The always insightful
Interlocutor has written a great post about Conservative leader Stephen Harper's alleged fondness for everything Star Trek... a little part of us died when we heard the news... the Captain James Tiberius Kirk and the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise just won't be the same anymore...
"So it turns out Stephen Harper is a huge Star Trek fan (see the revelatory blog post from "The Shotgun Blog" at Ezra Levant's shitty magazine, as well as a corroborating Edmonton Journal story).
I am saddened on so many levels to hear this, and also profoundly confused.
Why? Because this news grievously undermines one of my long-held theories concerning how this particular pop culture preference reflects political alignment: specifically, as I'm sure everyone knows, conservatives typically prefer Star Wars, and progressives usually prefer Star Trek. (If you're not convinced, salon.com has an illuminating four-part piece on the subject.)"
We are saddened as well. We recommend you read the rest of Interlocutor's post
here.
hm. now i differentiate star wars preferers as the cool nerds, while those who prefer star trek are more of the-for lack of a better and not as derogatory word-loser nerds (complete generalizations of course, cool nerds can and do exist who love star trek and vice versa). loser nerds can, in more extreme cases, lack fundamental social skills, possess a high 'unlikability' factor, and are often percieved as shifty peoples with evil agendas. steven harper, of course, fufills all of these categories, so to me it makes perfect sense that he prefers star trek to star wars.
ReplyDeleteAlso I happen to be an unrepentent lefty (as well as a confirmed geek/nerd) who happens to be able to almost recite the original three movies line for line. Then again, I kind of like Star Trek too. Maybe that's more of a sign of how geeky I am than being informative regarding whether being a fan of various sci-fi franchises says anything about one's political leanings.
ReplyDelete-Socialist Swine
Shouldn't someone ask the more important question -- WHY does he like it? Perhaps he is a fan of the "Prime Directive" of non-interference. Think about it...
ReplyDeleteThe problem is... when do we ever see Kirk et al. actually follow the prime directive? Perhaps on the inside Mr. Harper fancies himself a tribble.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Stephen Harper will, if elected, surrender his prime ministership to William Shatner? Or will he simply make William Shatner the next governor general?
Hey Red . . . I think Shatner's qualified . . . he has been on CBC you know . . . .
ReplyDeleteBy the way guys and girls . . . Paul wants you to turn in your SPACEGUNS!
Latest News from Paul's riding . . . he may lose!
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=e62477a3-b57d-4f28-818d-8c5d1f6071c7&k=210&p=1
star wars is so fucking lame compared to star trek, which is also kind of lame. my boyfriend makes me watch tng episodes and all their little political plots are so hippie liberal. this is hilarious.
ReplyDeletetara is really misguided. star trek fans can be nerdier (especially if theyre all-out trekkies) but star wars is a retarded family movie and not real sci fi (not that star trek is that great, but it has a bit more of a plot and less of a love story). you have to have extremely low plot standards to be into that damn series. (or you can be a scenester and be all 'lol wookies, so retro, lol')
Wow, very comprehensive article. I read it twice and still don't understand most of it. Maybe I'm naïve, but I've never attached any political attributes to Star Trek or Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteThe world isn't divided into people that like Star Trek OR like Star Wars. It is divided into people that don't care much for Star Trek & Star Wars (probably the vast majority) AND people that are into Star Trek and/or Star Wars (a small, but vocal minority). The average person would have a hard time distinguishing Mr. Spock from Jar Jar Binks.
I guess I'm more of an old-school Star Trek fan. Didn't really ever care much for Star Wars, cause I'm not into Spaghetti Westerns.
holtopia wrote: "The problem is... when do we ever see Kirk et al. actually follow the prime directive? Perhaps on the inside Mr. Harper fancies himself a tribble.
ReplyDelete"
good point. if Kirk didn't follow the prime directive, when will Harper? Perhaps he is a tribble.
"The world isn't divided into people that like Star Trek OR like Star Wars. It is divided into people that don't care much for Star Trek & Star Wars (probably the vast majority) AND people that are into Star Trek and/or Star Wars (a small, but vocal minority). The average person would have a hard time distinguishing Mr. Spock from Jar Jar Binks."
ReplyDeleterandy, couldn't you also say that because the voter pool is split between voters and non-voters, that Star Wars and Star Trek fans could be the half that votes and the half that make up the actively voting political spectrum? find us a political person that doesn't like Star Trek or Star Wars?
Like I wrote, I never thunk about this before.
ReplyDeleteI may not know much, but I do know two things (in order of importance):
Thing #1: Holtopia is always right.
Thing#2: I think there is a really cool paper, dissertation... maybe like even a PhD thesis in this. And it would be fun. Trust me on this one - it would be fun. Let's do a study that would link the whole Star Trek versus Star Wars phenomena to the political attitudes of people. This is like a poli-sci grad student's ultimate wet dream – Heidi Klum, Nicole Martel and Seven of Nine all rolled up into one. (Cause, you know good things always come in threes.) Get an enthusiastic group of about a dozen young people (they work cheap or for free) and funding from some non-biased open-minded organization like the NRA or NOW. Design the study questions. Then poll the beejesus out of a statistically significant group of people – a few thousand in a few different regions should do. Greater Edmonton, Metro Dade, maybe SF Bay Area?
Well, duh. Oh course Holtopia is always right.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, but where do Spaceballs fit in the thesis?