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In discussions like this I always think of an episode of Star Trek TNG, "Hero Worship", that is a metaphor for human antagonism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_Worship_%28Star_Trek:_The...

> Then, a shock wave hits the Enterprise and Timothy says that his ship was also hit by a shock wave. Picard tells Worf to raise shields but a new shock wave is even stronger than the first one. More power is diverted to the shields and another wave hits and is even stronger. Picard and Geordi discuss putting the energy of the warp engine to the shields. Timothy states that is what they said on his ship.

> Data suddenly asks Picard to lower shields and Worf does so. The next shock wave is harmless and the Enterprise is safe. Data realized that giving energy to the shields caused even heavier shock waves (the more power the ship generated, the heavier the shock), and these were ultimately responsible for the destruction of Timothy's ship.

The lesson learned is that a strong and more vicious front may be met by an even stronger response. Obviously analogies and metaphors are only illustrations, not arguments, but judging from what I know of human nature amidst intense opposition, I don't think that a "ruthless" approach will do anything but breed more ruthlessness.




I loved TNG, but it is also one of the most outrageously politically correct and moral relativist shows I've ever watched. And Voyager was even worse. One particularly sorry episode featured Janeway willing to sacrifice members of her crew, just to avoid turning off a holodeck that spawned interesting characters. In another episode, the captain would again rather let crewman die than use a medical treatment derived from historical unethical research. One episode of TNG comes to mind, where Picard is unwilling to beam a kid from his crew out of prison on some ass backwards totalitarian planet, where they are planning to execute him, because of the prime directive and "respect for their laws". Are you kidding me? Of course in the show, there's always some deus ex machina that saves the day and none of the good guys have to die. In fiction, you can have your cake and eat it too. In real life, bad decisions have real consequences, like people dying.

Another line comes to mind now, where Picard wonders in amazement about how silly we were to let differences about "economic systems" drive us apart during the Cold War. Star Trek is like the poster child for wishy-washy moral relativism.

I'll take my political and moral cues from reality, not fun scifi shows written by an eccentric with a political agenda.


I'm sick and tired of this "realpolitik" bull. The reason we can't have nice things is because people give up on trying to have nice things. It's this bizarre combination of defeatism and selfishness that leads to bad foreign policy decisions and people dying.

I already pointed out that I was using TNG as an illustration, not an argument. But if you want reality, here's reality: people get pissed off when you attack and marginalize them and their friends and family. It's the role of the greater power to deescalate and try to integrate the oppressed, not wipe them out. Reality is that ruthlessness begets ruthlessness, and if your best counterargument to that is to call a TV show "wishy-washy", then you already know it's true.




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