Ask Lemmy

Whitey On The Moon by Gil Scott-Heron comes to mind. Planet is burning and they're sending money to space.

A rat done bit my sister Nell
With whitey on the moon
Her face and arms began to swell
And whitey's on the moon
I can't pay no doctor bills
But whitey's on the moon
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still
While whitey's on the moon
The man just upped my rent last night
Cause whitey's on the moon
No hot water, no toilets, no lights
But whitey's on the moon
I wonder why he's upping me?
Cause whitey's on the moon?
Well I was already giving him fifty a week
And now whitey's on the moon
Taxes taking my whole damn check
Junkies making me a nervous wreck
The price of food is going up
And as if all that crap wasn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell
With whitey on the moon
Her face and arm began to swell
And whitey's on the moon
Was all that money I made last year
For whitey on the moon?
How come I ain't got no money here?
Hmm! Whitey's on the moon
Y'know I just 'bout had my fill
Of whitey on the moon
I think I'll send these doctor bills
Airmail special
To whitey on the moon

I guess because it's not that special.

We have so much problems down here on Earth that Artemis seems like a smokescreen. I see no way it could benefit humanity.

This system of things, all over the world, is falling apart. Going to space might be likened to a desperate cry for sanity. But a single cry of a baby in an ocean of crying individuals all over the world is not something given much attention.

I'm just glad the thing didn't explode on launch or come flying apart on reentry.

NASA's problem is that their goals get derailed every time the executive changes hands, so they serve no strategic purpose. The moonbase idea is idiotic. Getting bots out to explore asteroids for potential mining is not. NASA should be building the infrastructure for that.

I kinda felt the same way tbh, I love space stuff so usually I would be super exited about it, and maybe following it in real time, specially taking into account the budget cuts that NASA has been getting over the previous decades, I should be hopeful for the start of a new age of (manned) space exploration, but given the current political climate I can't ignore that the whole thing ends up being a demonstration of power by the USA first and a scientific mission second.

Thing is, this has always been the case since the very first space missions, it's nothing new that governments only finance space programs for ulterior motives. Maybe I've become too cynical to be able to separate stuff from their political context.

For me, I just don’t see it as the step towards a bright future that it cone was.

So we reinvigorate the world’s interest in space missions, then what? Every iota of evidence from our own planet tells us that businesses are going to own the moon, mars, and beyond. Wayland-Yutani is more likely than The Federation.

I just can’t get excited about another frontier for Musk and Bezos to rub their stanky dicks all over.

I literally don’t even want to watch Project Hail Mary.

I think of all those space movies where the Earth has to do something together. Where it cuts to listeners in Paris, Beijing, Zimbabwe, New York, and Moscow before going back to some Mission Control center saying “We’re counting on you.”

Then I realize, in reality, there would be American cultists actively fighting any kind of effort to save the world, or run a giant “DEI WILL DOOM US” campaign because one of the astronaut crew is part Asian.

I want these stupid fanciful astronauts to see that we actively don’t have the circumstances to create these wonderful worldwide moments of joy anymore because of the overwhelming levels of sick hatred they’ve created in bankrupting our world of empathy and flooding it with religious propaganda.

The people personally funding rockets could have cured cancer everywhere with their savings. I honestly think if a lethal meteor was headed for the Earth, they’d want to live, but they’d invest everything into trying to save themselves rather than trying to save everyone.

My personal opinion of it is that it was either a reaffirmation of the tech need to do it, in which case its kinda sad that we haven't progressed beyond that for the last 50 years. The other idea I have of it is that it was the simplest and fastest way to get eyes on the dark side of the moon to verify or discount the notion of China building a base there

I don't care because it doesn't seem like a genuine mission to prove something. It feels like a purely political stunt. At least with the original mission, it was breaking a frontier on top of trying ot show off to Russia during the Cold War, but this time it's only the US flexing as mandated by the Orangegutan in Charge because he can and it feels icky.

You already know the answer, I think. It's because they didn't land.

Orbiting the moon - super cool. Seeing new stuff from far side - super cool. Emotional investment in something we've more or less done before? Well....

Which is actually a damn shame, but brains are funny like that. The entirety of human progress (and hubris) is down to chasing the next dopamine hit - and that probably includes the original moon shot.

Artemis is asking you to feel the same thing twice. Your lizard brain isn't stupid - it's just honest and lazy. If novelty is the drug, then this isn't a new drug. It's a carefully rebranded rerun with better CGI and a press kit. Plus, you've probably had a lot of other proxy hits to the ol' reward center so that something as big as "humans in a tin can fly around the moon" just registers as "meh - I've seen better on For All Mankind".

And I hate that for us.

So much problems to get mad about. Don't have time to be happy for some people so far away. We are try to survive everday.

Here are the reason.

You are not alone. What a waste of resources.

it would be more notable if another country went to moon instead of the US, although not interesting still. moon is OLD NEWS sadly and coming out at the same time as other stuff on earth.

Honestly, I thought for sure we would have had a permanent moon base by now. Something minimal but permanent and manned like the Space Station is. How foolish of me.

Me to

But i know why :

I don't want to support this anymore, i grow up 🤷‍♀️

You too

I feel oddly similar. I think it's that I can't cheer for America.