data1701d (He/Him)

“Life forms. You precious little lifeforms. You tiny little lifeforms. Where are you?”

- Lt. Cmdr Data, Star Trek: Generations

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: March 7th, 2024

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  • I tried to hint at it at the beginning, but I admit mapping Ferengi politics onto human politics is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. I was honestly just trying to use commonly-understood terms, which may be a weak fit.

    In terms of social-economic orthogonality, I think that can work for a more general analysis, but doesn’t seem the case in Ferengi society - for instance, social left and economic left reform in the late Zek (Ishka behind scenes)/early Rom seemed like a packaged deal. Also, the social restrictions on women extend to their economic right to make profit - many of the issues in Ferengi society are a blur of economic and social issues that are intimately connected.

    Also, unrelated to my above thoughts, rewatching “Family Business”, I disagree with your assessment of Rom. For one, I think both Quark and Rom were equally bothered, just had different ways of expressing it; Quark let his discomfort out through visible anger, while Rom tried to hide it for a while, letting it seep through into his expression. Also, Rom, while seeming like a product of his society, seemed much more open to listening to Ishka, suggesting that while he had socially and economically conservative values, he didn’t hold them as strongly as screaming Quark.

    Overall, I agree with your sentiment that political categorization is complex, and I feel no one model perfectly characterizes all ideologies, that there are merely abstractions that might work well in a specific context. Heck, there’s a sci-fi story idea I’m “working” on (by which I mean I haven’t touched it in ages) where I created a 3D political spectrum for my main factions; I forget what my third axis was, though. In the end, as much as some humans like to nerd out about it, an ideology can’t be perfectly reduced to a point on a graph or a line.

    Still, there is some undeniable urge to do a deeper dive on Star Trek political mapping, down to sub-charts for characters in the individual societies where we have enough information, although you’d have to figure out how to handle different eras.






















  • I could understand a few across the city, but I’d say 50 miles of parkland around a city is a little excessive.

    You could also probably at least partially pull off “lush” with more native species, which they don’t seem to do.

    Additionally, I imagine there’s some people still enjoying desert off-roading or a newer equivalent in the 23rd and 24th century (probably with regulations, of course).

    Granted, I’m a bit biased, considering I live in the Southwest and am a fan of some of the more beautiful deserts. I do hate the climate change-induced annual shattering of heat records, though. Never fun when it’s 110s out, especially when you have to walk to classes… No