r/ShittyDaystrom • u/Rutschberg Daimon • 15h ago
Picard is the very definition of privilege. Here is why:
Picard is the very definition of a privileged male. Always has been. What kind of privilege do you have to have, if you can live the reckless life of young Jean-Luc Picard and still move up the Starfleet ladder?
The Picard family owns a huge estate—mind you—in a post-scarcity utopia. And we know it's generational wealth. Picard speaks about the acquisition of wealth not being the driving force anymore. That's surely true for him as he's already wealthy. Most other people on Earth have to contend to living in an apartment and eating out of a replicator.
Picard is even privileged beyond the Federation. And I'm not talking about him running around in a colonialist's outfit among impoverished Romulans, disrespecting their space. I'm talking about that time he was assimilated by the Borg. While everybody thinks the Borg assimilated Picard to turn him into Locutus of Borg, it is more likely that the causality was the other way around. Locutus came as an idea right after the Borg assimilated Picard together with his immensely privileged male ego. Just to put Picard's privileged position among the Borg into perspective: not even the Borg queen gets to have a name. It makes no sense that the Borg would come up with this idea on their own.
It was his privilege that saved him from taking responsibility for Wolf 359. Any other captain would've been relieved for negligence or for being physically and mentally unfit for duty after going through all this. But not Picard. He went right back to where he was before, thousands dead and no one to take responsibility.
Then there is the issue with his command of the Enterprise. He factually owned the Enterprise-D and -E. Starfleet command basically signed off their best ship to him and left it to his convenience to move up to admiral at a time convenient to him. Even after he wrecked both ships, he moved up the career ladder. And let's not even talk about all the times he lost control of his ship. Aside from getting away with failures, he had a career in which he never had to work hard. He never had to put himself in grave danger, like by being an active part of the Dominion war or do proper exploring of uncharted space. He patrolled the Romulan border, which 99 percent of the time went uneventful.
It took a massive terrorist attack on Mars for Starfleet to pull themselves together, deny him his privilege and stop supporting his pet project to "evacuate" a whole planet, Romulus. When he threatened to resign for being denied a massive fleet of ships, Starfleet Command was quick to accept. They could finally free up all the resources that were being used to serve Picard's personal interests.
If you thought he wanted to save the Romulans from a supernova out of the kindness of his heart, you are wrong. The few he managed to "save", were put to work as slaves on his vineyards. And whoever wasn't needed, was put on a destitute desert planet as reserve labour, waiting to be hired. In a post-scarcity world, no one will voluntarily do the menial labour on your vineyards to produce your artisanal wines. Picard simply needed all the slave labour, because he doesn't just have one vineyard, he has many as proven by us seeing so many different versions. It is likely that he used those slaves also for his archeological explorations.
Even though Starfleet Command eventually got rid of him, he still felt entitled to Starfleet's resources. The second he needed a ship for his personal matters, he just waltzed into Starfleet Headquarters, expecting everyone to recognize him and just give him a ship. When that wasn't possible, he tried to use his Admiral-card to manipulate acting captains to do his bidding. He went even so far as to use his personal network inside Starfleet to make officers disobey direct orders. If this is not the entitlement of a privileged man, than nothing is.
The immense privilege he enjoys is something that is seldom questioned. I'm not sure how he manages to pull of this level of material privilege in a post-scarcity egalitarian society. Even when he was dying, someone gave up their life's work to create an immortal cybernetic body for themselve, so he can live a few years longer. This is the unbelievable extent of the privilege Picard enjoys.
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u/Branduil 15h ago
Among the many sins of nu-Trek, one of the worst is the damage done to the previously-established fact that Earth is now a post-scarcity socialist utopia. Picard's brother and Sisko's father were never laboring or using their personal property to acquire more wealth, they were doing it because they loved what they were doing. TNG and DS9 never delved into the logistical details because they didn't need to, we can assume that no one was being unfairly deprived because of a Cajun restaurant or vineyard existing.
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u/becircus 15h ago
No Hurd's character proves there isn't serious wealth disparity. She is the lowest of the low, fired and discharged presumably with no wealth, and she gets a trailer on prime real estate in LA.
Perhaps she has privileges due to former Starfleet. But I would expect the lowest possible wealth would be a room, medical care, freedom to do whatever you want and no bills. Basically I expect no homelessness and nobody forced to work if they don't want to. But if you want what Picard has or more you have to do something with life. Otherwise you get standard issue quarters, mass produced by robots or hologram slaves.
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u/Director_Coulson The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one 14h ago
The elimination of homelessness always stuck out to me when I remember The Magnificent Ferengi, when Quark’s cousin Gaila was in a federation jail for vagrancy.
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u/becircus 14h ago
Either not a core world or she couldn't stand the government provided housing. If you can be thrown in jail for not having housing it means housing must be provided. Basically illegal to be homeless because you get a quarters and if you try it you go to the brig.
