Posted in: Movies, Opinion, Paramount+, TV, TV | Tagged: elon musk, opinion, star trek

Star Trek/Kobayashi Maru: Does Elon Musk See Himself as Captain Kirk?

We're not sure if Elon Musk was looking to score points with "Star Trek" fans, but his "Kobayashi Maru" reference brings up questions...

While we could spend all day picking apart all the ways we've seen Twitter become a bigger social media cesspool than ever before under his ownership, we don't ever want to lose sight of the fact that Elon Musk has some righteously bad pop culture takes. A sampling of his previous misfires included a bad read on Magneto, comparing himself to Batman, and breaking up with Adult Swim's Rick and Morty after the whole deal with Justin Roiland – even making the decision to unfollow the show's official account. While you take a half-second to give that more thought than it deserves, let's not forget his whole issue with Disney being "too woke" and his missed-by-a-mile read on Trey Parker & Matt Stone's South Park: Joining the Panderverse – and those are just the ones from off the top of our heads. So are we surprised that Musk would venture into the "Star Trek" universe and get things wrong there, too? Nope…

As Musk sees it, he's a "free speech advocate" who sees himself as fighting the good fight for free expression. Again, we could spend time looking at whether his actions match his words or offer an opinion about how a lot of folks who have money label themselves "free speech advocates" are actually just jealous because they want to control it. Instead, we're going to focus on how he claims that being an advocate for free speech is "increasingly feeling like a Kobayashi Maru problem." For those of you who don't know or need a refresher, the "Kobayashi Maru" is a no-win training exercise whose purpose is to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets. First presented in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the "Kobayashi Maru" would eventually be beaten by James T. Kirk (William Shatner played adult Kirk) – but only after he reprogrammed the exercise (translation: cheated).

What does this have to do with fighting for free speech? We're guessing that Musk is trying to say that both are unwinnable situations – but how? The fight for free speech is something that can be won if everyone's experiences and perspectives are on the table – the "Kobayashi Maru" was literally created to not be won – Kirk's reprogramming doesn't change that. Maybe Musk is saying that the only way to achieve free speech is to "cheat" – but what does that mean? And again, with no due respect, we can safely say that Musk doesn't represent our views on how free speech should operate. Maybe Musk thought name-dropping the "Kobayashi Maru" would be cooler than just writing "like a no-win problem." Of course, let's not rule out the all-too-real possibility that Musk sees himself as a kind of "Captain Kirk." It looks we may never know – and about ten seconds after this goes live, we will probably stop caring… until his next "flop take."

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