Planetary Society Staffer Doesn't Like American Flags At NASA Events
Hey @AlanStern @JimBridenstine Isn't it a little odd that Planetary Society @exploreplanets staff object to evidence of national pride at @JHUAPL during #UltimaFlyby but they do not complain when it happens at @NASAJPL for every Mars landing? #UltimaThule pic.twitter.com/qLBDpM2BxS
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) January 1, 2019
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Simple solution: if you didn’t like it, don’t friggin’ go.
SO sick of these “triggered” nitwits
With great respect for her opinion, candidly, Emily Lakdawalla is truly full of bovine fertilizer.
Pathetic and sickening! I think it is a very safe bet that this staffer would not have approved of the American Flag being deployed by the Apollo astronauts either. She will reveal her true colors of hypocrisy very shortly since China is reported to be landing Chang’e 4 on the lunar farside in a few hours. I wonder if she will complain about the Communist Chinese flag being displayed in the control room and lunar surface?
No, “they” all love communist China.
I see that Twitter account is now gone, she changed to a new @ handle.
Wonder why ?
I generally like Emily’s Tweets, but this one is a bit bizarre. I guess that’s what happens when there is no “official shirt”.
Her mentioning specifically Alan Stern seems to show some dislike of him.
it’s an offensive and insulting tweet, and i’m guessing most of the planetary society’s board would reject it outright.
The Planetary Society just keeps getting worse and worse.
They are decidedly anti-human.
Maybe if they displayed their participation trophies she would feel better about it.
I generally don’t like flag-waving of any sort (especially the OTT variety in the US), but if it persuades a few politicians that there’s something in it for them and that some money should therefore be spent on space, then so be it…
Hating the United States and its citizens is the Earth’s most popular pastime (at home and abroad). As Ms. Lakdawalla demonstrates, I expect 2019 to be a banner year for demonstrating hatred of the United States.
Somebody in the Twitter thread said that Ms. Lakdawalla can’t distinguish between patriotism and nationalism. I think that was well put.
Well, personally, I can’t either, and I am in favor of patriotism/nationalism.
I’ve generally seen “patriotism” used in a stronger way, to the extent that someone once described it as meaning either “my country is always right” or “my country, right or wrong.” Both of those are objectionable to many people (either ignorant or potentially criminal.) “Nationalism” more often just means liking your own country more than others, and wanting it to do well.
I went back to the dictionary and I’m guilty of conflating the terms myself. I think Ms. Lakdawalla conflated patriotism and jingoism; I’m in favor of the form and opposed to the latter.
the use of the term “jingoism” is particularly striking. it’s generally taken to mean a kind of extremism, even bellicosity. makes me wonder if she really understands what it means.
She understands the meaning and is using the term exactly as she has been trained. Any public display of and, in fact, the very existence of the US flag is extreme. Deeply offensive and triggering.
Well said, Ronald.
We designed it, we built it, we launched it, we cared for, navigated and managed it during cruise and most importantly, we paid for it. As far as I’m concerned, that gives Dr. Stern and the APL, JPL and SwRI teams the right to fly the Flag. Pride and jingoism are not synonymous.
We also rightly congratulated the Chinese on their enormous achievement.
Actually, JPL wasn’t very deeply involved. As I understand it, they provided telecommunications support (as the operator of the Deep Space Network), a little bit advice on trajectory design and navigation, and perhaps a small involvement in the science team. It really is a APL/SwRI mission.
But, more to the point with this flag nonsense, there was very little international involvement. No hardware and only a few people on the science team. That’s different from many other NASA missions. For example, most of the InSight science payload and a large fraction of that science team are European (or UK.) Cassini was deliberately a joint NASA-ESA mission. In those cases, waving the American flag too much would be questionable. Cassini did have some stock graphics and logos with flags, but the project made sure to include the flags _all_ the participating nations. New Horizons was, however, essentially an American mission. Complaining about waving the flag a bit doesn’t make sense to me.
I suppose if Coke or Pepsi gave lots of money for these projects, would she object to commercial logos instead? Maybe she should just think of the American flag on all of these as sponsorship placements.
smh…
that tweet was targeted for a very small, specific and out of touch audience. It demonstrates a clear lack of understanding on how government funded space exploration works.
Many years ago I loved the Planetary Society and the science podcasts aimed at literate intelligent adults. Emily Lakdawalla frequently had interesting comments on the science. Then Bill Nye took over and seemed to aim his enthusiastic loud commentary at adolescents in Junior High School. Suddenly the Planetary Society opposed human beings going into space as a waste of money. After one extraordinary success by Space X, Bill Nye criticized the company for not having more women and minorities. (More minorities and women in science is certainly a good thing, but focusing only on Space X is not.) Emily Lakdawalla’s comments now seems to verify my decision years ago to leave the Planetary Society. It is sad to me that a once fine organization has gone bad.
Interesting, as his big break was as Doc Brown’s lab assistant in the “Back to the Future” cartoon series. I guess kids are the only audience he knows how to reach.
ed2291 already
You know, I thought it was just me…I like listening to podcasts, and naturally anyone with a similar interest will have PS on the list of possibles. The subject matter has been dumbed down though beyond useful.
The characterization of Ms. Lakdawalla as a ‘staffer’ is factually correct, but perhaps a little misleading? I’ve seen her all over the media lately; she’s become a ‘go to’ person to comment on spacey things. Kinda like our own Mr. Cowing.
Hmmm, with all the mindless repetition of “triggered”, “triggering”, it seems the pots on this site are calling the kettle black.