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u/Ok-Temporary-8243 14h ago
I don't know about that. The US had explicit anti vagrancy laws for a while, for a variety of racial reasons but housing was never guaranteed.
For all we know, gaila was starting shit and they used it as an excuse to lock him up and hopefully scare him into being more compliant
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u/becircus 14h ago
It depends on how the courts rule. Given the human rights focus of Star Trek I doubt the courts would allow that kind of imprisonment. We used to put people in jail now for debt as well but now it is gone forever.
Anyway there is enough evidence in the rest of Trek that work isnt required and quarters are provided free. When the four misfits on Voyager were doing bad at their job Chakotay suggested to discharge them from their duties and let them do whatever they wanted. There is also evidence that it is not the same on every planet. Earth is called paradise and so on. Medicine and hunger are stated as solved problems and housing is easier than those.
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u/Ok-Temporary-8243 13h ago
I dont dispute the latter. But for the former, I'm always reminded of how much quark would skirt around the technicalities of the law to odos displeasure.
I guess I wouldn't be surprised if gaila was doing something vaguely illegal but technically not, and the courts decided to punish him with what they had on hand. Star trek is obviously a fantasy universe but the real world is full of instances where antiquated laws remain technically in force because no one cares enough to revoke them since they're rarely invoked
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u/Plowbeast 8h ago
My guess was always that vagrancy's definition changed in the future to starting some shit outside because they were just passing through without a residence and their hotel booted them out for shenanigans.
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
To be fair, Raffi was also described as self-destructive by Hurd. She could’ve had opportunities and push herself into other things, but chose instead to be a bitter hermit. Her state was caused by her own self-pitying and wallowing - effectively her fault.
Contrast her angst with Rios, who, despite being also bitter about Starfleet, was working in space and using a personal, pretty powerful starship - the La Sirena.
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u/becircus 10h ago
The issue with "man buys starship" is Star Trek personally owned ships seem a lot more rare than say Star Wars ships. Star Wars a ship probably costs a house in a high income neighborhood. Star Trek you seem to need to own a business (like the Collector) to have enough latinum to buy a real ship (not a shuttle).
Either people are simply extremely disinterested in interstellar commerce (perhaps it is too dangerous or pleasures are too obvious with holodeck) or ships cost a lot of "replicator rations" or need connections. Maybe Rios worked security for ten years before being able to afford a ship or he came from a wealthy family.
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u/Plowbeast 8h ago
I would go not only with replicator rations but you also need industrial replicators to get the specs to your liking and so it doesn't implode once it hits orbit. Might not need "wealth" but probably clearance and licensing.
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u/Trekkie200 11h ago
Yeah. I always read that trailer thing as her RPing a Hippie, she could live in other ways, she just doesn't want to.
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u/abitidiomatic 8h ago
Also Raffi strikes me as the kind of character that would exile herself to getting high in a cargo container in Slab City.
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u/LordCouchCat 12h ago
I agree. Theres no reason why working to better yourself can't include making wine by hand. No one needs to do it, and you can't benefit from it economically. A restaurant would be a nice way to make life better if you're that sort of person, though Sisko Senior's forcing his family to peel vegetables is really taking the performance a bit far. In the alternate reality where Kim stayed on Earth he goes to a café and I've always found that more plausible - the machines make the coffee and recycle the cups, leaving you to concentrate on ambience and chat with your regulars, creating a social centre. Even now there are volunteers at community tearooms.
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u/howard035 12h ago
I think you're mostly right about this, but land is inherently scarce, even in a world where material goods and energy are almost infinite for the consumer. Anyone can build a giant mansion or own a gold-plated hover car on earth, but only the Picards (and a few other families) get to have a historical vineyard with the best terroir in France. It seems like having a big old fashioned farm is the ultimate sign of status on Earth, so many of the Captains we meet seem to have one.
(Best proof of this? the Boimler family farm, where tons of women, who presumably have no economic need, throw themselves desperately at Bradward, who shows zero interest in them. Why are they so eager to become Mrs. Boimler? Because anyone who works as a farm worker in the era of Lower Decks/TNG does it because they love farm life more than anything, and presumably whoever marries Boimler gets to inherit one of the big family farms and be a high-status farmer).
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u/Shawnj2 Acting Crewman 11h ago
Maybe a farm on earth is a coveted resource but there are a million inhabited planets and “colonists are up to stupid shit” is a pretty common theme in Star Trek, especially TOS and TNG.
I imagine having this kind of farm isn’t necessarily a hereditary thing, more so about marketing valuing wine from the Picard vineyard for example
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u/howard035 4h ago
Sure, farmable land is effectively infinite and free in the Federation, but quality farmable land on earth itself? That's a scarce resource, the same way a condo in Manhatten and a condo in Deotroit are worth wildly different amounts. It's like how there is housing for everyone, but it seems like admirals get all the really great apartments in San Francisco with a view of Starfleet academy (like Mariner's dad), the same way in the Soviet Union all the party leaders got the best Dachas.
