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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1469 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Speaking as someone who used to watch Stargate with his parents and siblings every week as a teenager, I think it's probably there now. You just need clever enough writers who can work some references in without it feeling too forced. It is about a secret government program after all, albeit a benevolent one.

That's the rub, writers and the fanbase they interact with (ie: the reddit crowd) are not in the mood for optimistic sci-fi, Star Trek writers had to be dragged screaming into making Strange New Worlds, otherwise we'd still be stuck with nothing "actually, Star Trek has always been about opposing Trump and Brexit".

Stargate is inherently optimistic, but not blind either, about humanity. Not a hypothetical future humanity like Star Trek, but humanity as it currently is. The government and military are not perfect, but mostly act in the interest of the people. As you say, benevolent conspiracy. Even with a big technological disadvantage, humanity is able to more than pull its weight on the galactic scene. And its not foreign values that makes humanity powerful, it's deeply human ones. Even our flaws are cast as advantages, frequent wars on earth made humans good at fighting, at making weapons, better in many ways than warrior races (Mass Effect put this idea too in its lore).

If they were to try making it now, the writers would have to write it while thinking "if it were real, Trump would be the highest authority in charge of the Stargate program". Their own biases made it easy to ignore when it was Clinton, and they did push more evil politician stories during the Bush era, but that was after establishing the program as benevolent. But I don't think they would be able to do it now.

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