Binoculars. You will be traveling across lots of landscapes, stick a pair in the sidedoor of your car so if you stumble across a nice vista or see a cool animal you can get a better look!

Youtube systematically encourages rightwing content both because rich people rely on braindead conservatism to retain their strangehold on society and also because rightwing content is junkfood optimized to cause strong reactions in people and manipulate vulnerable, afraid people.

I also think it is important to point out that if you step back from Star Trek and squint, you can see it as a scifi submarine war drama about the glory of serving your country in the navy. Nevermind that starfleet is much more than a military and comparing it to a present day military is a huge stretch, that the federation is a leftist mostly functional utopia, that Star Trek directly speaks to the dangers of blind patriotism and militarism… Conservatives don’t let the details of reality get in the way of the narratives they tell about the world.

Renegade Cut did a really good video that I think does a pretty good job of answering your question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Tm5KxkM8A&list=PLbNseMNQjpNuh2RfoyBHTAad48PN-MZa5&index=5

Not my usual thing, but it is well done!

Om yes? A lan party with that many friends is a blast? Also, when men aren’t super toxic about it (which we are talking about gamers so low bar not necessarily cleared…) there are women who would probably find this a lot of fun too? Much better than going to a bar and staring at a sports tv and not being able to hear what anyone is saying anyways.

I think my favorite part about this episode is any amount of excessive silliness or criticism of being too fan-servicey is completely obliterated by the very next episode which deals with the trauma and horror of war head on. It didn’t feel like whiplash either, which I think speaks to the fact that even though episode 7 was silly there were still very serious emotional beats like Boimler convincing Pike to have a birthday party so he can hang out with the people that love him.

I am upset they are cancelling Discovery, it had flaws but it is an awesome show with some amazing moments and a very diverse cast.

Seriously fuck discord

Ughh I am getting so tired of Discovery haters acting like their biased opinion reflects a broader consensus on the show. Discovery is flawed but great and did an amazing job of bringing star trek to life again.

I think my problem with wesley is that he got such a preferential seat on the bridge of a massive ship that probably countless other people had worked their whole careers to get on. It feels unfair to all those people to put a kid on the bridge instead of an adult in the middle of their career.

Wesley as a character is fine! I know Whil Wheaton had a weird interaction with the fediverse and in my hazy memory of it I don’t really blame people’s reactions, but in his ready room show for star trek he honestly has been great. He seems like he really loves star trek.

The one thing is, “shut up wesley!” became an internet meme, and understandably I don’t think Wheaton finds that meme that funny after a couple of decades of hearing it. When the kneejerk reaction fans greet you with is to tell your character to shut up… when your character wasn’t a villain… but just kind of an awkward kid who really was never characterized as anything other than someone who just wanted people to like him… it just feels like punching down for no reason.

Maybe we could just reward people with ferengi themed flair for donating on patreon? Then all other types of flair could be kept unrelated to money or ferengis and be rewarded for stuff that doesn’t require money :P