Sean Ferrick, Thank You For Calling Out So Much Bullshit
Prominent YouTuber sets record straight about so much wrong with fandom right now
In his seemingly unending stream of videos for TrekCulture on YouTube, Sean Ferrick never seems to cease being the affable “everyman” of Star Trek fandom.
Even his regular “Ups and Downs” reviews of new Star Trek are almost always good-natured and supportive.
But apparently, even he has his limits — and sadly, some fans have hit them.
In a few short social media posts on BlueSky, Ferrick dealt with so much toxicity that I once would never have believed could have touched Star Trek fandom.
It’s no secret that there’s a noisy segment of fandom with whom there’s no love lost with current franchise executive Alex Kurtzman.
But Ferrick disclosed hat following the release of Star Trek: Section 31, he has actually had to remove comments from his videos from particularly noxious fans who made actual death threats against Kurtzman.
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And worse: other fans were actually putting likes on those threats.
“I don't know Alex Kurtzman but I've been called every name under the sun just for interviewing him for 5mins,” Ferrick posted. “People have commented on our channel calling for him to be thrown from a tall building. And these comments were getting likes.”
Ferrick says that kind of hate has no place in Star Trek fandom.
“I’ve been called a shill often as I don't rage bait. I’m used to that now, if you’re trying to get a rise out of me. But death threats to anyone, for any reason, because you don't like the Star Trek they make? No,” he posted. “Dislike the man's work, or direction, or ideas to your heart's content, that's entirely up to you.
“But what are we as a community if instead of discussing what we like, dislike, or want to see in the future - we're seeing people calling for the murder of a man, and others thinking it's funny?”
It should go without saying — but unfortunately it must be said — that, of course, Ferrick is right on.
Separately, Ferrick also posted his feelings about Donald Trump, just a few days after Trump was once again sworn-in as president of the United States:
“Let me be clear. If you are a Trump supporter, you are not my friend,” he wrote. “You support an evil regime, oppressing people in the name of right-wing, hardcore extremism, hiding behind ‘Christian values’.
“I stand with my friends and my family that you and your fascist, rapist ruler want to kill.”
Although Ferrick doesn’t mention Star Trek specifically, the sad fact is that Trump’s cruelty, racism, misogyny and xenophobia have begun to seep into fandom.
You might not think that Ferrick’s posts about the threats on Kurtzman and about Trump are connected, but they are.
They condemn philosophies and behavior that are anathema to Star Trek.
Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, famously said:
Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.
To borrow a phrase from William Shatner, if anything would make Roddenberry “turn in his grave,” it’s toxic fandom threatening Star Trek creatives and fans supporting Trump.
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