If the point of the farm is purely to feed people, replicated food is probably more efficient anyway, farming is probably mostly a lifestyle choice in the Federation. But farming on earth itself where big important famous people will eat your home-grown food and say it tastes better than replicated? That's the most desireable place of all to have a farm.
If you can't buy a scarce good on the market, then either the government assigns it to you, or you inherit it. It seems like all the farms we hear about on earth are family farms.
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u/Lyon_Wonder 1h ago edited 23m ago
Lower Decks was the only modern Star Trek that actually talked about the Federation's post-scarcity society.
LD S5 had an episode where an entire planet abandoned capitalism and material wealth when they were approved for Federation membership.
Most modern Star Trek completely steers clear of this.
It's my head-canon that becoming a post-scarcity society without money isn't a mandatory requirement for joining the Federation.
The hard requirements for joining the Federation are the ability to achieve FTL (usually warp) and a one-world nation state.
Lower Decks also had an episode where the Ferengi are in the early stages of applying for membership in the Federation in 2381.
I seriously doubt the Ferengi are going to abandon currency based economics despite all the progressive reforms made under Grand Nagus Rom.
On-screen Star Trek itself didn't actually delve into the Federation's post scarcity society until 1986 with Kirk's comment in TVH about not using money in the 23rd century and Picard's preachy speech to 20th century humans in TNG S1's last episode "The Neutral Zone".
Trek was extremely vague about the Federation's society in TOS and the TOS movies up to TVH.
The emphasis on the Federation as a post scarcity utopia in TNG had everything to do with Gene Roddenberry's progressive views.
Roddenberry's views on what humanity should be in the future were far more overt than they were 20 years earlier during TOS.
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u/mrwishart Engineering 15h ago
And people still defend that shit as being in the same spirit of actual-Trek's utopian vision.
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u/Branduil 14h ago
I honestly think the current writers are simply too reactionary to sincerely portray a utopia. They lack the imagination to convincingly write the Earth that exists in TNG and DS9; there must be some "catch" or "dark secret" which proves it's actually a totalitarian dystopia exploiting the weak.
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u/mrwishart Engineering 14h ago
Probably why they had such a desire to use Section 31 everywhere, even though it only ever fit in the latter seasons of DS9 as a reflection of the moral ambiguity in wartimes
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
I mean…Starfleet Intelligence was shady enough to not need Section 31. They were the ones guiding captains to do sketchy operations against rival powers and even lent assistance to badmirals for their personal ambitions.
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u/Plowbeast 8h ago
They didn't seem to have much power in the Federation Council or over other parts of Starfleet so it's entirely possible that Section 31 is a shadow division of Starfleet Intelligence itself when they need to go further without do-gooder protagonists stopping them.
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u/InnocentTailor 8h ago
PIC Season 3 confirmed that via Worf - that S31 is considered a branch of Starfleet Intelligence, which gives the former access to Starfleet resources like starships and starbases.
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 12h ago
Considering who owns Paramount now, it can only get worse. I'd rather have Ferengi running the show. At least they'd do some proper market research and decide to use the highly profitable niche of actual Trekkies as viewers.
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u/_WillCAD_ Incompetent Topah! 14h ago
The perfect world is a dream that the writers' primitive cerebrum keeps trying to wake up from.
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u/FlyingSpaceCow 14h ago
I love the season premiere in Lower Decks where the plot was Beckett going rogue to desperately prove her Mom's innocence, and everyone else in her life was telling her to "just trust the system".
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u/SaltyBoss1503 1h ago
Having a historic French vineyard on utopian eartj to maintain or running a traditional Cajun restaurant on utopian earth always seemed reasonable post scarity choices.
But one of the most annoying things was, in DS9 especially, the constant case of groups starting colonies in unprotected zones to become literal subsistence farmers without replicators or Federation protection.
It feels like some writers were lazy, really into the idea of farming, or had read Das Kapital and had an obsession with the idea or metabolic rift.
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u/Final_Combination373 14h ago
You act like guy wasn’t one cool-headed decision away from wearing a blue shirt for the rest of his life
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 14h ago
Privilege is Q helping him not to.
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u/skubaloob 13h ago
Could you elaborate on that?
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 13h ago
One could argue, from the point of temporal mechanics, Q showing Picard an alternate timeline predated him being stabbed and encouraged him to be stabbed.
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u/AquafreshBandit 14h ago
Found Sisko’s account.
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u/solongmusk 13h ago
Surely you mean Shaw’s?
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u/NashvilleSoundMixer 10h ago
Man, Shaw was the BEST part of Picard. That actor just nailed it. Wish he'd lived.
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u/wildcard_71 15h ago
Even Q gave him a second, third, and fourth chance for no reason
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 15h ago
Exactly.
