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?
: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
But it can be considered imperialist; just so long as they are post-warp