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Aug. 11th, 2016 12:36 pmNew complaint about Doctor Who writing that unfortunately is all too common across other forms of SF and fantasy:
It is significantly more justifiable for people to be afraid of/worried about creatures from another planet/individuals with potentially civilization-ending powers than it is for them to be afraid of other human beings whose primary differences are melanin levels/point of origin/religious belief. Please stop using exactly the same language and stop demanding exactly the same concessions/tolerance levels when you are talking about Zygons (who are capable of making themselves into physical copies of anyone around them and who can, if they feel like it, make your individual molecules go on separate vacations without so much as lifting a tool) as you use when you are talking about economic/political/religious refugees. They are not the same, and saying that people are bad and horrible and short-sighted for not being willing to accept shape-changing atom-dissipating creatures that evolved in another planet's ecosystem does not help the cause of refugees at all.
Magneto could, if he put some effort into it, wreck civilization while half-asleep and butt naked. It is right to be concerned about people who are capable of doing that. Zygons are capable of destroying human beings without so much as leaving a corpse, and as of this season of Doctor Who, are capable of bodysnatcher levels of long-term impersonation. It is right to consider this a possible danger.
Taking the arguments from real-world issues surrounding gay people, ethnic minorities, or members of other religions and applying them to mutants, aliens, magic-users, or what have you without acknowledging the fact that their powers need to be taken into account looks stupidly naive on one side and stupidly xenophobic on the other. It's fine to use the civil rights arguments and language but you have to acknowledge that alien powers or the ability to accidentally gate in unspeakable horrors from another dimension is a legitimate concern that needs to be addressed.
Go watch Zootopia for a better example of how non-human groups can be used to convey a civil rights message without completely ignoring the actual concerns that could apply to their situation. But don't ask me to equate Zygons with human refugees and tell me I'm morally bad for wanting to raise questions about what Zygons physically are.
It is significantly more justifiable for people to be afraid of/worried about creatures from another planet/individuals with potentially civilization-ending powers than it is for them to be afraid of other human beings whose primary differences are melanin levels/point of origin/religious belief. Please stop using exactly the same language and stop demanding exactly the same concessions/tolerance levels when you are talking about Zygons (who are capable of making themselves into physical copies of anyone around them and who can, if they feel like it, make your individual molecules go on separate vacations without so much as lifting a tool) as you use when you are talking about economic/political/religious refugees. They are not the same, and saying that people are bad and horrible and short-sighted for not being willing to accept shape-changing atom-dissipating creatures that evolved in another planet's ecosystem does not help the cause of refugees at all.
Magneto could, if he put some effort into it, wreck civilization while half-asleep and butt naked. It is right to be concerned about people who are capable of doing that. Zygons are capable of destroying human beings without so much as leaving a corpse, and as of this season of Doctor Who, are capable of bodysnatcher levels of long-term impersonation. It is right to consider this a possible danger.
Taking the arguments from real-world issues surrounding gay people, ethnic minorities, or members of other religions and applying them to mutants, aliens, magic-users, or what have you without acknowledging the fact that their powers need to be taken into account looks stupidly naive on one side and stupidly xenophobic on the other. It's fine to use the civil rights arguments and language but you have to acknowledge that alien powers or the ability to accidentally gate in unspeakable horrors from another dimension is a legitimate concern that needs to be addressed.
Go watch Zootopia for a better example of how non-human groups can be used to convey a civil rights message without completely ignoring the actual concerns that could apply to their situation. But don't ask me to equate Zygons with human refugees and tell me I'm morally bad for wanting to raise questions about what Zygons physically are.
