William Shatner is best known for having played the slightly perverted, politically incorrect, token right-winder in “Boston Legal.” Some people also recall his role as a star ship captain in that little known, long forgotten space opera that run for a brief time in the late 1960s. However, Shatner, who once famously told “Star Trek Fans” to “get a life” has come to take on snowflakes, Social Justice Warriors, and misandrists (mainly feminazis who hate men) on social media. Social media is not pleased.
Is Shatner a closet Trump supporter?
The left-leaning science fiction site, IO9, noted that when a host of “Star Trek” celebrities signed a statement called “Trek against Trump” Shatner’s signature was conspicuously absent.
Shatner, as a Canadian citizen, generally does not comment on American politics. That fact did not stop IO9 from darkly hinting, “it becomes clearer with each passing day why that might be.”
In passing, one doesn’t know how Shatner feels about President Trump. Captain Kirk, on the other hand, would likely find him appealing, up to a point. Trump, like Kirk, is a decisive, get it done, ignore the Prime Directive type of guy with a history of womanizing. On the other hand, Kirk would never get caught on tape boasting about grabbing women’s (human or alien) lady parts. He was, after all, an officer and gentleman.
Has Shatner betrayed ‘Star Trek?’
The big question, as expressed in an article in Salon, is, has Shatner betrayed the ideals of “Star Trek” by going after left-wingers in Twitter?
“Star Trek,” at least according to modern lefties who likely never watched the original show, stood for equality and tolerance above all. The show also stood for exploring strange new worlds, meeting aliens and either shooting them with a phaser or taking them to bed, depending on the circumstances.
One would wish that the late Gene Roddenberry was still alive to witness all of this.
Roddenberry was a traditional JFK-style liberal, keen on civil rights, but opposed to foreign tyrannies. He had fought in World War II. However, he had no patience with the feminists of his time, being (like Kirk) an epic womanizer who once proposed that he, Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols live together in a three-way relationship.
In any event, “Star Trek” was not about people hiding away from everyone and everything that upset them in safe spaces. Outer space, after all, is the ultimate unsafe space. There were no snowflakes, social justice warriors, or especially misandrists on board the USS Enterprise. Thus, William Shatner is upholding the ideals of “Star Trek” as they are properly understood.
