle Space English too. To paraphrase that tag line from Alien, “In space it doesn’t matter if people can hear you scream if they can’t understand what you’re screaming about.”
“People living under occupation.” This appears to be SJW-speak for so-called “Palestinians.” Like if Israel ever establishes a space settlement, it won’t be any fun unless it’s just like the settlements in the West Bank so they’ll want to import a bunch of “Palestinians” to oppress just to keep the giggles going. Right. It seems unlikely the “Palestinians” as a group will ever be numbered among space settlers as they have no oil money and no one – except Western SJW’s – seem able to stand them up close. Certainly not their Arab and Muslim neighbors. But, hey, maybe Hamas can get the Israelis to pay for their fares and habs and such as long as it’s understood that they all go. Even the Arab petrostates might chip in to a deal like that. So best of luck. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Much more.” So best of luck. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
He isn’t queering up anything but
…his chances of ever being taken seriously by grown-ups.
Apparently this stuff is meant to be meaningful and important if the writer struts around as such.
Derrida and deconstructionism is a mere shadow of this person’s nuttiness.
I believed he used the word “intersectionality”…….
A nifty way to achieve pretentiousness and cloak himself with the look and feel if intellectualism.
On a related note, the Thirty Meter Telescope is looking for a new home, outside of Hawaii.
Imagine how the media would react if a small group of Christian fundamentalists blocked the construction of a telescope on a mountain they consider sacred (Ararat?). But since this group of religious fundamentalists happen to be colorful, non-Western, native islanders (mostly “Native Studies” students at the University of Hawaii, apparently), there’s no talk of a “war on science.” Bill Nye and Neil Tyson are strangely silent. Even astronomers are calling for compromise, dialogue, and cultural understanding
Neil Tyson on the 30 Meter Telescope:
What is specific to astronomers is putting a 30-meter telescope on a mountaintop that native people consider sacred. That’s fascinating to me, culturally and sociologically, because it’s a contest of values occupying the same space. Normally you say, oh, you build your church here, I’ll build my church here, I’m not trying to build my church in your church. Or whatever that is. Generally, you can just separate people out. But because we’re talking about the same mountaintop, I’m curious how that will ultimately resolve. I can tell you that — and I’m revealing my astrophysics bias here, of course, but it’s still a thought to consider — that, well, what is it we’re doing on the mountain? We’re trying to understand how the universe got here. And that’s one of the questions that, I think, has been in practically every religion and every spiritual pursuit that has ever existed and ever been written about. So if that’s not the noblest thing to do with a mountaintop, I don’t know what is.
So if you feel strongly and deeply, spiritually, about a mountain and its relationship to your culture and what it means, consider that it’s not just a piece of hardware up there. It actually has a goal that, for me, is one of the most noble pursuits that our species has ever undertaken. I’m not in the middle of those conversations, I’d rather let those resolve themselves, the people who run the institution and the local people. I’m not a Hawaii resident, so I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do who are out there — I’m just saying that there are a lot of things one could do on a mountain, you might imagine, but trying to understand our place in the universe, that’s a pretty good one.
Bob, thank you for making my point, by completely missing my point.
Contrast the sensitivity of those comments to the way he went after the Catholic Church, where he actually went out of his way to make stuff up and create defamatory cartoons.
If Jerry Falwell were leading the fight against the 30 Meter Telescope, do you think Tyson would say, “I’m not a Christian, so I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do who are out there”?
Since you said he had been silent, I tried to be helpful by reporting what he did say without commentary.
My commentary: Tyson has three reasons to treat the Hawaiians differently than Jerry Falwell:
1) Strategy: If you are tempted to eviscerate your opposition, consider the cost. Tyson doesn’t want the 30 meter telescope to have to locate elsewhere, and the native Hawaiians have the upper hand right now, so why not try to be sensitive, and try to find a compromise.
2) Decency: Don’t be a sore winner. I’m not a Hawaiian anymore than Tyson is, but I would imagine that the perception in the native Hawaiian community is that the West stole the islands, the West won, etc, etc. The late great William Saffire used to say “knock them when they’re up!” Christianity and the West are up, and can withstand a little knock.
3) Identity: I don’t know Tyson’s religious beliefs, but his cultural background is surely Christian, and it is easier to criticize your own people than someone else.
There is a lot of anti-white sentiment and fighting present tense colonialist oppression from the activists.
