Review of "Space Force" in Context of "Our Current Times"

Amidst a pandemic and a social uprising against the police, I still have opinions about new content, but this not the time to voice them, so I'm writing them here.

When I saw the preview for "Space Force," I knew it wasn't for me. It showed mostly white men and didn't seem to have innovative humor. The very next day, I saw a different preview for Space Force that displayed a diverse cast and a voice over that was so corny it was hilarious. This was more my speed! I figured people's comments made them realize they'd created a bad preview for a good show. But then the video did not end in a joke, and I realized it was in fact an advertisement to join the U.S. Space Force. They got me, fam! Indeed, people hadn't overwhelmingly commented with my same opinion. People liked the preview for the show (and I have no idea how they felt about the ad).

It's a pandemic, so I decided to watch the show. It was exactly as the preview had made it seem. Predominantly white males in major roles. Women and POC roles wrong dimensional. Like you could feel the male writer's room. I kept trying to stop watching but I'm just so bored. It's not like it's a bad show, it's just not a good show. 

As I kept watching, I thought more about the intended audience. Maybe this show isn't for bleeding heart liberals such as myself. Maybe this show is for the undecided voter. Maybe the creators are smart enough to realize they don't want to alienate these hesitant folks. Ease them in to shit. They see that the government might be bad but they don't know because they're not glued to the news, or they have bad sources. This type of show will reel them in with it's semi-positive outlook on the government. It says "America is the greatest country on Earth and there are some bad men in its government."

But are people really triggered seeing women support each other? Or black people having different perspectives? Like does one of these undecided white moderate people see a black person on TV wrapping their hair before bed and think, "oh this show is definitely not for me." Or a woman not being tickled being asked out by coworkers at work, and think "too sensitive, not gonna watch that."

So is this how we reel them in, or is this just placating them? Either way, we need to view more content created by women and POC. It would help if major stars with power would demand more diversity.

Reagan/Bush

I have had no luck in getting though to the people of Round Rock. It's surprisingly a new feeling for me. I'm not used to people saying something wrong and then not giving in to my opinion an iota when they are so easily proven wrong. It's big things like "gay people are gross" to little things like "females are crazy."

Because I can't seem to get through to people at all, I'm worried about the future of Americans. We seem to be in a cycle of destruction/hope for the past 100 years that I know of. Reagan was a god, then he was a villain, now he's a god again. Will this happen to Trump? Are Texas teens in 40 years going to say the Trump years were America's best?

Reagan's trickle-down economics was government-imposed white supremacy. The rich got richer and the poor did not improve as promised. AIDS was rampant and the government let gay people fend for themselves, which is to say, not at all. The war on drugs unproportionaly hurt people of color in a system that is still happening today with white people getting rich of legal weed and poc still suffering in jail for the same business ventures. But somehow through all that, people are able to pretend "America" was thriving. 

Trump's legacy is going to be that he helped create the first trillionaire in Bezos. Everything is awful right now. We're still struggling to make billionaires illegal and now we have to deal with trillionaires? It's too much to handle.

Ta-Nehisi Coates said that racim will always exist becuase the definition of "white" keeps changing. Supremacists gain power becuase they intrisically don't care about others. You can't become THAT rich while caring that others are working just as hard but still making the same minimum wage as they did 15 years ago. I don't mean still minimum wage, I mean the actual same dollar amount with no need to adjust for inflation. All bilionaires are white supremacists, regardless of your definition of "white."

I miss my trivia blog

I live in a new state now and talk to a very limited number of people. This was true before quarantine and is more true now that we're in it. It was nice to be able to get my thoughts out through my trivia blog, but quarantine has cancelled trivia forever somehow. Back to blogspot I go!

I'll start small. I've been doing a bit of Facebook marketplace shopping because I have a new empty apartment and feel bad about buying new stuff after tossing so much perfectly good stuff. If I were still a linguistics grad student, I might write a thesis on language and emoji use in FB marketplace messages. There seems to be a whole system that people catch on to through use and necessity. The most common comment seems to be the thumbs up emoji. Simple and to the point.

Next, I am not a fan of Zoom or video chats in general. My style of communication relies heavily on quick wit and under-the-breath comments, neither of which translates to video chats. We all have to wait patiently for our turn and then be heard by a few. I'm never sure when or if my comments actually go through. It makes me feel dumb and useless in a conversation. I'll have to try the typed chat bits of these things if this is going to keep up much longer. Blech.

I'm not sure exactly what prompted this, but has everyone at one point been the queen of something he or she isn't involved in? Like how Eliza Minnelli was the queen of the gays. I feel as though I have been the queen of several small groups that I didn't feel like I belonged to, and it seems like a wonderful and necessary part of life, at least for me. Back in Newmarket, obviously I was the queen of trivia but not on anyone's team. They all had their friends on their teams, and then had me to rule from a distance. Yet I was still part of it, so still felt like somewhat friends with most of the regulars. Do we all get to be queen of something at some point in our lives? I hope so, for your sake.

Finally, I have some thoughts on Texas. First, the state flag is displayed at the same height as the US flag. I don't know why this immediately struck me, but it did. It's very odd to see and feels a bit scary, like we don't follow the same laws. Not a comforting feeling for a left-wing liberal such as myself. Second, I've heard some people say they like Texas because "the people are so friendly" but I'm not sure what they're referring to. My neighbors are not particularly open to telling me their names, my customers do not like to say "please," and I've been honked at for 30 seconds at one point for something that required maybe a short honk and a wave. What am I missing? A dick? Third, Christianity on full display caught me a little off guard at Easter. I'm used to a senator tweeting out a "happy Easter to those who celebrate" type thing, but the Texas Governor tweeted "He Is Risen" and that shit is strange. Why is it in broken English? I wrote on our work chalk board "Hoppy [sic] Easter and thoughtful Passover" and was immediately called out as Jewish. People here don't acknowledge other religions unless they are one? Surprisingly, that's new for me.