How did Pluto become the symbol of oppressed white men and US ownership of the solar system?

It's the 20th anniversary of Pluto's plummet from planet to 'dwarf' planet.

A composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), taken by New Horizons on July 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

In 1930, the ninth planet was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh and spent nearly a century as part of our expanded solar system. If you're 100 years old in 2026, you were born into a solar system without Pluto, but it's likely that you don't remember it, as you would've been four when it was discovered.

In 2006, Pluto was kicked out of the ranks of the planets. The astronomer Mike Brown, who was largely responsible for this change of status, gleefully calls himself Plutokiller! Ever since, it's been a 'dwarf' planet.

In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto and turned it from a few pixels into an incredible planetary surface. It was thrilling! I wrote about the experience in this post. But despite all the Pluto-love this mission to the outer darkness generated, it was still a 'dwarf' planet. 

In April 2026, as the success of the Artemis II mission to the Moon caught the imagination of the world, NASA chief Jared Isaacman re-opened old wounds by stating that he supported making Pluto a planet again.

The deeper background here is that Isaacman was responding to a question from US Senator Jerry Moran from Kansas, where Clyde Tombaugh grew up. However, I don't think this detracts from the interpretation I'm about to put forward.

I'll come clean and declare my interest here. I would love Pluto to be a planet again. I was sad when it lost its planetary status. It seemed unfair. I think many of us felt that Pluto was an underdog in the planetary world, not like the other planets with it's odd orbit and outsized moon, and we felt we were sticking up for it because no one else would.

The demotion was also hotly contested. I'm not going to revisit the arguments but I want to remark on the fact that people are very emotionally invested in Pluto. It represents a lot of things to different communities. I'm quite happy to admit my own investment. But I'd want Pluto's elevation to be for scientific, not political, reasons. I want Pluto to be a planet on its own merit.

So I'm not sure how I feel about it becoming a US conservative symbol - the planetary equivalent of a white man who's been discriminated against by the woke. How did that happen?

I was contemplating Isaac's statement in the light of the Trump government's war on what is called in America Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI. (Let's also be clear that this is US terminology that has been popularised because it has become so controversial). 

This has got to the point where there is a claim that white men are being discriminated against, and every woman, person of colour, person with disabilities, LGBQTI+ and other diverse people have been unfairly employed, promoted and preferred - because they have no merit and took the place of a white man. The right chooses not to understand that a person can be qualified for the job AND belong to one of those categories.

So instead of DEI measures attempting to create a level playing field where everyone has an equal opportunity based on merit, anti-DEI is returning the US to a world where discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality etc is actively encouraged. So you don't actually get the best person for the job!

This argument is beyond ridiculous. To the privileged, equality feels like oppression, as they say. If you disagree with me on this, there is plenty of information out there to help you understand how wrong you are.

So ..... how does overturning a 20-year-old decision by planetary scientists and the International Astronomical Union fit into this agenda?

By analogy, if the Trump administration is overturning anything where marginalised groups are given equality, then Pluto must have been unfairly demoted and must be restored to achieve the right moral order. Pluto's an honorary white man. Or dog. (What does this make the other planets? I dare not ask).

The International Astronomical Union, of course, is in charge of things like planet definition and planetary nomenclature. Isaacman has to go through the same channels as everyone else to change definitions. Could there be something else going on here?

I believe there is. The reinstatement of Pluto is an assertion of US space power.

The US has felt it owned the Moon since it 'won' the Space Race with the Apollo missions in the 1960s. Isaacman reiterated this sentiment when Artemis II went to the Moon.

But it's not just the Moon. When New Horizons visited Pluto in 2015, there was a very nationalist message. The quote below is from my blog post here.

Science journalist Elise Cutts has noted how the likes of William Shatner and Elon Musk, famously an opponent of DEI, have jumped on the 'Make Pluto Planetary Again' bandwagon.

Pluto was demoted by the woke left, so reinstating it is a symbol of the Trump administration's commitment to white colonialism - from the Moon to the ends of the solar system.

Addendum: an additional factor that @casmilus.bsky.social and @drmlharris.bsky.social highlighted: Clyde Tombaugh was, of course, American, so it was the only planet discovered by an American that got booted out of the club. This helps make sense of the MAGA/nationalist connection.

@valwrites.ca points out that 'dwarf' planet is a problematic term. They're right. It could be a minor planet instead.

See also:

The day Pluto came to breakfast: Venetia Burney and a life in mathematics

Dr Space Junk's Guide to Voting For Names of Surface Features on Pluto

The Pluto pom-pom parameter