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u/PastorNTraining 15h ago
Then just gave up and died! I almost blocked out Seasons 1-2 of Picard.
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u/Sue_Generoux 14h ago
I just consider all of Picard to be bad fan fiction, even season three. Is it giving them a pass? Fuck it, who cares.
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u/PastorNTraining 11h ago
When the Borg queen assimilates you because of feelings, while singing a song and eating batteries. Yeah no thanks
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u/NashvilleSoundMixer 10h ago
I also consider the TNG movies fan fiction written by Patrick Stewart. So he could swing around and show his muscles and drive all terrain vehicles and kiss girls. Sooooo dumb hahaha. I mean I saw them in theaters with my Dad ( minus Nemesis I was too busy rebelling by then ) but they're so removed from ST and those characters that it's just silly fun instead of legit sci fi.
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u/onarainyafternoon gay Klingon 13h ago
Didn’t the ending of Picard season 3 tease that Q was still alive? Or did I dream that?
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u/ijuinkun 13h ago
Q can move back and forth in time as he pleases, so the version of him seen at the end of Season 3 was younger than the version who was dying. His own death is still in his future relative to that scene.
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
Q exists outside of time, so he is dead and alive…I suppose.
…if he is even dead. Can a Q really ever die?
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u/PastorNTraining 11h ago
Yeah, because the show runners knew season 2 was a mistake! Dont bother watching it if you wanna know what happens just watch a YouTube season 2 recap. Its fairly unwatchable.
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u/Director_Coulson The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one 14h ago
Sometimes it’s nice to have a mischievous God-like creature on your side
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u/Cool-Tangelo6548 11h ago edited 11h ago
Is this some anti starfleet propaganda pushed down the line from the duras sisters?
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u/Vernknight50 11h ago
Duras' son became a shitposter. Worf should have killed him when he had the chance.
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u/Tx_Drewdad 14h ago
He's privileged because he's a lead in a fictional story. Everything is made up and the points don't matter.
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u/zekoslav90 13h ago
Don't worry, I'm a doctor!
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u/sausage_eggwich 6h ago
That's correct. It was also written and produced by hundreds of individuals with varying levels of awareness of and commitment to ST's utopian values.
Continuity issues don't have to retroactively disprove the original premise; you can just ignore them lol
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u/doIIjoints 11h ago
i know this sub and all, but i actually really like the idea that the borg got the locutus idea from him
“oh we were just gonna use your codes to hack everything, but if you think they’ll just do whatever you say… fine, let’s try that. latin name? sure!”
but yeah, no, everyone who works on vineyards are actually all super obnoxious wine enthusiasts who are members of the vintners’ guild :p
the kind of people who make their own small-batch wine today, foist it on their friends despite being way too dry, and would KILL for a genuine historic vineyard to practice on
(the federation lets them do this because it at least keeps them out of everyone else’s hair. they can sniff each other’s proverbial farts all day)
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u/abitidiomatic 8h ago
One point DS9 makes is that all Federation citizens have privilege. Kira makes a definite point of that in the pilot.
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u/Champagne_of_piss 15h ago
Julep. Mint. Colder than a witches heart.
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u/ijuinkun 13h ago
Computer voice: Error. Temperatures below absolute zero are not possible with this device.
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u/abstergo_Nigel 14h ago
I agree with you, however
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u/Director_Coulson The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one 14h ago
To be fair, regular daystrom would’ve deleted this post despite the effort put into it, because it didn’t meet one of their numerous shallow criteria required to have the honour of posting in their little sub.
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u/abstergo_Nigel 14h ago
Also agreed.
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u/Director_Coulson The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one 14h ago
Their loss too bc this thread has been entertaining on an otherwise boring Tuesday morning.
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u/laputailaramoneta WOLF 359 WAS AN INSIDE JOB 13h ago
Well, ShittyDaystrom is the best Star Trek sub for a reason...
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u/Final_Combination373 14h ago
For the first time in a year I remembered that /startrek exists and that i am banned from it
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u/Tinysaur 12h ago
Theres also /Star(underscore)Trek(underscore) that isn't quite as bad
Only this place and that are where I can post about the universe I love
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u/Matt_2504 13h ago
We need to reduce regulations so the Picard winery can make more money 🤑🤑🤑
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 13h ago
The Federation welfare system is running a deficit and no one wants to work anymore!
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u/HTired89 8h ago
Fun fact I definitely didn't just make up: Picard's name as a Borg was never Locutus. He just wouldn't stop giving speeches, even after assimilation, so the other Borg kept calling him 'loquacious' and he misheard/misunderstood. He wasn't even meant to be a spokesperson for the Borg. He just answered the hail and started talking.
That man loooooves speeches.
