The new Space Force logo is literally the Starfleet logo: a journey into madness
when the universe gives you no choice but to double-post
This can’t be real. No one is that—Wait, no. Of course they are.
Did this start as a joke among the graphic designers, eventually becoming a test to see whether the President of the United States would notice that he has seen this logo before, on television? Or were they completely aware of the similarity and emboldened by the likelihood that the President would gladly bully CBS/Paramount in the event they tried to file a lawsuit? Either way, I would gladly travel to cover this lawsuit in person.
Woof, is today really gonna be the day I finally cave and google “Space Force explained”?
If you’re going to openly rip off a widely recognizable, 54-year-old logo representing maybe the most famously progressive franchise in modern pop culture on behalf of a fascist demagogue by cutting and pasting clip-art at the level of a high schooler fucking around in an early-’00s computer lab, would it have killed you to update your Photoshop software? That shit looks Wingdings.
What’s the over/under on whether the President has ever seen (or more likely talked through) even one episode of any Star Trek? If he has, how would he describe what the franchise(s) are about? (Bet he’d consider himself a Kirk fan. Figures.)
There is absolutely zero fiction in the known universe that willfully ignorant, dangerously powerful assholes cannot and will not figure out how to co-opt in some way, to further the kind of agenda that that fiction was created specifically and deliberately to rally audiences against. Succession will, in the end, be beloved by media moguls. Gordon Gecko and Patrick Bateman will be lionized by hedge fund bros. Silicon Valley giants will name their surveillance technology “Palantir” and create joke-y HAL 9000 skins for their actual HAL 9000s. This is no longer a trend; it is an inevitability. It is essential that people who have actually invested in media and pop cultural literacy, who understand the moral of the story and recognize these now-routine ironies—especially those who are in an active position to do something about it—engage more aggressively to combat the consequences these inevitabilities engender. The more Space Force logos there are, the more radical we must collectively, loudly, relentlessly demand that the multibillion-dollar Star Trek franchise apparatus become. If the villains are going to co-opt it anyway, can we at least endeavor to make it as difficult and embarrassing as possible for them? Because what is there really to lose? If profit is your goal here, Disney is a quick Uber Black car ride away. I’m sure J.J. would make time to grab a coffee.
…I have to write an extra newsletter about this, don’t I.
