Seriously. Everyone at NASA I worked with loved Star Trek and was working towards that kind of future. They recognized the problems and challenges, but they really believed that future.

Although people in the commercial tech industry love to trot out sci fi references as if it's some kind of credential, they consistently get it wrong, making the dystopian stuff come true instead.

You just cannot get to The Federation by building SkyNet. It's not possible.

RWTB: Oh but surely Picard's Enterprise wasn't like this.

Average TNG Episode: Will Riker is falling for a trans person from an agender society. Meanwhile, the genius Black disabled chief engineer and his autism-coded android best friend just saved another planet through science education.

I heard a long time ago, don’t know if true (probably not), that Roddenberry originally wanted to make a non-scifi about social injustices and such but was rejected – so he put it in space instead.

Whether true or not, that’s how I view TOS. I mean there’s literally an episode about half-black-half-white being racist to half-white-half-black people of their own species… many if not most episodes are extremely thinly veiled social commentary.

I will take “What is Return of the Archons” for $300 dollars Jerry.

Or I will take “ what little girls are made of” for $300

That is confusing as Star Trek has always been a very progressive show. As in decades ahead of its time culturally. Probably more than the average SciFi show.

If conservatives want a relatively conservative show, I think Babylon 5 might be in their orbit.

I was going to recommend Firefly / Serenity, but it’s too libertarian & diverse for their taste! 😂