I hear you.... Its more like realist to me. But one man’s defeat is another man’s reality :)
Realistic is pragmatic at this point in time. We are at at infantile stage of technology, IMO, and things change as knowledge advances. There is nothing at this time that I would put money behind as far as faster than light travel, but I do hold out hope that knowledge will advance and possibilities are endless. History teaches us that from example.
Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but given human ingenuity, I refuse to believe that something is “Impossible” given enough time and resources (within practicality).
I’d prefer to encourage from the side of frugality than to be discouraging from the side of ignorance and disbelief, but that’s just me.
The way I see it is, show me something to get behind and perhaps I will follow you!
IF you are a true realist, do a little research inot the work of Bernard Haisch. There is a really informative paper by Haisch, Rudea, and Puthoff which opens the door to astonishing concepts, like getting space craft fuel from the zero point field, isolating a craft from the zero point field, and faster than ‘C’ travel, all because the zero point field is what causes inertia and gravity. Don’t waste time scoffing when you can increase your knowledge and perhaps help ‘bring things into existence’ which scoffers assure us cannot and will not ever be done. ... Remember, we did break the sound ‘barrier’, and Jesus stepped from our where/when into a different where/when no further away from you now than the length of a man’s arm.