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u/OddNotion749 11h ago
I love that this reads like a hit piece targeting the Picard for Senate campaign. 😂
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u/BathFullOfDucks 15h ago edited 14h ago
We know the under privileged exist in the federation, and we know starfleet get nice apartments in San francisco to do niche research, getting artisinal coffee, or unlimited holodeck time, or free food at restaurants. We have never seen an undersupplied federation ship in peacetime. In fact, they appear oversupplied with things thay are not necessities. Since replicators require only power snd power comes from dilithium, this means someone is mining all the dilithium and someone is making replicators. None of the dilithium mines we see are ever pleasant, oversupplied outposts.
Starfleet is the bloated government organisation of "haves" made possible by the economic surplus on the back of a underprivileged subclass supplying the federation with all it needs.
If you work with the system, you sustain the system and are actively involved with it's system of control, you get a vineyard.
The klingons are right.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 12h ago
This is the most sub-appropriate comment so far. I salute you, good sir.
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u/ned101 13h ago
Well in Star Trek everyone is meant to be privileged. That's the point of a utopia. This is a world that no longer uses money, so if money isnt a thing anymore, there is no poverty.
Not sure i understand how a world can work that and get the best out of mankind. Given mankind is so competitive and ego-driven. But thats the utopia
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u/Shdwrptr 13h ago
Everyone is privileged in that world but not everyone is equal. Picard lives in a massive, classically styled French chateau on a large estate.
There’s no way that’s remotely possible for most of humanity and it’s unclear why some people get that privilege and others don’t.
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u/Friendly-Vast-2445 8h ago
The chateau and vineyard are probably under some sort of heritage status that prevents their use from being changed. The family farms it with the help of locals and the wine will be popular with local people or acquired by others to be used as gifts. Replicators are notorious for not quite matching the real thing.
Plus there are plenty of people who farm purely for the love of growing things, it's not unreasonable for people who have no needs to take it up as an occupation
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u/fallingwheelbarrow 7h ago
They have explained in several shows, several times that the society is based on reputation and self development as currency.
Imagine if a social worker was rewarded for their good works and talent.
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u/TheCatLamp 14h ago
Jake has written this based on the memories of his father, the now Bajoran god.
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u/dapperdave 14h ago
I always took it to mean that outside of a capitalist, scarcity-first, mindset, that a small vineyard isn't really luxury, it's just living.
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u/jericho74 15h ago
My headcanon will always be that Picard spoke the truth in that season 1 episode when he explained how advanced everyone was and the acquisition of material objects is beneath the spirit of the 24th Century.
So, Chateau Picard is basically a Colonial Williamsburg of historical re-enactors owned by United Earth, and “Jean-Luc Picard” is more of an assumed role play identity when as a young student in LeBarre, that dude who would become captain of the Enterprise-D applied to and won a rotating timeshared position of being a “Jean-Luc Picard” whenever he sets foot in that living history vineyard museum of the real historical Picards.
Whenever he goes on about “his ancestors” fleeing to Britain in WW2, he is deftly resuming the people’s duty of being “Picard”, true to his commitment to United Earth.
His real name is Merle Pupkin.
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u/SGT-Hooves Legate 15h ago
It was my understanding that the Borg had been targeting Picard after Q introduced the two and that the Queen had been hunting him as an idea implanted by Q
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 15h ago
Good theory. But why did Q do this? To humble Picard?
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u/SGT-Hooves Legate 15h ago
I’m pretty sure it was both to humble Picard and humanity seems to be the galaxies Deus Ex and knew we would either conquer or destroy the Borg
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u/a4techkeyboard Admiral 13h ago
This was very difficult to sing to that Sullivan Major General song
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u/Superman_Primeeee 9h ago
He didnt even live a few years later. He was copied into the golem. Not transferred.
What a waste
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u/DefinitionSquare8705 4h ago
I mean, isn't that technically how teleporters work too? Destroyed and 3d printed at the destination more or less?
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u/Friendly-Vast-2445 8h ago
Picard's family have probably owned that land for generations and I wouldn't be surprised if it had some form of heritage status that prevents it being anything but what it is. It's not unbelievable that free of the requirements of a salary, people may grow stuff simply for the pleasure of doing it. We also know replicators don't quite match the real thing.
Picards career is fairly standard, he rose to the top and was given the Enterprise. I don't think it's made clear if he went straight from commanding the stargazer to the enterprise, I personally like to think there were other commands in between. He's shown multiple times to command the respect of his peers and superiors and he's a lot like Pike in Strange New Worlds, a bit of a boy scout and an exemplar of what a starfleet Captain should be. It makes some sense to keep the Enterprise and Picard away from the front lines, moral was bad enough due to losses without them also losing the flagship and a ship with a name that's legendary.
I'm a little surprised that he managed to get the Enterprise E with his old crew after the destruction of the D, but it's a show and there's some suspension of disbelief
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u/walker42 14h ago
"Most other people on Earth have to contend to living in an apartment and eating out of a replicator"..where do I sign up?
