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George Takei is a wonderful, intelligent, hilarious, inspirational, talented human being, and it's fantastic to see him receiving so much recognition and love a

George Takei is a wonderful, intelligent, hilarious, inspirational, talented human being, and it's fantastic to see him receiving so much recognition and love and career opportunity at 65, 75, and now 85 years old. Instead of Star Trek being the apex of his career or life, it's now just one part of an immensely well-lived life.

5040 3y ago
I see him as a tragic figure, despite having personally suffered at the hands of the American government, he's somehow become this great apologist for strong central power forcibly enforcing its dictates on unwilling populations.
- FemmeAndroid 3y ago
  Can you be more specific about the instances of what you're talking about when you say "strong central power forcibly enforcing its dictates on unwilling populations?"
  - h2odragon 3y ago
    Lockdowns and vaccine mandates fit that bill, in my view
    - kelnos 3y ago
      It's weird how many people have suddenly come out against vaccine mandates, when a bunch of vaccinations have been mandatory for school attendance in most US school districts since before most (all?) of us were born.
      - sigzero 3y ago
        I think there were always a lot of people against this "vaccine" mandate. The Government handled it entirely wrong from the start.
        krapp 3y ago
        People mostly turned against this vaccine mandate because of the degree to which one political party normalized conspiratorial thinking among its base and made opposing it a part of their identity. The left complained about policy but still accepted that policy as necessary, while the right screamed about adrenochrome harvesting and the new world order. One side thought Fauci fumbled the messaging about mask effectiveness, but again, didn't oppose the vaccines or masking or quarantines, whereas the other side claimed Fauci and Biden cooked up COVID in a lab, and still spawn green accounts on HN calling for both to be hanged. Let's not pretend the opposition to the vaccine mandates in the US was entirely rational. It was mostly a circus of derangement and paranoid delusion. The only question is whether enough time will pass until the next pandemic for culture to have moved on, or if we can just expect half the country to oppose vaccinations on general principle from now on.
        dmonitor 3y ago
        I don’t like this strawman argument where anyone that is skeptical about the safety of a barely tested vaccine is put in the same category as people who think the vaccine is made of nanomachines controlled by the La Li Lu Le Lo.
        krapp 3y ago
        The COVID vaccines went through the same testing and clinical trials as all other vaccines. The accelerated timeline was possible due to advances in research and preparation being done ahead of time. If you believe otherwise, it's because you listened to the cranks who were controlling the "skeptic" narrative and ignored the evidence to the contrary, because that's where the meme of the vaccines being untested and rushed came from.
        chronofar 3y ago
        “If you don’t believe what I believe, you listened to cranks” isn’t a terribly compelling argument. They went through the same process yes. That does not make taking a brand new COVID vaccine in the height of a hyper-politicized pandemic the same as taking the for example MMR vaccine that has been used for decades. There are all kinds of reasons to be skeptical of the former more than the latter that need not be driven by crankery, and you’re only undermining your presumed desire to appear on the side of science by suggesting otherwise.
- dokem 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - kelnos 3y ago
    Giving everyone guns clearly didn't solve this problem back then. Not sure why you think it'd solve it now.
    - dokem 3y ago
      The camps went away and the guns stayed. Seems effective.
  - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
    during the time in question, lots of people not in government had guns. how did that work out for them?
    - dokem 3y ago
      There's no more people in camps in the US because we actually have power.
      - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
        what power do you think we have now that we didn't have then?
q1w2 3y ago
While George Takei will always have a special place in my Star Trek heart, I cannot look to him as an example of goodness since he admitted to having sex with underage boys in his Howard Stern interview several years ago. It's crazy to me that the twitter-sphere was so happy to overlook his own admitted past because he was on their "side".
- listenallyall 3y ago
  I don't think that's accurate, as far as I can tell he had one accusation against him which he denied vigorously and which may have been retracted by the accuser. You should at least link to the quote in question, it's rather damaging to someone's reputation.

5040 3y ago

I see him as a tragic figure, despite having personally suffered at the hands of the American government, he's somehow become this great apologist for strong central power forcibly enforcing its dictates on unwilling populations.

FemmeAndroid 3y ago
Can you be more specific about the instances of what you're talking about when you say "strong central power forcibly enforcing its dictates on unwilling populations?"
- h2odragon 3y ago
  Lockdowns and vaccine mandates fit that bill, in my view
  - kelnos 3y ago
    It's weird how many people have suddenly come out against vaccine mandates, when a bunch of vaccinations have been mandatory for school attendance in most US school districts since before most (all?) of us were born.
    - sigzero 3y ago
      I think there were always a lot of people against this "vaccine" mandate. The Government handled it entirely wrong from the start.
      - krapp 3y ago
        People mostly turned against this vaccine mandate because of the degree to which one political party normalized conspiratorial thinking among its base and made opposing it a part of their identity. The left complained about policy but still accepted that policy as necessary, while the right screamed about adrenochrome harvesting and the new world order. One side thought Fauci fumbled the messaging about mask effectiveness, but again, didn't oppose the vaccines or masking or quarantines, whereas the other side claimed Fauci and Biden cooked up COVID in a lab, and still spawn green accounts on HN calling for both to be hanged. Let's not pretend the opposition to the vaccine mandates in the US was entirely rational. It was mostly a circus of derangement and paranoid delusion. The only question is whether enough time will pass until the next pandemic for culture to have moved on, or if we can just expect half the country to oppose vaccinations on general principle from now on.
        dmonitor 3y ago
        I don’t like this strawman argument where anyone that is skeptical about the safety of a barely tested vaccine is put in the same category as people who think the vaccine is made of nanomachines controlled by the La Li Lu Le Lo.
        krapp 3y ago
        The COVID vaccines went through the same testing and clinical trials as all other vaccines. The accelerated timeline was possible due to advances in research and preparation being done ahead of time. If you believe otherwise, it's because you listened to the cranks who were controlling the "skeptic" narrative and ignored the evidence to the contrary, because that's where the meme of the vaccines being untested and rushed came from.
        chronofar 3y ago
        “If you don’t believe what I believe, you listened to cranks” isn’t a terribly compelling argument. They went through the same process yes. That does not make taking a brand new COVID vaccine in the height of a hyper-politicized pandemic the same as taking the for example MMR vaccine that has been used for decades. There are all kinds of reasons to be skeptical of the former more than the latter that need not be driven by crankery, and you’re only undermining your presumed desire to appear on the side of science by suggesting otherwise.
dokem 3y ago
[flagged]
- kelnos 3y ago
  Giving everyone guns clearly didn't solve this problem back then. Not sure why you think it'd solve it now.
  - dokem 3y ago
    The camps went away and the guns stayed. Seems effective.
- amanaplanacanal 3y ago
  during the time in question, lots of people not in government had guns. how did that work out for them?
  - dokem 3y ago
    There's no more people in camps in the US because we actually have power.
    - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
      what power do you think we have now that we didn't have then?

q1w2 3y ago

While George Takei will always have a special place in my Star Trek heart, I cannot look to him as an example of goodness since he admitted to having sex with underage boys in his Howard Stern interview several years ago. It's crazy to me that the twitter-sphere was so happy to overlook his own admitted past because he was on their "side".

listenallyall 3y ago
I don't think that's accurate, as far as I can tell he had one accusation against him which he denied vigorously and which may have been retracted by the accuser. You should at least link to the quote in question, it's rather damaging to someone's reputation.