IIRC, the telescope backers were offered to remove other telescopes on the mountain, give money, and create and fund a number of education programs open only to native Hawaiians not all Hawaiians.
What they don’t respect is the agency and intelligence of their ancestors and blame white people for cultural exchange and interaction that all people engage in, even theirs.
Here are a few questions:
Is it possible to revive an older Hawaiian culture so long after the people who lived it have passed away? Will it be exactly the same or in what ways will more recent ideologies, like socialist social justice, shape it?
Culture is transmitted, it isn’t genetic, so can this cultural revival be adopted by those without native Hawaiian genetics?
Is this about culture or race and how is this different than the KKK or white pride groups despised by all Americans?
Are they Americans?
I guess I was unclear. When I said Tyson had remained silent on this issue, I did not mean that he was literally silent. Tyson is incapable of that, even when he has nothing useful or interesting to say. I meant that he had not *expressed an opinion* on the issue, one way or the other.
Your quote confirms that. He very carefully *avoids* taking sides. This deference and respect is in marked contrast to his past statements about Christians..
As for your claim that Tyson’s “cultural background is surely Christian,” I don’t see what you base that on since you say you don’t know Tyson’s religious views. All the evidence suggests that his cultural (and theological) background is secular humanist. Specifically, the type of secular humanist who finds Judeo-Christianity intolerable but sees nothing to criticize in non-Western religions.
So NDT thinks science is a religion. That explains a lot.
I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do…
Sorry, I can’t resist. Would that Tyson applied this standard consistently. The lack of any background in history didn’t stop him from making up stuff about the Catholic Church. Or repeating the hoary myth that Columbus was funded by the Spanish Crown. Or even repeating the urban legend that Walt Disney’s Frozen corpse is in cryonic suspension.
The lack of any background related to human spaceflight does not stop him from passing himself off as an expert in that field. (During the 2014 Isaac Asimov Debate on human spaceflight, he was forced to admit, “I don’t know what landing legs are.”)
Tyson routinely speaks and acts as if his PhD in astrophysics makes him an expert in every field of human knowledge. It’s only when he’s trying to avoid expressing an opinion on a controversial subject that he suddenly develops a sense of humility and says, “I don’t have the background to speak intelligently.”
Read a funny tweet about Neil Tyson last night. Someone tallied up his tweets about the Superbowl at around 11. But found absolutely zero with regards to the gravity waves. Guess Tyson is only concerned with gravity when it’s influenced by Beyonce’s booty.
If you’re a fan of Archer and his thoughts on anthropology PhDs:
I only skimmed the article, but i found it to be sub moronic in the extreme. Sally Ride a lesbian? Who cares? NASA management probably found out about it during the selection process. Judy Resnick, one of the professional astronauts on Challenger’s last flight, was supposedly a lesbian. Obviously her fellow astronauts didn’t care. The author misses the point of having a colony on Mars. It’s a COLONY! PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BREED! ELON MUSK WANTS TO SAVE THE HUMAN RACE SO MARTIAN COLONISTS MUST BREED! I’m sure gay people would be welcome, though, if they brought superb technological skills with them. Besides, wouldn’t it be a good thing if we left as many of our earthbound messes behind? Forget about racial quotas and have everybody just happily interbreed?
MARTIAN COLONISTS MUST BREED!
If that is the primary concern, then we should send only lesbians and a few liquid nitrogen tanks of donor sperm.
And when they’re all heavily pregnant? Phone home for help?
I’m afraid you can’t underestimate the misanthropic instincts at work here.
Space needs more furries! Why hasn’t any open furry been sent aboard the ISS? It’s an outrage that cis-gendered and trans-gendered LGBQRP’s are monopolizing the discourse and impeding NASA’s efforts to study the effect of fire on furries in a zero-G pure oxygen environment.
Yeah! Check your cis-species privilege!
It’s only fitting that Elon’s Dragon capsule be helmed by a crew of otherkin astronauts that self identify as dragons. I mean, certainly they would be the most qualified right? Right….?
Dragons crewing the Dragon Capsule? Suggests certain lines for the pressure suites and crew uniforms.
Dragons? Yeah, how do they get their pointy-white-hat to fit inside a pressure-suit helmet.
Well, I suppose someone had to be brave enough to actually read Medium content.
The worst part, I think, is that I think he’s actually serious and thinks what he’s saying is meaningful and important.
SJWs take themselves super seriously.
