Basically the plot of TNG

- Well shit, both look badass.
  
  How humanity really is: ^

I always found it a weird choice to start off with this in season 1 episode 1. What a strange introduction to the Star Trek Next Generation series.
- And why didn't Q mess with the Klingons when talking about savage brutes?
  
  They don't pretend not to be cruel and savage.
  
  He likes their opera?
  
  It's just mythology, third take. So humans are always the main characters of the universe.
  Humanity is the middle race between extremes, between some lowly race like demons or dwarves, and some highly race like angels or elves. Tolkien just rephrased it, and so did scifi. Basically all of fiction where there are ~~other humans with weird bodily features~~ other species besides humans is just this trope redone.
- Why, it set a more philosophical tone for the series. He's a villain that's completely unbeatable so your only choice is to make him bored so he goes away.
  
  I have no problem with this character or plot lines. I only take issue with it being in the first episode. The series is primarily about exploring new worlds and new civilizations and they managed to encounter the final boss in the first episode. It makes it seem less significant and just a common occurrence. In my opinion we should introduce the characters first under more normal circumstances that actually are common occurrences for them.
- DC Fontana's original Encounter at Farpoint script didn't include the Q storyline at all. That was added by Roddennberry to pad the length.

I think a big part of the reason this was a theme in TNG was because it was supposed to get people in the '90's to reflect on whether the USA was actually the hero of the story that our history, politicians, and media tells us we are, or whether the idea that we're "more civilized" than other countries was a lie we spoon-fed ourselves.
I mean, it's an idea that sat with me most of my whole life. We are not the heroes of our stories, and a lot of the stories we tell ourselves are kind of a self-deception propaganda to justify why we have a higher quality of life at the expense of the rest of the world.
USA was at the time a country that promoted itself as one of the least violent and most civilized nations in the world. The US government was hiding behind "We don't cut criminals heads and hands off" as though we don't use psychological torture much more often on our own populace.
They can't really hide behind "our police aren't violent" so much anymore, because it was clearly always a lie.
- I like what you're saying, but you're overthinking the show a lot. It was just a plot device to show how humans are the best.
  
  Tomato tomahto.
  I felt like it was a plot device to show how humans are capable of great things, not that they always are the best. Picard was always supposed to be the philosophical pinnacle we should desire to reach. I mean it's already a post-scarcity society where pursuit of wealth is viewed as a negative. I saw it as that humans and the Federation still had a long way to go, despite their successes, much like the USA in the 90s.

Why are you booing Q?
He's right.

Y E S, A N D?

And TNG features a humanity that has overcome most of our current cruelty and savagery.
- Do you think maybe the race of higher dimensional beings that apparently perceives time as a whole might take a longer view of such things?
  
  Nah.

This is an excellent photoshop. It's just missing some upscaling of the Q layer.
- Ikr? First thing i noticed, was the quality.
  Edit: i mean the good Photoshop quality, like in Q's proportion, the clean cut out & alignment, etc.
  Reading my own comment, without the edit, i sound like i mean Q's bad quality, because not upscaled

Yes. Yes, we are. We had to be to survive, but our lizard brains still think that way even though it now leads us to our destruction.
- "I need a lot of people to suffer so I can feel like a bigger winner!"
  
  More like "fuck everyone but me and my tribe!"

I'll water board you

Only 8 TNG episodes feature Q
- And they are all excellent.
  
  100%

I don't particularly care for this plot.
Q is omniscient, so he already knew that our history is rife with examples of good people and bad people, brilliant and ignorant... and he comes to judge a fairly utopian future society of a unified, post-capitalism, post-religion Earth? My dude, they're doing fine.
- This assumes Q was there to actually judge humanity and not begin a dialogue with Picard and the Federation. In his own omnipotent way. It's not a judgement, it's more of a test or like a training.
  
  This is definitely how I always saw it.
  Q isn't arguing in good faith because he wants to see humans "rise above it" as it were. It isn't fair, but it is a quick way to reveal if their most base impulses will take over when under pressure.
  Q sees human society in TNG as on the path to becoming better than they already are, but thinks they need some prodding to make it there.
  It's almost Nietzchian in a way. He wants humanity to leave the worst aspects of our culture which are holding humanity behind, and that takes effort and self-reflection and consideration. Q is trying to kickstart that self-reflection, consideration, and effort. He knows Picard is a good man and can do it. He definitely has a "thing" for Picard and I think it is close to love. It is why he chooses him.
  He wants Picard to no longer simply be a real mensch, but a real ubermensch.
  Sisko doesn't realize its a test to make humanity better, and just sees a Nazi arguing in bad faith.
  So he punched Q.
  
  It's a question of how these humans justify their image of their own race. I enjoyed it, as all Q episodes it was fun.
- It's easy to be a saint in paradise.
- Unless the United Federation of Planets is the Warhammer 40K "Dark Age of Technology" and Q saw the rise of the Emperor, chaos and neverending war.
  After all TNG took place in the 2370s? The Hours Heresy is in the 30,000s. Plenty of time for humanity to fuck everything up.
- He's just poking at us, to make sure it holds under pressure.