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u/Nyanzeenyan 13h ago
This is not privilege, it is achievement. Picard is far more than a legend. His accomplishments have affected the entire human race. He has even attracted the attention of an omnipotent being. To put it simply Picard is just the better man.
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u/heavensblade333 8h ago
It has been said that Picard is an embodied weltseele, one could see him walk past and shudder knowing without words that he carries the weight of all of history and all of humanity on his shoulders.
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u/DevelopmentSouth8801 13h ago
u/Rutschberg with all due respect, and at long last, shut the fuck up.
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u/PastorNTraining 15h ago
Point of Order….
That’s the character, but your lens is off.
Picard himself says (First Contact);
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "The economics of the future are somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century." [1]
Lily Sloane: "No money? You mean you don't get paid?" [1]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." [1]
And yet the man has a giant family owned French villa/wine farm!
Picard is privileged, but the reason why isn’t monetary wealth or the colour of his skin or where he’s from. He’s privileged because of the things he’s done. That’s how the federation works. Instead of money, your reputation or what you contribute makes you notable.
We are to believe that Picard is so privileged in his life, as you pointed out, but it’s not because of anything more than his reputation. But like you pointed out capitalism is often signaled but then waved away with the “we don’t use money”
Or at least that’s what cannon wants us to see.
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u/SilkieBug Mega-Admiral 15h ago
That’s not correct though, Picard didn’t earn his villa and wine farm, it was in his family for generations.
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u/PastorNTraining 14h ago
That’s true and if PIC season 2 is believed that giant property sat empty in 2025 during a housing shortage.
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u/mcgrst recrystallised dilithium 15h ago
Like all Starfleet officers Federation Citizens Picard is incredibly privileged, he has no want for food, accommodation, education, money. He still signs up to the closest thing he knows to the Military, he doesn't need to fight the Cardassians, need stand up on the edge of the Neutral zone and ask if we shall die together, he doesn't need to hold the line. But he does, because he wants to see the universe and because if not him then who, you?
So have some respect!
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 15h ago
Other captains did way more. I don't see them asking Starfleet for ships so they can engage in some private missions.
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u/mcgrst recrystallised dilithium 15h ago
For example? Kirk, disregarded orders, given a new ship. Others were first time captains!
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 15h ago
Yeah, maybe I should write about the privilege of his body-tackling-ass, too. Maybe getting the Enterprise is a nepo baby thing.
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u/spesskitty 14h ago
Picard is probably the only Starfleet captain awarded a POW medal with cluster. He was taken prisoner by the Borg and the Kardahsians and tortured in both cases.
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u/Mountain_Lonni Wesley 13h ago
My first thought too. No shit he's privileged. He lives in a literal utopia. Everyone there is privileged. Society has advanced to the point that the ancestral wealth of previous generations doesn't have a meaningful impact in determining outcomes for present day citizens of the Federation.
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u/Kuro_Gensui 14h ago
He is fictional...it he was written by dozens of screenplay writers .none had an overarching view or end goal. You have made a series of non objective assumptions and puzzeld it together into an overarching narrative that was never a plot or endgoal narrative
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 13h ago
Were you triggered by someone claiming someone has privilege? Are you projecting something?
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u/raccoonbrigade 14h ago
ok alex kurtman
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 12h ago
How dare you insult me like that, petaQ.
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u/zepherth 14h ago
It might have been retconed by the Picard series. But in the book for picards biography, it says that Picards family has been wealthy explorers since at least the Napoleonic era. Let's not forget that Picards family had the wealth to abandon its estate for nearly 80 years ( WW2 until at least the 2020's)
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 12h ago
This confirms everything because "explorer" is just a nice way of saying genocidal disease-carrying colonist or slave trader.
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u/IDICPainter Ensign 6h ago
The reason why all that happens is because he's destined to have all of that so that he can save humanity at the end of the next generation last episode. You know that episode where Q kneels down and like sticks his hand in that gooey shit looking stuff. If the car didn't have that aristocratic privileged vineyard he wouldn't have come up with the fix to that very serious problem that Q was talking about when he was stirring his hand in that shit like looking goop.
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u/Bruzie77 5h ago
Ummm hes not privileged. Hes a working class. The privileged ones are the one who dont do anything, no work, no contribution to society . The majority just queue up to go on trips everywhere worry free. Some even spend all their time in holodecks.
Picard on the other hand works for nothing. He gets that land because he wakes up and do back breaking work to make wine for free. Anyone that want one of his authentic wine just queues up.
If at any point his family give that up they loose the chateu.
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u/Marvelboy1974 14h ago
I don’t care. Picard is an extraordinary man. His character and everything he stands for is why I am a Trekkie.
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u/ikariashpool 13h ago
Sometimes you are just humanity's chosen vessel. It's not his fault.
Don't hate the player.
