The Prime Directive, also known as Starfleet General Order 1, the Non-Interference Directive, or the principle of non-interference, was the embodiment of one of Starfleet's most important ethical principles: noninterference with other cultures and civilizations. At its core was the philosophical concept that covered personnel should refrain from interfering in the natural, unassisted, development of societies, even if such interference was well-intentioned. The Prime Directive was viewed as so fundamental to Starfleet that officers swore to uphold the Prime Directive, even at the cost of their own life or the lives of their crew.
The fundamental idea is that you can have the best of intentions but still fuck things up, so you shouldn't intervene even if you think you have good reason. This strikes me as the best counterargument to what constantly sucks liberals into imperialist adventures -- the tempting idea that "someone has to do something," or "if we stand by and watch bad things happen, doesn't that make us complicit?"
The Prime Directive has a simple answer to that: it's likely you're going to make things worse, and what right do you have to intervene, anyway? The Star Trek libs in your life will have to recognize this principle, and the closer you look at U.S. foreign policy, the more sense it makes. It's also a natural lead-in to talking about how often the government lies to manufacture consent for wars.
And what are they going to do, say "that's a fictional story and the real world is different"? These are the folks who are comparing Lev Parnas to Neville Longbottom or some shit.
Always been suspicious of anyone who talked too much shit about the Prime Directive, in lore it's the only reason the Federation can't be considered an imperialist power
It's why the writers always had to think up the most unlikely and contrived of circumstances to get the characters to break the Directive
The federation has major problems if the prime directive is all that keeps it from being anti imperialist
I did like the Mark Twain episode where he comes on the ship and he's like "oh I see what you are doing, you are just the Spanish Empire in space, using your advanced technology for imperialist goals, can't fool me with all your fancy talk." And then the crew has to be all like "no we swear we are different"
A lot of the Federation's problems seems to originate with Admirals doing crazy shit, cursed rank
There is a reason theyre called badmirals
Becoming an admiral is traditionally seen as punishment for a fuck up, why do you think Janeway makes an appearance as an admiral in Nemesis?
why do you think Janeway makes an appearance as an admiral in Nemesis?
:angery: I'd like to see you get your crew home while traversing a galactic wasteland of hegemonic exterminators, capitalist empires, social Darwinists IN SPACE, and slaving raiders
But consider, Neelix was allowed on board and not thrown in the brig for... well, you know
"Why yes Captain Janeway, I do have many contacts in this region" :didnt-kill-himself:
How do you expect a massive society to police behaviour of members other than a system of rules they aren't allowed to break
Sounds isolationist. What if a civilization contacted them like "yo, big thing that swoosh by our planet, by chance do you happen to know how to build a fusion reactor? Or could you teach us how to build a thing like that to travel ans shit?"
What if they say "could you please come down here and tell my idiot ancap coplanetarians that communism is the way?"
Sorry bud, libs already ruined this. https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/08/to-boldly-lead-from-behind/
'Hah, yeah, the Prime Directive, that's like what Obama did'
Obama, actually: 'Drone strike, ready'
Terrible idea because the PD is actualy shit. The principle might be reasonable, but the in-universe execution, what we actualy see and what the writers usualy give is nothing but shit brain non-material pacifism i.e I'll watch you die and suffer if that makes me feel better about my own principles. For a civilization that prides itself so much on peaceful coexistence it seems to make a strong case for shitty right wing conservative talking points.
The worst prime directive episode is in Enterprise the one where Archer decides to NOT help a suffering planet because the stupid
writersDoctor doesn't understand the first thing about genetics and medicine so there is the nonsense that curing a disease is akin to interfering with the "evolution" of a race. Dear Doctor is a fucking criminal farce and I would easily ban whoever wrote that shit from ever working in entertainment again and probably schedule a visit to a reeducation camp just in case.By that reason humanity should just abandon medicine right now because nature has decided that the correct path for humanity is to suffer and die from everything ranging from basic infections to cancer. Nobody in real life would actualy make that argument, not even libs(the target demographic of the show) would suggest Medicine bad actualy, which is why the episode is one of the worst ever.
There were certainly better and more nuanced takes on the PD too in TNG but usualy the PD is used to give some bullshit excuse to why suffering must continue and our mighty heroes can't do anything to help. It is THE cheapest way to create the stupid TV drama/moral dilemma Trek writers have so much trouble manufacturing so it is no surprise it is done badly like this.
Comparing the Federation to the US is silly because both could do a lot of good without fucking anything. The COVID masks for example it costs nothing to distribute these masks to people around the world and there is literally no possible negative consequence that would outweigh the benefits. But sure you might convince some lib that "intervention is bad" but the point is that it isn't actually. The problem is the US never actually tries to help anyone, it is always some give and take bullshit if not outright exploitation(imperialism).
TL;DR you may have good intentions but trying to make a case in favor of the PD in real life is just as likely to result in libs thinking it is ok to tune isolationism to 11 which is a very shortsighted way of looking at harm reduction.
Yeah I'm pretty sure it was just a throwaway line in one episode when they didn't expect the series to go anywhere and now they have to keep twisting around the logic of it to justify obvious nonsense
From: For the Earth is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
SPOCK: Captain, informing these people they're on a ship may be in violation of the Prime Directive of Starfleet Command.
KIRK: No. The people of Yonada may be changed by the knowledge, but it's better than exterminating them.
SPOCK: Logical, Captain.
KIRK: And the three billion on Daran Five.
SPOCK: Also logical, Captain.
It right away is viewed as being invalidated by immediate suffering, by both Kirk and Spock. Its not until TNG when it becomes this high-minded liberal concept
I think China is hesitant to intervene because the US will demonize them regardless of context. As the imperial core continues to sink, I think we may see more international aid from China. That seems to be the plan with Iraq, anyway.
True, aid seems to be for after popular uprising, not before. That may be for the best, as it gives less for reactionaries to smear them with.
The PD always felt like a very liberal reaction to US intervention. Like an acknowledgement of the bad outcomes of the "white man's burden" shit, but without rejecting the premise of that. It says "why yes we are superior and more advanced but we hurt these poor lower life-forms by interfering". The fact that that is the takeaway from Vietnam and Korea is telling. It just reeks of the kind of liberal elitism that makes me have trouble enjoying the Federation. You can say "they are post scarcity" a million times, but it still shows that it is written by libleft folks from that framework
