Is he a role model though? Is he?

Hey, it's Captain Picard Day and-huh? What? Well it's not like you sent me a card either. Let's just say both our cards got lost in the mail. Anyway, it's Captain Picard Day, the day we celebrate the accomplishments of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. But what I want to know is should we be celebrating Captain Picard Day? And look, I'm not saying this is like a Christopher Columbus situation. Picard is no Columbus. But he did pull some shit. 

Ugh...also he's one of those people that reads leather-bound
books on vacation. I mean, who even does that?

Despite the free-love thing, 
Rubicun III is basically Texas.

Like that time the Enterprise visited that planet full of capital punishment-loving swingers who wanted to execute Wesley for messing up their garden. Picard went through this whole ethical debate before landing on nah, and then beaming everyone up and completely disregarding that planet's judicial system. This is the kind of shit Kirk would have pulled, I mean, I know they were primitive, pre-warp nudists, but the Prime Directive still applies, no matter how dumb the planet's laws. Wesley may have trampled their flowers, but Picard trampled their very way of life.

And did you ever see Star Trek: Insurrection? That's ok, it wasn't great, but in it, Picard leads his crew in a mutiny against Starfleet when they try to forcibly relocate some budget-friendly aliens off their fountain-of-youth planet. Now, I know what you're thinking: what's wrong with that? And sure, the admiral in charge was corrupt and he did try to kill the Enterprise's crew, and yes, Starfleet was trying to steal a planet. 

Pictured: The Baku, easily among Star Trek's laziest alien designs.

"The free market fuels innovation!"

-Picard's bullshit argument

But the Baku weren't from there, it wasn't like their ancestral home. They just stubbled upon it and realized that it made them functionally immortal. Then, instead of sharing this monumental discovery with the rest of the galaxy, they hunkered down and started living their best L.L. Bean life. Admiral Dougherty was wrong to try and take it from them in secret, but goddamn, that planet cured death, and the Baku were keeping it to themselves. Starfleet was trying to bring universal healthcare to the Federation but Jean-Luc wasn't having it. Again, not siding with the bad guys here, I'm just saying that I'm not sure Picard was on the right side either.

In a sense, he's condemned the entire population of the Federation to the ravages of old age. And the fact that Picard would himself later--spoiler alert--cheat death by getting downloaded into an android body, makes the whole fiasco kind of a bad look for him.

Maybe he wouldn't have needed that android body if he'd just
gotten those Baku dicks to share their immortality planet.

"Screw you Robert, I hope you die in a fire!"

-Picard's ill-chosen 

words to his brother

And let's not forget that time he slaughtered eleven thousand people at the battle of Wolf 359, and then got a total pass. Yeah, you heard me. And ok, fine, he had been, through no fault of his own, turned into a Borg. And because of this Starfleet didn't hold him responsible. Great. But how did they know he wasn't responsible? At the time no one had ever been assimilated and then un-assimilated, so all anyone had to go on was his word that he was being manipulated. After getting rescued, and after some cathartic mud wrestling with his brother, he was back to work like nothing happened. 

I'm not saying he's definitely responsible for Wolf 359. I'm just suggesting that Starfleet didn't exactly do their due diligence in investigating his role and that they let him off easy because he's a famous space captain. And that perhaps we should take this and his actions on the dumb swinger planet and the even dumber, immortal Central Casting planet into consideration when we celebrate Captain Picard Day.

"I'm a role model."

-Jean-Luc Picard