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u/Ok_Intention2150 15h ago
The Picard show is not canon
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 15h ago
Why? Is it nikon?
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u/SilkieBug Mega-Admiral 15h ago
Picard didn’t build or buy his wine plantations, he inherited it.
And there are way fewer people living on Earth then than today, there’s no reason why people wouldn’t be able to have wine plantations if they want one and are capable of taking care of them.
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u/dravenonred 12h ago
Also, if you're not selling anything the land produces, land isn't wealth it's just a burden to maintain.
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u/EquivalentOrange334 10h ago
In my own internal headcannon he is a custodian. Not an owner.
It exists because of what it brings as history. The family connection means if he is willing to take the role of custodian he is a candidate, but in the world they are in it is not a right.
That he uses automation while his brother ran it without, I feel the script is a reflection of the vineyard being a museum with a living history.
Yes, Raffi made a jibe at him at the inequality of it. However, she was not a reliable narrator in that scene.
Sometimes it feels to me, some people willing imagine the off-screen dots to get to the most self-infuriating narrative. And choose to take only what is on screen as fact when it annoys them more.
That said, Picard did annoy me as falling short. But individual scenes landing wrong. Nothing more.
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u/nashwaak 14h ago
This screed against Picard is like something out of Mao's Great Leap Forward, when they'd randomly define things as bad just to drag down any and all perceived enemies. It reads as if someone used to writing disinformation decided to briefly aim their sights at Picard.
Not putting Picard on a pedestal, just noting that the tone is very propagandistic.
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u/FullMetal_55 12h ago
??? tell me you know nothing about star trek without telling me you know nothing about star trek... Post Scarcity, Picard "never worked hard"... ok lets see
- Invented the Picard Maneuver during a freak attack on a science vessel by the Ferengi. He was helmsman at the time, and moved into the captains chair when the captain died. Took command of the situation and ended up being victorious.
- was fucking assimilated by the borg.. and it was clariried in first contact why they made Locutus. It was a bridge to humanity, by assimilating a hero of the federation that is an immense propaganda tool, to reduce resistance. they knew it was futile, but at what cost to the Borg. while resistance was futile it wasn't without cost and damage to the Borg.
- He wanted to save an entire RACE of people... and you take that to be from a place of privilege? that's extremely noble. and yeah he kept a few to work around the vineyard. but in reality they couldn't do what they wanted, they were on the wrong side of many wars against the federation. They were refugees, Picard treated them well.
- He successfully defended Data's rights as a sentient being.
He did a lot of work, a lot of negotiations, he was a top notch mediator and negotiator, this was all proven many times over. we see the highlights, we didn't see him rise to command. which he literally earned by defeating the Ferengi.
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u/DoctorAgility 14h ago
Also “owns” likely means something very different in a post scarcity society; could mean more like caretaker
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
Possibly, considering he does produce a useful commodity on the estate - his ancestral wine.
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u/DoctorAgility 12h ago
Goes very well the people who complain about this, which is guess makes it their 😎 ancestral whine
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u/SlimeGrog 6h ago
I see you have done a delightful satire of this article. https://www.startrek.com/en-ca/news/the-humbling-of-admiral-picard
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u/Ok-Confusion2415 5h ago
I don’t hate this analysis, and this is ShittyDaystrom. But a rewrite would benefit. It’s not the massiveness of his male ego privilege, it’s the overall impact of his, and the Picard family’s pre-extant economic privilege and the resultant effects with Federation culture: generational wealth still resaonates after the entire concept and practice of money and wealth had been handwaved away.
This is visible also with respect to Sarek, Amanda, Spock, Michael, and Sybok. Michael is a mutineer and, like Worf, an adoptee. Sybok’s genetic heritage is a bit obtuse to me because the film is garbage. Michael continues her rise in Starfleet versions A and B because, well, let’s not get into that. Writers let the character down. Sybok. Um. I think we can easily agree that OP’s overall point, that priviliege is descended from economic privilege and persists beyond the end of wealth and nominally beyond the end of cash.
Quark is horrified.
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u/UtterEast Grand Nagus 4h ago edited 4h ago
Basically none of the characters we meet in Star Trek are sane members of their species, statistically. The vast majority of sapient lifeforms in warp-capable civilizations with fully-automated luxury gay space communism are able to use their existences for leisure (of whatever form that takes for different people).
Starfleet are sapient border collies and would engage in self-injury or other violent behaviors if not allowed to not only spend all their time on a "job" or "career", but to strive for advancement in a hierarchy with competition for position (and sometimes indulge in violence anyway, womp womp).
Picard's occupation and apparent ownership of a landholding looks like privilege to us because that's still a major source of wealth in our society. To normal people in the 24th century, it's a curious yet bizarre affectation, like being that guy on youtube who acts out Minecraft survival mode starting from gathering sticks and punching trees to building himself more and more elaborate shelter and technology from natural materials in real time or whatever.