Super cereal!1!!!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!!!!!1
Supercilious?
😉
Superfluous.
=^_^=
I wonder what the job prospects are like for an anthropology PhD who wrote a dissertation on “queering up space”.
An endowed chair at Nutjob University.
Why should we care?
“The author has chosen not to show responses on this story.”
I should not be astonished.
Hah! You beat me to it!
That’s strange because he called for comments that he would use to refine his thinking and edit his oped. Maybe he only wants certain people to comment and for everyone else, its their turn to feel the suffering of the marginalized.
I found this sufficiently “queer” to comment on it here, because the author is not allowing comments and discussion on their site:
“Aside from a few examples, why have sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences and humanities left space science and exploration alone — why do they consistently fail to recognize the importance of work by those who do research in these areas?”
That’s simple, ….they don’t want to be embarrassed by not being able to calculate when something happens because of orbital mechanics instead of because someone “isn’t comfortable” with how others use their plumbing. It’s called self-knowledge.
Can’t be for real. Can it?
From the article:
“ I want to use it to call for more people of color, more indigenous voices, more women…”
Um, unless the space agencies of the world are recruiting from the Area 51 immigrant population, I don’t believe that’s a possible area of sociological expansion.
White people don’t count as human beings to him.
What on earth does indigenous mean with relation to the whole planet? Aren’t we all indigenous?
He isn’t queering up anything but rather just proposing neo-marxist control of everyone in space without having the courage to say that up front. He also comes off as racist but would probably say he couldn’t be racist for whatever reason that has nothing to do with his views and everything to do with a get out of jail free card.
The problem is that this type of thinking is growing increasingly popular and that people who hold this ideology have a lot of power, contrary to their claims of being victims. This means that their ideology must be rhetorically countered and not just mocked. It is incredibly hard because their ideology isn’t based on rational thought but identity, dogma, and the desire for power and punishment.
” rather just proposing neo-marxist control of everyone in space without having the courage to say that up front.”
I don’t know where you see that! Here was my reaction: People who are interested in space colonization because it will allow them to create whatever kind of society they want without interference should respond to the author by telling him that they’ve been working toward something he would like, and hey, in space there is room for everyone!
(This is the advantage of non-planet-bound colonization schemes — we might fight over the destiny of Mars or the Moon, but’ not over O’Neil-style colonies.)
And to answer Joseph Hertzlinger’s question “Why should we care?”, I’d say the answer is “to the extent that space activities benefit from political support, you should make friends, not enemies, and get votes for your side.”
Well, Bob Werb decided the best strategy was to “make space a Democratic issue.” How did that work out?
By making his space agenda a partisan issue, he guaranteed that Republicans would oppose it, no matter how aligned it might be with their supposed free-market principles.
Political pandering is a dangerous game.
The space socialists will never be on the side of free men and women pursuing their own interests. So the “why it matters?” question isn’t one of how to compromise and appease them but rather how to best counter and minimize their impact.
Ideally, this means removing control of space based activities from government workers who serve their own interests rather than those of the populace. The more liberal government is, will allow more people to do what they want and people who want to dictate how queer things should be will have less influence.
Wodun: I didn’t see anything in the article about dictating.
Edward Wright: When government is involved, I think space activities should be cast as non-partisan as much as possible, so that space-related activities will appeal to as many people as possible and get as much political support as possible.
Both of you: I’m saying libertarians should reply to the author by saying this:
“Great! We agree! We think space will create an opportunity to do your own thing, and you clearly want people to be able to do their own thing in space too! Also, thank you! Thank you for encouraging more people to be excited about space-related activities!”
He doesn’t want people to be able to create whatever societies they want. He wants to control what everyone does while pretending that with control comes liberation.
I agree with you though. Let’s see him and his fellow travelers start their own colonies and test his social theories on willing participants rather than force their ways on others in the name of justice.
I have found that justice to these people is racial/gender/ism favoritism and vengeance and punishment of scapegoats. Its a disgusting and insidious ideology. Not surprising it comes from the same party that started the KKK only to cast them off when it was viewed as more beneficial to run that same strategy with a multitude of ethnic, religious, racial, gender, size, and age based groups.
He doesn’t want people to be able to create whatever societies they want. He wants to control what everyone does while pretending that with control comes liberation.
Exactly.
There isn’t any reference to that in the article! The author is calling for other people to speak up. He isn’t calling for anyone to be controlled!
