By David Futrelle
It’s not exactly news that former space show actor William Shatner can be something of a dick. And in the year of our dark lord 2017 all dicks end up on Twitter, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Shatner has been acting like a dick on Twitter.
But I have to say I was a little bit taken aback to see Capt. Kirk adopting not only some of the opinions but the lingo of the terrible people who congregate in or around the Alt Right. In a series of recent tweets, Shatner has railed against so-called SJWs and castigated his opponents as “snowflakes,” a term that seems to have almost replaced what seems to have been his previous favorite patronizing putdown, “sunshine.”
He’s also picked up one of the favorite terms of the Men’s Rights movement: “misandry.” He started using it earlier this year, slipping it into his disquisitions on the evils of political correctness and feminism and whatnot.
Needless to say, his thoughts on the subject are not particularly enlightening, consisting mostly of assertions that “misandry exists.”
Misandry is real. Sorry. https://t.co/HzNcwWhbhV
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 20, 2017
You can say that about misandry all you want but it exists. 🤷🏼♂️ https://t.co/fKhNpEt6h1
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) May 1, 2017
Misogyny exists. Problem is that she didn't want to accept misandry does, too. https://t.co/f1mlk7wKek
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) May 1, 2017
Misandry does exist & toxic masculinity is a skewed definition. So boohoo that I used a word you don't believe exists & 🙄 on a phrase. https://t.co/kAaBVj4lXn
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 2, 2017
He is also keen for his Twitter followers to know that, yes, he in fact sometimes uses the word.
All of that is true. I also use words like snowflake and misandry. What's your point sunshine? https://t.co/3Z0Zj1USIX
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 31, 2017
And this is your failure of logic. SJWs stand for inequality, where they are superior to any one else hence my use of Misandry and Snowflake https://t.co/8uBGuFFM7a
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 31, 2017
Tweets reiterating these two points pretty much make up the entirety of his commentary on the evils of misandry.
I look forward to his further contributions to misandry theory.
Would I be right to assume he’s not keen on the upcoming series?
No wonder George Takei didn’t invite him to his wedding.
People say that the original series of “Star Trek” was a great leap forward for characters who weren’t white and male. And I’m sure they have a point, but it’s still mainly about white males, mainly Kirk. Non-white characters were liable to get turned into geometric shapes to stop them getting the way of white characters doing stuff, Kirk snogging alien women, etc.
Shatner: the drunk, snowflake uncle of Star Trek. And also, apparently, Twitter.
Whatta irrelevant doof.
That is all.
Ms. Vanilla Rose: This is probably one of the biggest lessons I’ve had to hold onto. The hard truth that I have to accept as a progressive is that someday, if the movements I support are successful, my current self will be considered fairly appalling. I can only hope that, at that time, I will have the wisdom to agree.
“It’s pronounced Takei, Bill. Rhymes with toupee.”
Ouch.
Seriously, Freemage, that’s like the deepest and sweetest human sentiment I’ve read in some time. 🙂
George Takei always hated William Shatner, including back in the 1960’s.
Leonard Nimoy said in earlier interviews (the 1970’s to the 1980’s) that Shatner was very difficult to work with and thought he was smarter than everyone else (possibly because he had a bachelor’s degree from McGill University*). Nimoy said almost everyone else on the cast and crew couldn’t stand Shatner. They still resent having to appear with him at Trek conventions. Patrick Stewart or Kate Mulgrew would be much better.
*He ended up as an actor and his degree was in economics. Impressive, but not really relevant to his career.
I never watched Star Trek but I’m familiar with the celebrities. I had no idea Shatner was such a dick, the more I google this man the more I dislike him. He seems like the Rush Limbaugh type of asshole. Straight up stealing lines from other co-stars because he was insecure and female fans liked Spock better??? What in the actual fuck?
Shatner must be so bitter that Nimoy and Takei are beloved and Shatner really isn’t. Everyone loves Patrick Stewart more as far as captains go.
Suddenly Tim Allen’s character in Galaxy Quest makes so much more sense.
Full disclosure: I started with Next Generation. Patrick Stewart ’til I die.
Further evidence that Picard was the best captain . . .
Right after Sheridan, of course.
I had a friend request on facebook a couple of months back from another elderly actor called Derren Nesbitt. He was in a lot of cult TV shows including UFO, Space 1999, Danger Man and The Prisoner (which is the fandom I am associated with). I was actually really flattered that he sent me a friend request, and so was another one of my friends, and so I accepted it. However, it wasn’t long before he showed his true colours and started posting rants, alt right stuff and crazy conspiracy theories. Then just before the election he started on Jeremy Corbyn and cultural Marxism, so I had to block him. It was a weird thing to do, to block a celeb, but he really wasn’t a nice person 🙁
You know what else was real Captain Kirk? Gene Roddenberrys funeral, you narcissistic waste of protein-strains.
I’m sorry to learn that Shatner has been saying all this terrible stuff. My fault for starting to think he was okay.
I’ll defend non-philanderer Jim Kirk till the day I die. The pop culture idea of him as a womanizer is an exaggeration … that was frustratingly included in the reboot movies.
There are 70+ episodes of TOS and in less than a quarter of them does Kirk have a love interest. By far the most of any of them.
TNG is generally regarded as more “leftist.” It’s made clear that the United Federation of Planets doesn’t have a currency, access to housing and food is universal, you get what you need based on what your job is, and the military’s purpose is scientific and defensive and the democratic government (usually) doesn’t engage in aggressive wars.
Moreover, the TNG shows at least try to depict the Federation as a post-feminist society (i.e., there’s no longer a need for a “feminist movement” separate from people not regarded as antisocial).
At a quick count, there’s 23 episodes featuring Kirk and romantic entanglements, ranging from Gary Mitchell’s “blonde lab tech” comment to Edith Keeper, and including sincere kissing, seduction, being coerced, and on one occasion, sexual assault, and even counting Miri despite “ick.”
All I can picture is Shatner slamming his hands down on his desk, screaming “NOTICE ME! I AM STILL A RELEVANT CELEBRITY! NOTICE MEEEEE! WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME LIKE YOU LOVE PATRICK STEWART?”
OT, but very worrying:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/02/us/naacp-missouri-travel-advisory-trnd/index.html
@DMW
This, plus I also picture him hung-over in his tighty-whities, thanks to Galaxy Quest. I might have to watch that tonight.
So, the whole state is a sundown town, basically.
To make myself feel better I’m writing fanfiction where Bill gets drunk and challenges the real Captain Kirk to a fight; in which he ends up unconscious by a freeway in LA without his toupee
Ugh. Go somewhere and let Pine happen…
@PeeVee
Also OT, but many people are unaware of what “bathroom bills” really do. They do require that people use the bathroom assigned for their biological sex in government buildings, parks, and state universities, and that’s bad enough. But they also make it illegal for any county, city, or town to make anti-discrimination laws stronger than state anti-discrimination law based on race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.
That means the bill in North Carolina voided city ordinances that increased accessibility requirements beyond what the NC implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires (including stricter Web accessibility standards that are post-ADA) or ordinances that made it easier for people in any protected class to sue for discrimination.
But hopefully we can get the discussion back to a lighter topic. I have cyclical depression and I need to keep my rumination under control. 😛