#that's ferengi women and cardassian dissidents wanting to not be oppressed! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tanadrin · 1 year

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still annoyed by the tiktok i saw once of someone smugly declaring the Federation was “an empire” and that this point was so obvious it brooked no debate

you have to apply for membership! it’s a post-scarcity utopia that has transcended the need for money! this meets no definition of an empire, except that it has some of the aesthetic trappings of liberal democracy, and edgy online types like to refer to liberal democracies as “empires” when trying to discuss the more general phenomenon of imperialism.

#yes quark and garak have that scene where they bitch about creeping Federation cultural hegemony #but they're both from illiberal societies #trying and failing to maintain authoritarian traditionalism #and like of course authoritarian traditionalists #don't like neighboring societies that demonstrate successful individual autonomy #but that's not 'cultural imperialism'#that's ferengi women and cardassian dissidents wanting to not be oppressed!#ferenginar's culture sucks shit and deserves to be overwhelmed by the federation's #if it cannot provide an alternative to its people that actually makes them happier #and obviously mutatis mutandis for the real-world examples of authoritarian traditionalists #complaining about encroaching liberal norms

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