LOL. Why would I bother? Among other things, it appears you just might be saddled with (as you so deftly termed it) a "lower-capacity comprehension."
I guess my first clue should have been that it seems you failed to grasp even the simplest point, where my use of the term "armchair Captain Kirks" referred to fans of (such as yourself) not participants in (such as your example, Neil Armstrong) the manned space program!
Live long and prosper, Cap'n.
What you said:
manned space program amounts to precious little more than publicly-funded, pork-barrel joyrides for a lot of so-called "conservative," armchair Captain Kirks.
Again, to keep it within the bounds of your comprehension, the essence of your sentance was:
manned space program amounts to.......joyrides for a lot "armchair Captain Kirks.
You might have said 'proxy joyrides', or 'voyeuristic joyrides, but, failing to comprehend the meaning of the word joyride, you wrote what you wrote.
Point is, you can't refute any of the examples I offered. You can’t point to any market forces that would have given us the computer as rapidly as the space program. So don’t bother, it would just give you a headache anyway.