I'd be surprised if there had never been a thread here about how the Enterprise was clearly not on a "peaceful mission" but a neoliberal imperialist mission. If it's peaceful, why a military ship? Why under military command? Where are the diplomats? Why does Kirk despise every diplomat he has to deal with? They often come cruising in where they're not wanted like Commodore Peary in Tokyo Harbor saying "open up your markets to our trade or else!" They're like someone who goes down the street banging on strangers' doors shouting "Achtung! Open up and be friendly!" They're just interstellar housebreakers.

My favorite is how they have this "Prime Directive" which they violate in every episode, often giving some ideological explanation for why it doesn't apply in some case. For example: "this civilization is stagnant, and the Prime Directive only applies to progressive civilizations, not stagnant ones".

So if according to their ideology a place is stagnant and not progressing, then they can interfere as much as they want. Sounds familiar.
- LATOC forum