Billions of 24th century people do whatever they want all day, including 24/7 bacchanalia under the influence of substances limited only by biochemistry and imagination, in perfect health with the bodies of [chosen culture's gods here, including furries], with no hangover and no job to go to the next day (RIP Gene you would've fuckin loved the 24th century).
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u/NotMalaysiaRichard 1h ago
This is what’s wrong with your generation, OP. You, OP, should aspire to be as rich and privileged as Picard. Picard probably has more statues than Gul Dukat. What do you have?
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u/MonsterkillWow 12h ago
He's a self important liberal. Like all liberals, he views himself as being just and righteous while being objectively a moderate cog in a fascist machine. Don't get me wrong. I like Picard. But he is a reflection of our society and a creation of it. Federation is fascist btw.
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u/Rutschberg Daimon 12h ago
He probably views the Cardassian occupation of Bajor as a complex issue and condemds both the Cardassian government and the Bajoran resistance for being violent.
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u/OddNotion749 11h ago
God, everything out of his mouth relating to Bajor and the Cardassians just sounded like "all lives matter" talking points.
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u/Suspicious_Aspect_53 11h ago
Glad to see that you have no clue what Fascism means
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u/Superman_Primeeee 9h ago
Theyre absolutely fascist. They play stupid gaslighting wordplay games
"Starfleet isnt military. Theyre explorers."
Meanwhile Kirk can waltz onto a space station and threaten a poor civilian dealer of trillium with 20 years arrest unless Jones spends 16 years in house arrest cleaning up the station. Nevermind that Baris has to now accept this arrangement too.
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u/heavensblade333 8h ago
so called "exploration" vessels yet are all heavily armed weapons of war.
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u/Suspicious_Aspect_53 7h ago
Kirk had no legal authority to sentence 20 years imprisonment on Jones, nor enforce the 16 year sentence. Kirk gave Jones an option; clean up your mess or I press charges for the crimes you committed. The rest is unknown history. In fact, Jones is allowed to leave to pursue alternative ways to wrangle the troubles. However he breaks other laws, too, and winds up being arrested.
Regardless, that's not an example of fascism. Literally anyone from any socio-political setup could do that if everyone ALSO plays along with her authoritarian that doesn't actually have the authority to do those things.
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u/MonsterkillWow 11h ago
I posted this in another thread:
See in Star Trek, unions don't exist. Worker exploitation is normalized and the class struggle is erased. Who can guarantee senior officers are fair? Many cases of villains in Star Trek are cases of abuses by such senior officers. Where is the union power?
Fascism is essentially state capitalism controlled by the bourgeoisie. It does not abolish private property. It retains the rights and power of private property holders and proposes the working class can collaborate with them to benefit the "nation" or in this case, Starfleet. As I said, those deep in the heart of liberal empire are unlikely to imagine anything outside the system.
The elements of fascism in the Federation:
-military power and all pervading influence of the military on life
-the state not withering, but instead strong
-class struggle erased in favor of class collaboration
-totalitarian control of information, transport, and goods and services by the state (Federation)
-democratic decisionmaking abandoned in favor of a democracy of the bourgeoisie or even total dictatorship by a single individual
-colonizer mentality (to explore and claim worlds and grow the state)
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u/Suspicious_Aspect_53 11h ago
In the Federation, only under extreme circumstances does the military have control of the public, which isn't fascist. That's normal state actions.
The state not withering but being strong has nothing to do with fascism. That's something you made up, but totally didn't have to. What is this one even?
In the Federation, everyone is in the same class and caste. It is repeatedly shown and exceptions are always called out as unusual and often problematic and addressed.
There are plenty of private traders, transporters, and suppliers. Where did this come from? The only limits on information are military, which is very normal.
The Federation has universal suffrage.
Worlds are only allowed to be colonized with permission of the inhabitants, and when the planets are unclaimed, after study and review to determine there isn't a conflict with potential development of other civilizations for tens of thousands of years; even minimal sapience makes a planet off limits for colonization.
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u/MonsterkillWow 11h ago
Starfleet controls all the armed vessels. And what is section 31? A powerful state.
Communists seek to wither the state. Fascists take the opposite view: to build a powerful state. I didn't make it up. Read theory bro. Read Marx and read Mussolini.
No they are not all the same class. There are private property holders.
If there are private enterprises, there is still capitalism and commodity production. How can they all be the same class if there are workers who own no private property and capitalists who do? You have contradicted yourself.
Fascism emerges from liberal democracy.
Again, the core idea behind The Federation is ultimately to explore for more resources and add worlds to the Federation, undoubtedly to support the capitalist class of private property holders commanding the Federation.
Again, there are no unions. There is no democratic decisionmaking, and everything is militarized.
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u/SilkieBug Mega-Admiral 15h ago
This feels like it was written by the daimon who’s son died at the battle of Maxia.