The Auron MacIntyre Show - How Space Travel Became Right-Wing ｜ 10⧸17⧸24

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00:00:30.000 Over the weekend, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Starship with a super-heavy rocket

00:00:43.220 and successfully recovered the rocket's first stage during an unmanned test flight.

00:00:48.360 In a remarkable display of engineering, the first stage made a controlled descent to Earth

00:00:54.200 and was secured back onto its launch platform by a mechanical arm.

00:00:58.120 I witnessed a previous iteration of this technology when I was covering a SpaceX launch as a local

00:01:05.580 reporter, and let me tell you, it is even more impressive in person.

00:01:10.060 This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans, but many leftists

00:01:14.920 took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic

00:01:20.060 event.

00:01:20.520 As Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance praised the technological triumph, commenters

00:01:27.540 made bewildered statements, wondering how the dream of space travel had become culturally

00:01:32.580 associated with Republicans.

00:01:35.460 So-called progressives have built their political strategy around demonizing the very elements

00:01:41.640 that make scientific progress possible.

00:01:44.160 Now they're shocked to find that their opponents are seen as the champions of a brighter future.

00:01:51.340 When I was young, space exploration was viewed as an inevitable part of the near future.

00:01:56.840 The United States had won the space race in the 1960s, and while astronauts hadn't landed

00:02:02.420 on a celestial body for over a decade, shuttle missions were common.

00:02:06.720 We were landing remote rovers on Mars, and most of us assumed that manned missions to the red

00:02:12.600 planet were well within reach.

00:02:15.540 The dream of exploring the stars was also politically bipartisan.

00:02:19.620 Republicans embraced the patriotism and pride attached to the achievement, while Democrats saw

00:02:24.880 it as a step towards their Star Trek-inspired vision of a post-scarcity utopia.

00:02:29.960 In a cruel bit of irony, as the United States solidified its position as the only global superpower,

00:02:37.760 the drive to prove dominance through space exploration waned.

00:02:42.320 NASA's achievements became less impressive, and the agency had clearly oversold many of

00:02:47.960 its projections.

00:02:49.320 Republicans began viewing the program as a bloated government expense in need of budget cuts,

00:02:54.500 while Democrats saw an opportunity to redirect funding to their supporters here on Earth.

00:02:59.960 NASA limped along with fewer launches and delayed major projects, and while science fiction

00:03:06.960 remained part of popular culture, the idea of real-world space travel seemed to fade farther

00:03:13.220 into the background.

00:03:15.500 Regardless of how one feels about Elon Musk or the novelist Ayn Rand, it's hard not to

00:03:20.680 see echoes of Rand's man of industry and his struggle against a system that has tried to

00:03:26.000 keep him tethered to this Earth.

00:03:27.420 SpaceX has certainly benefited from government contracts, but it has also fought off stifling

00:03:35.040 regulations and lawsuits while achieving something that government seemed incapable of.

00:03:40.420 The leftist outcry that SpaceX should now be nationalized because it's proven more successful

00:03:46.680 outside of government control highlights the parasitic nature of the progressive regime they've

00:03:52.360 created.

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00:04:24.080 Musk may not fit the mold of a typical conservative, and it's doubtful that he ever sought to become

00:04:30.260 a political figure.

00:04:31.840 But his ambition is undeniable.

00:04:33.640 He and many other leaders and entrepreneurs have realized that the dominant leftist regime

00:04:39.860 will make their grand visions impossible.

00:04:43.840 Progressives have embraced a politics driven entirely by graft and spite.

00:04:49.500 Their policies punish success and innovation while fostering a culture of envy and entitlement.

00:04:55.540 Ambition is now labeled as dangerous, and prosperity is seen as something to be collectively plundered

00:05:03.020 for political gain.

00:05:05.200 Democrats have transformed universities into centers of woke indoctrination, rejecting merit

00:05:11.000 in favor of racial and sexual biases that favor their client classes.

00:05:16.700 What began as an infection in the soft underbelly of the humanities has now spread to the hard

00:05:23.280 sciences, which were supposed to be immune from this kind of corruption.

00:05:28.180 Woke ideology has branded critical aspects of the scientific method as cultural imperialism

00:05:34.940 and turned math into a symbol of white supremacy.

00:05:39.360 Valuing the written word, prioritizing punctuality, emphasizing efficiency, and striving for perfection,

00:05:47.160 all things that you know are really important for launching humans into space, are now labeled

00:05:53.020 as forms of colonial oppression.

00:05:56.540 While I've always personally been a big fan of science fiction and fascinated by the idea

00:06:02.720 of space travel, I never truly grasped its significance as a social ambition.

00:06:09.420 Earth is rife with problems that are unsolved, so why not just focus our efforts here?

00:06:15.500 But I've come to understand the role that boldness and greatness play in the health of a civilization.

00:06:23.020 Some cultures are perfectly capable of turning inward, but ours simply is not.

00:06:30.380 Western man, or Faustian man as Oswald Spengler described him, has a deep need to discover and

00:06:37.460 expand.

00:06:38.480 It's all about the vastness and filling of space.

00:06:42.700 In many ways, the identity of the United States was forged by its expansion and taming of the frontier.

00:06:50.640 There's a reason that Westerns still echo in the psyche of young men today.

00:06:57.220 Without a new frontier to explore, Western societies seem to turn inward and consume themselves.

00:07:04.800 Space, as the final frontier, calls us to greatness.

00:07:08.560 In the end, progressives are right about one thing.

00:07:13.780 Their relentless attacks on merit, ambition, and achievement have made space exploration

00:07:19.960 a domain entirely of the right.

00:07:23.700 Leftist ideology is bitter and small, and it can't tolerate the concept of great individuals

00:07:31.980 or natural hierarchies, which is why it fails to reach for the achievements those people

00:07:37.820 make possible.

00:07:39.300 We are all equal in value before God, but we are not equal in our abilities or our accomplishments.

00:07:47.920 Those who strive for greatness must embody the very traits that Democrats have now demonized.

00:07:54.900 It is those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere who will ultimately reach the stars,

00:08:01.880 escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.

00:08:24.900 If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, or Gab, or Substack, or Instagram,

00:08:42.040 if you'd like to get these videos on Rumble, or Odyssey, the links to do all of that are down below

00:08:47.840 in the description.

00:08:48.860 And if you'd like to pick up my book, The Total State, you can do that at Amazon, Barnes

00:08:54.360 and Noble, Books a Million, or order it through your favorite local bookstore.

00:08:59.260 And of course, you can watch all of my shows and read all of my columns over at The Blaze.

00:09:05.940 Thanks for watching, guys, and as always, I'll talk to you next time.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - October 17, 2024

How Space Travel Became Right-Wing ｜ 10⧸17⧸24

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