SJWs always lie.
The author is calling for other people to speak up.
Maybe you should scroll down to the part where the author blocked comments.
I don’t know where you see that!
How about here:
We need to think about the ways that terraforming is not always a utopian idea, but can also be seen as a violent imposition of earthly normativity on landscapes elsewhere, a colonialization of existing queer-otherworld landscapes.
The implication is pretty obvious that the author would not only look favorably upon some regime of socialist control over the entire universe, but is actively calling for such to prevent “colonial” depredations by those evil white cis-hetero males he raves on and on about.
He’s also openly in favor of transplanting Earth-based notions of compulsory “affirmative action” into space:
So in this way queer is also, if you’ll permit it, a call-out to mad pride, Black power, sex workers, disability pride, Native pride, polyamory, abolitionist veganism, the elderly, imprisoned people, indigenous revolutionaries, impoverished people, anarchism, linguistic minorities, people living under occupation, and much more.
Interesting list. Let’s take it in order.
“Mad pride” is SJW code for crazy people who feel they are an oppresed minority and have a right not to take their meds and to act out in any way their addled psyches impel them without consequences. Sure, let’s establish a quota for unmedicated paranoid schizophrenics in the astronaut corps. What could possibly go wrong?
“Black power” in space. Whuzzat? Space habs and lunar settlements totally free of “white devil” honkies and crackers? And this differs from “Jim Crow in space” how, exactly?
“Sex workers.” Doesn’t strike me as needing worrying about. As soon as there are “camps” in space, there will be camp followers. Hell, it’ll probably be a perk of employment in space to have one’s ashes hauled on a regular basis. I strongly suspect the attitude of future space settlers toward sex workers will be much like that of an unnamed bit player character in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, “Tell ’em send hoors! Tousands an tousands of hoors! I marry ’em all, you betcha!”
“Disability pride.” Space is not likely to be ADA-compliant for a long time. I wouldn’t recommend space settlement to the blind, deaf, paraplegic or quadriplegic, for example. There might be certain space activity niches that modestly favor certain types of amputees. By the time space settlement is significantly underway, though, regenerative medical science is likely to have eliminated most common disabilities anyway.
“Native pride.” See Black power.
“Polyamory.” See “Sex workers.” See also The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
“Abolitionist veganism.” The first meat products produced in space will likely be vat-grown or reformed worm/insect-based. Don’t see where the first gives aggressive vegans any purchase at all. Even in the second case, it’s hard to flog up a lot of enthusiasm in the average non-left-loony breast about “saving” bugs and worms. Good luck with that.
“The elderly.” I think Elon’s already got this one covered with his “Del Webb community on Mars” idea.
“Imprisoned people.” And people laugh when I say that SJW’s are the shop stewards of the Thieves Guild. Somehow “We need more violent sociopaths in space!” doesn’t strike me as a slogan likely to get much traction. One suspects criminal justice practice in space will have more in common with 19th-century frontier justice than with today’s Bar Association Nation.
“Indigenous revolutionaries.” See “Black power.” Also, as there are no current indigenes in space, everyone in space in the early going will be an “invader.” After a generation or two, though, I have complete confidence that new local patriotisms will arise to fill the mental ecological niche of current tribalisms, sectarianisms and nationalisms in human psyches. Soccer hooligans we may always have with us. Or maybe not – see “Imprisoned people.”
“Impoverished people.” The Projects in space. Low-income housing in space. Hoovervilles in space. Shantytowns in space. Right. Good luck with that. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Anarchism.” Yeah, good luck with that. The history of utopian ideologically-based social experiments on Earth is not encouraging. But, hey, have at it. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Linguistic minorities.” No one is going to be able to prevent future space settlers from speaking however they want around whatever the equivalent of the hearth fire turns out to be. Each Free Trader ship in Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy had a “ship’s language.” In the particular case of Sisu, the ship the protagonist, Thorby Baslim, was on for much of the book that language was Finnish. But it takes a significant population or considerable isolation to keep a minor language alive beyond a generation or so. Founders of minor language space settlements – assuming there ever are any – will likely find their kids mostly speaking whatever the lingua franca of space turns out to be. I’m betting it’ll be English. Even those who chose to speak some legacy language at home better be able to handle Space English too. To paraphrase that tag line from Alien, “In space it doesn’t matter if people can hear you scream if they can’t understand what you’re screaming about.”
