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.
I live near Shatner. 2 stories: first at a restaurant I eavesdropped on people talking about him, saying he showed up early (to something important) drunk already with a woman younger than his daughter who he pawed.
Second, at another restaurant he was eating and 2 elderly women approached, one using a walker, asking him for an autograph and praising his work in Star Trek. He announced loudly: “I prefer . . . to be left . . . ALONE!” Next time I see him I’ll ask if he can get me Sulu’s autograph. POS. We all know it here near his horse farm.
Does he have any standard reaction to requests for Sulu’s autograph?
I own (paperback) copies of Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories. When he recounts George Takei and Nichelle Nichols airing their grievances, he seemed to have genuinely listened and learned. Clearly, either he’s forgotten the lessons, or he didn’t actually learn them and those bits were written by Chris Kreski.
@History Nerd: I imagine it’s a lot like Harlan Ellison’s reaction to being asked if auto manufacturer Geo put him in their ads to make their cars look bigger.
Maybe part of it is that Shatner’s trying to seem young and hip. Not that it in any way excuses his offensiveness. He is in his 80s now, I think. He always seemed like a self-important, pompous ass, to me.
He used to narrate a TV program called, I think, “Rescue 911”. This program featured real-life clips of exactly what the title describes – the police and paramedics swooping down on all kinds of traffic accidents and clusterfucks. His narration was ridiculously over-the-top. A late-night comic did a funny impersonation of it, especially the way Shatner said, “RESCUE………………….9! – 9!! – 1.”
@Diego
I was watching the documentary that Adam Nimoy did about/in collaboration with his father called For The Love Of Spock. I haven’t seen the whole thing, but I did get as far as an interview with Shatner where he talks about Spock’s early popularity. He says he stormed into Roddenberry’s office, and R explained to him that Nimoy’s popularity was his popularity, since a popular character on the show would drive other people to watch and then they would experience the Wonder of Shatner. After that, he was (supposedly) okay with it.
What I thought was funny about this story is the way that Shatner presented it. It was like he thought it made him look really good, the magnanimous star who forgave another person for stealing what was rightfully his. Instead it was the story of a little baby man who threw a tantrum because somebody else was getting a little attention and only got over it when someone told him it was in his own self-interest.
Aight, imma just go for it. William Shitner. I said it, so y’all don’t need to
@PeeVee
Mizzurah? Racist hellscape? Not surprised…
God DAAAAAAMN, @weirwoodtreehugger
That’s one sick burn. Shat is still butt hurt years later over the Takei wedding XD
@Axe: all things considered, I think Shatner (past tense of Shitner) is the correct form.
You know, as much as I do like TOS, I’ve always enjoyed TNG and DS9 more, not least of all because of Patrick Stewart and Avery Brooks.
I’m just glad that Mark Hamill is a pretty cool guy from everything I’ve seen and heard.
Complain all you want about misandry, Captain Kirk, but when a love interest shows up for you, the viewer knows that she’ll be dead within the hour.
I have always violently disliked Shatner. Just…. you know? He gave me that vibe. He has always thought he was the hottest shit. I’ve seen through that my whole life.
I don’t think it’s just because Picard was my generation’s captain that I think he’s amazing and Shatner pisses me off. (There are tons of reasons, but I don’t think I’m being that closed-minded.)
Shatner sux. Full stop.
What a jerk.
Waitwaitwait.
Alll of this time… Could it be that Zapp Brannigan from Futurama is a not so subtle jab at William Shatner? Holy hell… I hadn’t realized the guy might be inspired on Shatner.
I’d like .. to talk to you … about Priceline!
@Grumpy:
Please accept today’s prize of one gold-plated Internet. Or, in lieu of that, kitties:
It’s like I feel when I’m listening to the jazz station and Sinatra comes on.
Based on everything I’ve read, Sinatra was a flaming garbage person, but I can enjoy his singing. Doesn’t mean I’ll claim that he’s not a f.g.p. Shatner is an entertainer, and seems to have made peace with the fact that he is not regarded as an artist. When he pops off about things outside his wheelhouse, I dismiss it as easily as I do the perfervid prorations of Scott Adams.
Strangely, though, I feel badly about not enjoying Louis Armstrong’s singing, because he seems to have been a decent human being. I love his playing, but hearing him sing is like licking mint flavored velvet.
@Diego
I understand he’s a cross between Kirk and Shatner. The Lee-ee-ee-la song really made it obvious that there’s at least some Shatner in that character.
If you don’t know the reference, you’re in for a treat.
Doesn’t Shatner realize that the crew of the Enterprise were “SJWs” on a cosmic scale?
Everyone forgets about Avery Brooks. There were plenty of dodgy episodes of DS9 but toward the end it was great. And Sisko was a great character. He was the most complicated and interesting lead in any Star Trek series. And the less said about Voyager and Janeway the better.
@latsot
Heck, even Scott Bakula! Sure Enterprise sucked in some ways, but it was great in some ways, too.
Really. Shatner too? Fuck.
Guess it’s true what they say – never tweet your heroes…
Unfortunately, Shatner is not alone in this regard. Many male leftists still cling to the regressive notion that radfems and MRAs are two sides of the same coin, often using the same sort of language as the alt-righters. This is especially true in the rational/skeptic community, hence you’ll often see male individuals who are considered major figures in the movement dismissing radfems as little more than a bunch of irrational, stubborn, pigheaded man-haters.
I’d like to register my protest about the Rocket Man video… the quality actually got worse, contrary to the claims at the top of the video.
“I will be high [DRAMATIC PAUSE] [DRAMATIC PAUSE] [DRAMATIC PAUSE] as a kite by then”
Shatner admitted after ST:Generations he didn’t quite understand why ST was so popular. Then claimed that he had finally started understanding what it was about the community that encouraged people to join it. If he ever did understand it, he’s forgotten.
A lot of older white people don’t believe that racism is really “that much” of a problem any more, or are secretly in favor of keeping the PoC away.
In a lot of TOS eps it was gunboat diplomacy on a grand scale. The ones where an alien was saved by talking instead of shooting? Not many. Looked like post-scarcity meant no one in the Federation was oppressed, but look out if you were in any other star nation. Klingons: killed. Romulans: killed. GM Humans: abandoned, killed later. Andorians: killed. Tribbles: poisoned, beamed over to Klingons, probably killed. Harvey Mudd: Imprisoned on a planet full of his ex-wives.
Really not as SJW as it might look at first glance. Roddenberry? Yeah, in favor of inclusion and diversity. First white-black kiss on TV, yes. But TOS as a whole? I’m not so sure.
I just realized that Shatner is older than Jeff Sessions andDonald Trump.
For some reason, I wasn’t expecting that.
I believe someone who worked on Futurama said that Zapp Brannigan is a combination of a parody of Kirk and (real-life) William Shatner’s worst personality traits.
Shatner is 86. Very few celebrities stay relevant at that age. Most people are retired by then.
Yet another reason to like Avery Brooks over Shatner.
@Robert Walker-Smith
Well we do tend to deal with younger bigots rather than the really older bigots like the members of FreeRepublic.com