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| Captain Kirk and a cadre of his expendable redshirts. Source: |
In Star Trek fandom lore, a "redshirt" is an expendable character in a series episode, usually an extra without a name credit. Instead, they might be identified on the cast roll as "First Ensign" or "Third Security Guard."
The red-shirted extras are the characters who stand a good chance of being killed off by the local malevolent alien that the Star Trek crew encounter on its travels.
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| Star Trek redshirts dead. Source: Wikimedia |
Captain Kirk and his officers are safe from death or long-term disability. Naturally.
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| Star Trek redshirt mask meme. Source: ScreenRant |
To the elected leaders and anti-protection propagandists such as Trump, DeSantis, and Parsons - let's call them all corona collaborators - we are just redshirts. We are expendable.
What's the payoff for the corona collaborators?
In the short term: To amass or protect their power.
COVID's public health protections offer no less a convenient common enemy than the usual threats to The God-Fearing American Way of Life: Communists, radical socialists, and immigrants.
The payoff to DeSantis, Trump, et al is only in the short term because, inevitably, their political capital will crumble when the number of dead or wounded redshirts reaches some as-yet-unknown tipping point.
2 comments:
Thanks for the connection to Star Trek. We are Star Trek fans and are watching reruns. Just got to the last show in the Captain Janeway series. Episodes last about 40 minutes and have a positive message. I find watching a good way to relax after a stressful day.
I love Captain Janeway; in fact, I've always liked Kate Mulgrew. Heheheh, I'm still working my way through The Walking Dead as my current relaxation show, counter-intuitive though that may seem.
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