How Space Travel Became Right-Wing ｜ 10⧸17⧸24
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
132.89206
Summary
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched its Starship with a super heavy rocket, and successfully recovered the rocket's first stage during a test flight. This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans, but many leftists took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic feat.
Transcript
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We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.
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Fast-free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.
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Wi-Fi available to Airplane members on Equipped Flight.
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Over the weekend, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Starship with a super-heavy rocket
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and successfully recovered the rocket's first stage during an unmanned test flight.
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In a remarkable display of engineering, the first stage made a controlled descent to Earth
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and was secured back onto its launch platform by a mechanical arm.
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I witnessed a previous iteration of this technology when I was covering a SpaceX launch as a local
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reporter, and let me tell you, it is even more impressive in person.
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This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans, but many leftists
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took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic
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As Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance praised the technological triumph, commenters
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made bewildered statements, wondering how the dream of space travel had become culturally
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So-called progressives have built their political strategy around demonizing the very elements
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Now they're shocked to find that their opponents are seen as the champions of a brighter future.
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When I was young, space exploration was viewed as an inevitable part of the near future.
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The United States had won the space race in the 1960s, and while astronauts hadn't landed
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on a celestial body for over a decade, shuttle missions were common.
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We were landing remote rovers on Mars, and most of us assumed that manned missions to the red
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The dream of exploring the stars was also politically bipartisan.
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Republicans embraced the patriotism and pride attached to the achievement, while Democrats saw
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it as a step towards their Star Trek-inspired vision of a post-scarcity utopia.
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In a cruel bit of irony, as the United States solidified its position as the only global superpower,
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the drive to prove dominance through space exploration waned.
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NASA's achievements became less impressive, and the agency had clearly oversold many of
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Republicans began viewing the program as a bloated government expense in need of budget cuts,
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while Democrats saw an opportunity to redirect funding to their supporters here on Earth.
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NASA limped along with fewer launches and delayed major projects, and while science fiction
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remained part of popular culture, the idea of real-world space travel seemed to fade farther
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Regardless of how one feels about Elon Musk or the novelist Ayn Rand, it's hard not to
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see echoes of Rand's man of industry and his struggle against a system that has tried to
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SpaceX has certainly benefited from government contracts, but it has also fought off stifling
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regulations and lawsuits while achieving something that government seemed incapable of.
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The leftist outcry that SpaceX should now be nationalized because it's proven more successful
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outside of government control highlights the parasitic nature of the progressive regime they've
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When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most?
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When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard?
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When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill?
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When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner?
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Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer, so download the app and get delivery
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Plus, enjoy zero-dollar delivery fees on your first three orders.
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Musk may not fit the mold of a typical conservative, and it's doubtful that he ever sought to become
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He and many other leaders and entrepreneurs have realized that the dominant leftist regime
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Progressives have embraced a politics driven entirely by graft and spite.
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Their policies punish success and innovation while fostering a culture of envy and entitlement.
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Ambition is now labeled as dangerous, and prosperity is seen as something to be collectively plundered
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Democrats have transformed universities into centers of woke indoctrination, rejecting merit
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in favor of racial and sexual biases that favor their client classes.
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What began as an infection in the soft underbelly of the humanities has now spread to the hard
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sciences, which were supposed to be immune from this kind of corruption.
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Woke ideology has branded critical aspects of the scientific method as cultural imperialism
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and turned math into a symbol of white supremacy.
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Valuing the written word, prioritizing punctuality, emphasizing efficiency, and striving for perfection,
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all things that you know are really important for launching humans into space, are now labeled
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While I've always personally been a big fan of science fiction and fascinated by the idea
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of space travel, I never truly grasped its significance as a social ambition.
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Earth is rife with problems that are unsolved, so why not just focus our efforts here?
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But I've come to understand the role that boldness and greatness play in the health of a civilization.
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Some cultures are perfectly capable of turning inward, but ours simply is not.
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Western man, or Faustian man as Oswald Spengler described him, has a deep need to discover and
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It's all about the vastness and filling of space.
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In many ways, the identity of the United States was forged by its expansion and taming of the frontier.
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There's a reason that Westerns still echo in the psyche of young men today.
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Without a new frontier to explore, Western societies seem to turn inward and consume themselves.
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Space, as the final frontier, calls us to greatness.
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In the end, progressives are right about one thing.
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Their relentless attacks on merit, ambition, and achievement have made space exploration
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Leftist ideology is bitter and small, and it can't tolerate the concept of great individuals
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or natural hierarchies, which is why it fails to reach for the achievements those people
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We are all equal in value before God, but we are not equal in our abilities or our accomplishments.
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Those who strive for greatness must embody the very traits that Democrats have now demonized.
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It is those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere who will ultimately reach the stars,
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escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.
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Thanks for watching, guys, and as always, I'll talk to you next time.