“People living under occupation.” This appears to be SJW-speak for so-called “Palestinians.” Like if Israel ever establishes a space settlement, it won’t be any fun unless it’s just like the settlements in the West Bank so they’ll want to import a bunch of “Palestinians” to oppress just to keep the giggles going. Right. It seems unlikely the “Palestinians” as a group will ever be numbered among space settlers as they have no oil money and no one – except Western SJW’s – seem able to stand them up close. Certainly not their Arab and Muslim neighbors. But, hey, maybe Hamas can get the Israelis to pay for their fares and habs and such as long as it’s understood that they all go. Even the Arab petrostates might chip in to a deal like that. So best of luck. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
“Much more.” So best of luck. I’ll look in on you from time to time. Dibs on your habs and stuff when you’re all dead.
…his chances of ever being taken seriously by grown-ups.
Apparently this stuff is meant to be meaningful and important if the writer struts around as such.
Derrida and deconstructionism is a mere shadow of this person’s nuttiness.
I believed he used the word “intersectionality”…….
A nifty way to achieve pretentiousness and cloak himself with the look and feel if intellectualism.
Professor Sokal, call your office.
I had a similar encounter with British sociologists a few years ago. In case anybody’s interested, it’s all written up here:
http://www.astronist.co.uk/astro_ev/2000/Sociology0.shtml
On a related note, the Thirty Meter Telescope is looking for a new home, outside of Hawaii.
Imagine how the media would react if a small group of Christian fundamentalists blocked the construction of a telescope on a mountain they consider sacred (Ararat?). But since this group of religious fundamentalists happen to be colorful, non-Western, native islanders (mostly “Native Studies” students at the University of Hawaii, apparently), there’s no talk of a “war on science.” Bill Nye and Neil Tyson are strangely silent. Even astronomers are calling for compromise, dialogue, and cultural understanding
Neil Tyson on the 30 Meter Telescope:
What is specific to astronomers is putting a 30-meter telescope on a mountaintop that native people consider sacred. That’s fascinating to me, culturally and sociologically, because it’s a contest of values occupying the same space. Normally you say, oh, you build your church here, I’ll build my church here, I’m not trying to build my church in your church. Or whatever that is. Generally, you can just separate people out. But because we’re talking about the same mountaintop, I’m curious how that will ultimately resolve. I can tell you that — and I’m revealing my astrophysics bias here, of course, but it’s still a thought to consider — that, well, what is it we’re doing on the mountain? We’re trying to understand how the universe got here. And that’s one of the questions that, I think, has been in practically every religion and every spiritual pursuit that has ever existed and ever been written about. So if that’s not the noblest thing to do with a mountaintop, I don’t know what is.
So if you feel strongly and deeply, spiritually, about a mountain and its relationship to your culture and what it means, consider that it’s not just a piece of hardware up there. It actually has a goal that, for me, is one of the most noble pursuits that our species has ever undertaken. I’m not in the middle of those conversations, I’d rather let those resolve themselves, the people who run the institution and the local people. I’m not a Hawaii resident, so I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do who are out there — I’m just saying that there are a lot of things one could do on a mountain, you might imagine, but trying to understand our place in the universe, that’s a pretty good one.
Bob, thank you for making my point, by completely missing my point.
Contrast the sensitivity of those comments to the way he went after the Catholic Church, where he actually went out of his way to make stuff up and create defamatory cartoons.
If Jerry Falwell were leading the fight against the 30 Meter Telescope, do you think Tyson would say, “I’m not a Christian, so I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do who are out there”?
Since you said he had been silent, I tried to be helpful by reporting what he did say without commentary.
My commentary: Tyson has three reasons to treat the Hawaiians differently than Jerry Falwell:
1) Strategy: If you are tempted to eviscerate your opposition, consider the cost. Tyson doesn’t want the 30 meter telescope to have to locate elsewhere, and the native Hawaiians have the upper hand right now, so why not try to be sensitive, and try to find a compromise.
2) Decency: Don’t be a sore winner. I’m not a Hawaiian anymore than Tyson is, but I would imagine that the perception in the native Hawaiian community is that the West stole the islands, the West won, etc, etc. The late great William Saffire used to say “knock them when they’re up!” Christianity and the West are up, and can withstand a little knock.
3) Identity: I don’t know Tyson’s religious beliefs, but his cultural background is surely Christian, and it is easier to criticize your own people than someone else.
