I just don't get it. What is the freaking problem of those directors, trying to rewrite federation into some kind of dystopian tech fascism?
I was annoyed by the first Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams, with those police cops. I was alienated by those anti-android resentments in Picard. I stopped watching Discovery after the first episode, because the main protagonist was sent to some kind of labor prison for disobedience, where prisoners regularly die. I didn't think it could get any worse but just watching the first 10 minutes of Starfleet Academy makes me want to bury the whole franchise [edit: and stopped watching]. Some drumhead court-martial, lifelong prison sentence, violently separating a mother from her child and some goons beating up a prisoner. How in the hell is this the same federation of TNG, Voyager and DS9?
Star Trek is supposed to be the ONE fiction with a positive, utopian view on mankind and the future. I totally get the attraction of dystopian settings but for that I can read some Warhammer 40k novels. This really makes me furious.
Fortunately there is still Strange New Worlds.
Please spoiler me, when this bullshit in Starfleet Academy gets turned around in some twist, because otherwise I will just ignore the show.
ok, to give it a fair shake.
At the time of the start of Starfleet Academy the Federation and Starfleet don't really exist. They are indeed a mockery of their own ideals. It's the baseline for just how crappy the universe got. Shit was bad man. Academy sets this up so you understand what's at stake as they try to rebuild the Federation and Starfleet to bring hope back.
It is a Star Trek college show. It introduces us to some kids, the future of this show's setting. But there is an underlying message of hope and getting back to the better way.
I am neither endorsing nor criticizing the show. I'm trying to answer your point.