Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I’m sure you saw or heard of the recent Artemis II mission. I found many people thought it was going to involve astronauts landing on the moon, but it turned out they just flew past it. Still, it was a great technological achievement—one that was first accomplished over 57 years ago—but a significant achievement nonetheless. However, the real story here isn’t the physics; it’s how the media attempted to transform a triumph of engineering into an exercise in identity politics.
Take, for instance, the ABC’s coverage titled “How NASA and the Artemis II crew completed the ‘perfect’ splashdown.” They show a picture of just two astronauts: Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch. Apparently, the two white guys aren’t worthy to be at the top of the page, even though Reid Wiseman was the Mission Commander—a former Navy Captain and test pilot—and Jeremy Hansen is a Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force and a former fighter jet pilot. But apparently, their resumes aren’t “woke” enough to put their pictures at the top of the ABC article. One would think it was just Mr. Glover and Ms. Koch who single-handedly “completed the ‘perfect’ splashdown.”
In another massive article titled “The New Moonshot,” the ABC really goes to town. When they introduce the astronauts, they note: “Christina Koch and Victor Glover have the added weight of being the first woman and person of colour to visit our lunar neighbour.” The “weight” of being the first woman and person of colour? What weight are they talking about? Is the ABC suggesting that a pilot’s performance is hindered by the “weight” of their skin colour or gender? It’s a patronising sentiment that implies these professionals are symbols first and astronauts second, rather than focusing on the professional expertise that actually got them into the cockpit.
Obviously, we’ve come to expect this sort of nonsense from the likes of the ABC. Instead of focusing on people’s achievements and skills, or the content of their character, they focus on things like skin colour and gender instead.
And by the way: “Person of Colour”? Doesn’t that sound incredibly racist and regressive to you? It certainly does to me. I suspect that in a century’s time, people will look back at these articles and see that phrase as having the same offensive weight as the n-word. It’s a term defined entirely by what someone isn’t—namely, not Caucasian. They may as well have published an article titled “Victor Glover: The First [N-word] in Space,” because that’s exactly how it will be viewed by our future ancestors.
By obsessively highlighting race and gender in this clumsy, self-congratulatory attempt at inclusivity, outlets like the ABC aren’t fighting racism—they are entrenching it. They are so fixated on the “textbook” of modern progressivism that they’ve become blind to the fact that they are practising the very tribalism they claim to despise.
Obviously, I’m not attacking the astronauts in any way. In fact, they’ve handled the media’s obsession with identity politics with a great deal of class and perspective. Ms. Koch has previously said: “We work together as a team. And between us, and between the crew and our teams on the ground, we don’t look at gender; we don’t see it as a barrier.”
Actually, Mr. Glover was remarkably grounded regarding the narrative being built around him. While acknowledging the significance of being the first Black astronaut to journey to the Moon, he noted: “I hope we are pushing the other direction—that one day we don’t have to talk about these firsts. That one day this is just—and listen to this—that this is human history. It’s about human history. It’s the story of humanity; not black history, not women’s history… it becomes human history.”
Hear, hear. But unfortunately, according to the ABC, Pilot Victor Glover is just another “person of colour” to be used as a convenient symbol—a box for them to tick at the top of their articles to satisfy their own editorial agenda.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
I’m sure you saw or heard of the recent Artemis II mission. I found many people thought it was going to involve astronauts landing on the moon, but it turned out they just flew past it. Still, it was a great technological achievement—one that was first accomplished over 57 years ago—but a significant achievement nonetheless. However, the real story here isn’t the physics; it’s how the media attempted to transform a triumph of engineering into an exercise in identity politics.
Take, for instance, the ABC’s coverage titled “How NASA and the Artemis II crew completed the ‘perfect’ splashdown.” They show a picture of just two astronauts: Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch. Apparently, the two white guys aren’t worthy to be at the top of the page, even though Reid Wiseman was the Mission Commander—a former Navy Captain and test pilot—and Jeremy Hansen is a Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force and a former fighter jet pilot. But apparently, their resumes aren’t “woke” enough to put their pictures at the top of the ABC article. One would think it was just Mr. Glover and Ms. Koch who single-handedly “completed the ‘perfect’ splashdown.”
In another massive article titled “The New Moonshot,” the ABC really goes to town. When they introduce the astronauts, they note: “Christina Koch and Victor Glover have the added weight of being the first woman and person of colour to visit our lunar neighbour.” The “weight” of being the first woman and person of colour? What weight are they talking about? Is the ABC suggesting that a pilot’s performance is hindered by the “weight” of their skin colour or gender? It’s a patronising sentiment that implies these professionals are symbols first and astronauts second, rather than focusing on the professional expertise that actually got them into the cockpit.
Obviously, we’ve come to expect this sort of nonsense from the likes of the ABC. Instead of focusing on people’s achievements and skills, or the content of their character, they focus on things like skin colour and gender instead.
And by the way: “Person of Colour”? Doesn’t that sound incredibly racist and regressive to you? It certainly does to me. I suspect that in a century’s time, people will look back at these articles and see that phrase as having the same offensive weight as the n-word. It’s a term defined entirely by what someone isn’t—namely, not Caucasian. They may as well have published an article titled “Victor Glover: The First [N-word] in Space,” because that’s exactly how it will be viewed by our future ancestors.
By obsessively highlighting race and gender in this clumsy, self-congratulatory attempt at inclusivity, outlets like the ABC aren’t fighting racism—they are entrenching it. They are so fixated on the “textbook” of modern progressivism that they’ve become blind to the fact that they are practising the very tribalism they claim to despise.
Obviously, I’m not attacking the astronauts in any way. In fact, they’ve handled the media’s obsession with identity politics with a great deal of class and perspective. Ms. Koch has previously said: “We work together as a team. And between us, and between the crew and our teams on the ground, we don’t look at gender; we don’t see it as a barrier.”
Actually, Mr. Glover was remarkably grounded regarding the narrative being built around him. While acknowledging the significance of being the first Black astronaut to journey to the Moon, he noted: “I hope we are pushing the other direction—that one day we don’t have to talk about these firsts. That one day this is just—and listen to this—that this is human history. It’s about human history. It’s the story of humanity; not black history, not women’s history… it becomes human history.”
Hear, hear. But unfortunately, according to the ABC, Pilot Victor Glover is just another “person of colour” to be used as a convenient symbol—a box for them to tick at the top of their articles to satisfy their own editorial agenda.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