There is a lot of anti-white sentiment and fighting present tense colonialist oppression from the activists.
IIRC, the telescope backers were offered to remove other telescopes on the mountain, give money, and create and fund a number of education programs open only to native Hawaiians not all Hawaiians.
What they don’t respect is the agency and intelligence of their ancestors and blame white people for cultural exchange and interaction that all people engage in, even theirs.
Here are a few questions:
Is it possible to revive an older Hawaiian culture so long after the people who lived it have passed away? Will it be exactly the same or in what ways will more recent ideologies, like socialist social justice, shape it?
Culture is transmitted, it isn’t genetic, so can this cultural revival be adopted by those without native Hawaiian genetics?
Is this about culture or race and how is this different than the KKK or white pride groups despised by all Americans?
Are they Americans?
I guess I was unclear. When I said Tyson had remained silent on this issue, I did not mean that he was literally silent. Tyson is incapable of that, even when he has nothing useful or interesting to say. I meant that he had not *expressed an opinion* on the issue, one way or the other.
Your quote confirms that. He very carefully *avoids* taking sides. This deference and respect is in marked contrast to his past statements about Christians..
As for your claim that Tyson’s “cultural background is surely Christian,” I don’t see what you base that on since you say you don’t know Tyson’s religious views. All the evidence suggests that his cultural (and theological) background is secular humanist. Specifically, the type of secular humanist who finds Judeo-Christianity intolerable but sees nothing to criticize in non-Western religions.
So NDT thinks science is a religion. That explains a lot.
I don’t have the background to speak intelligently or with the right combination of awareness and sensitivity that others surely do…
Sorry, I can’t resist. Would that Tyson applied this standard consistently. The lack of any background in history didn’t stop him from making up stuff about the Catholic Church. Or repeating the hoary myth that Columbus was funded by the Spanish Crown. Or even repeating the urban legend that Walt Disney’s Frozen corpse is in cryonic suspension.
The lack of any background related to human spaceflight does not stop him from passing himself off as an expert in that field. (During the 2014 Isaac Asimov Debate on human spaceflight, he was forced to admit, “I don’t know what landing legs are.”)
Tyson routinely speaks and acts as if his PhD in astrophysics makes him an expert in every field of human knowledge. It’s only when he’s trying to avoid expressing an opinion on a controversial subject that he suddenly develops a sense of humility and says, “I don’t have the background to speak intelligently.”
Read a funny tweet about Neil Tyson last night. Someone tallied up his tweets about the Superbowl at around 11. But found absolutely zero with regards to the gravity waves. Guess Tyson is only concerned with gravity when it’s influenced by Beyonce’s booty.
If you’re a fan of Archer and his thoughts on anthropology PhDs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3u6RfOufJQ
I only skimmed the article, but i found it to be sub moronic in the extreme. Sally Ride a lesbian? Who cares? NASA management probably found out about it during the selection process. Judy Resnick, one of the professional astronauts on Challenger’s last flight, was supposedly a lesbian. Obviously her fellow astronauts didn’t care. The author misses the point of having a colony on Mars. It’s a COLONY! PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BREED! ELON MUSK WANTS TO SAVE THE HUMAN RACE SO MARTIAN COLONISTS MUST BREED! I’m sure gay people would be welcome, though, if they brought superb technological skills with them. Besides, wouldn’t it be a good thing if we left as many of our earthbound messes behind? Forget about racial quotas and have everybody just happily interbreed?
MARTIAN COLONISTS MUST BREED!
If that is the primary concern, then we should send only lesbians and a few liquid nitrogen tanks of donor sperm.
And when they’re all heavily pregnant? Phone home for help?
I’m afraid you can’t underestimate the misanthropic instincts at work here.
Space needs more furries! Why hasn’t any open furry been sent aboard the ISS? It’s an outrage that cis-gendered and trans-gendered LGBQRP’s are monopolizing the discourse and impeding NASA’s efforts to study the effect of fire on furries in a zero-G pure oxygen environment.
Yeah! Check your cis-species privilege!
It’s only fitting that Elon’s Dragon capsule be helmed by a crew of otherkin astronauts that self identify as dragons. I mean, certainly they would be the most qualified right? Right….?
Dragons crewing the Dragon Capsule? Suggests certain lines for the pressure suites and crew uniforms.
Dragons? Yeah, how do they get their pointy-white-hat to fit inside a pressure-suit helmet.