We'll get there one day

I mean, the Federation was only founded after a world war decimated the human population. And I also think, looking at our world, that we are more likely to be the mirror dimension anyway.

we are more likely to be the mirror dimension anyway.
We should all do routine checks to make sure we don't have goatees, excessive eyeliner, or suddenly start wearing sexy clothing.
- .....i have a goatee oh god
- Shit, that's how I dress every day...

Just to be clear star trek also had a nuclear war

And the Whales go extinct. The Star Trek timeline isn't as bright and cheery as most people believe. The franchise has always been collapse-aware, its just not front and center. Gene Roddenberry just envisioned that post capitalist collapse (And with the discovery of intelligent alien life) that humanity would be able to rebuild better from the ashes.
- We only know that humpback whales go extinct. The rest of the whales could be doing fine in the 23rd century.
People always forget that Star Trek is post-apocalyptic in addition to being utopian.
And only embraced space communism when they invented (got access to? I'm not a Trekkie) a device that can literally make anything from anything, resulting in a post scarcity society and no need for work.
And time travelers who fought off time traveling space cyborgs to protect them.
- This is incorrect. Luxury Gay Space Communism came first. It was embraced widely after the discovery of intelligent alien life united Humanity. The Replicator only became wide-spread in the time between The Original Series and The Next Generation. Even then there were other cultures with access to replicators that weren't "Communist" such as the Ferengi and Cardassians. Equality has to be valued for a society to be truly post-scarcity.

I dream of Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism

Oh, my!

I think the whole lack of sustainable fusion thing may be a slightly larger factor than capitalism.

I recommend the book Trekonomics if you want to challenge this notion. Basically, technologies like sustainable fusion, replicators, etc, are the result of a post-scarcity leave-no-one-behind philosophy, rather than its prerequisites.
- I'll check it out, thanks 🖖
So close it sounds like it'll be happening in our lifetime.
- I think it's sounded like that for the past 40 years, but I am hopeful.
- Sure, like human-level AGI and flying cars.
man i sure wonder why we don't have that, huh?
- Not enough capital

It kind of worked out for the Feringi. They ended up buying their warp technology.
- except the ferengi are magically able to maintain the more sensible level of capitalism we had back in like 1900 when railroads first got started, and even then they eventually realize that their society actually does kind of suck and just because they haven't had world wars doesn't make them some moral paragons.
  If anything the ferengi just show that the less capitalist you are the less horrors a society will end up performing.

Maybe when we live in a post singularity society where everything we want can be printed for free.

If by post scarcity you mean Western workers produce seven times more value in goods than they consume over their lifetime, guess what?
Don't worry though, we still have forty more years of nuclear genocide to meet the deadline.
- That’s why we rely on Asian slaves and indentured Mexican servitudes to keep us on the top.
- Where are all these goods going?
  And we produce far less than Asia. So they must be producing like 70 times what they consume.
- Western workers produce seven times more value in goods than they consume over their lifetime
  Not that I doubt this, but do you have a source?
We already have enough for everyone, if we just toned it down a bit.
We're closer to most of our work being automated than a profit-driven system will allow.
We don't need to have reached the technological singularity, we just need to have most of the energy in the universe gathered into a container the size of a microwave so we can get the replicators online. Or we need to find a way to reliably violate thermodynamics.

I also noticed that religion was absent from most of the star trek stories, and usually, if at all, was associated with an underdeveloped culture, and they would most likely be warlike and a threat.

Did you not watch Deep Space 9?
Yep, they pretty clearly stated that humanity had moved beyond religion, money, enslaving animals for meat (Riker's words), etc.
Whenever they wanted to show this stuff, they had to run into another civilization.
- enslaving animals for meat (Riker’s words)
  Yet in season one of PIcard he hunts meat he could have easily replicated.
Stubborn and intractable as well.

Imagine if the Enterprise was constructed by the lowest bidding government contractor.

Also: Why aren't we at least the Farenghi?

When reporters asked (Alan) Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, ‘The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.’
- Beautiful quote
No alien species will sell us warp.
Because we haven't found anyone to buy warp engines from, unfortunately. You know of anyone?
- Wasn't the first human warp drive made by that Cochran guy? What was his first name again... Oh yeah. Johnny. Johnny Cochran.
Well, the consoles tend to explode for no reason (why did they run high voltage plasma directly to the consoles?)
Speaking of explosions, the consoles seem to be filled with rocks.
I'd say both could have been fixed with a slightly higher budget allowance.
Also: Why aren’t we at least the Farenghi?
Well... Arguably we're closer to them than we are to Star-Trek era humans. Though some of these are what I tend to think of as Conservative values, corporate (and personal) greed knows no social boundaries.
The Ferengi culture was centralized around the concept of greed and earning profit.
Ferengi society and culture was highly misogynistic and patriarchical. As such, laws and cultural norms reflected and deeply institutionalized such misogyny and discrimination.
Appropriately for a materially obsessed species, the Ferengi demonstrated interest in cosmetic enhancements
In Ferengi philosophy, the pursuit of profit at any cost was the guiding principle for all traditional Ferengi.
Greed, deceit, distrust, and opportunism were highly prized values among Ferengi
exploitation was the rule. The formation of labor unions was forbidden
Ferengi who broke the law could be punished with the loss of all property and assets
In accordance with their extreme, crony capitalist mindset, Ferengi historical records on 21st century Earth described Wall Street with reverence.
The importance of business was felt even in Ferengi government, as powerful businessmen could easily become powerful political figures
The Ferengi represent the logical evolution of the current US (and arguably global) focus on capitalism and profit, and certainly represent our likely trajectory if conservative movements the world over have their way.
Edit: Forgot to link my source. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ferengi

I like to think, that Star Trek and Fallout play in the same universe/timeline

To blame capitalism for the lack of a Star Trek future is to fundamentally misunderstand why capitalism is the way it is.

Capitalism isn't some evil calamity that fell from the sky. Human beings created it. No matter what system you make, we will inevitably corrupt it so long as selfishness and greed are hardwired into our primate brains. Communism, socialism, capitalism, whatever. They all need hard rules to work because humans will turn any system into a way to enrich themselves, and given time, they will even erode the rules to do it.

For every extraordinary bit of technology or otherworldly space entity or reality shattering cosmic event to ever show up in Star Trek, the single most unbelievable thing about it is the notion that the human race could ever, collectively, and permanently forego their selfish instincts. Its a society that only works if the human race changes itself on a fundamental, evolutionary level, and does so in unison. Because as long as any human feels a desire for more than they have, or the desire to protect what they do have, we'll never achieve that.

humans being inherently selfish and greedy is literally a capitalist lie though, like that's really really obviously not true if you look at how generous and willing to sacrifice themselves for someone else people are.
- People aren't necessarily selfish, but they are tribal. They'll go above and beyond for the people they know. Their family, friends, neighbours,...
  But this sympathy is rarely extended to people further away. From different towns, countries,...
  I believe most people are not purely selfish, but selfish people do seem to do extremely well under capitalism. (Not making any statements on other economic systems though)
- So what’s the excuse of the Soviet Union and China?
Oh, they claim to be peaceful, but they're constantly violent! They're lazy! They're stupid! They'd rather loaf around and drink than put in a day's work! And you know what else? They treat their women like garbage!
Sure. Maybe capitalism is just serfdom 2.0. We gotta keep it pushing tho. Maybe in a million years we will finally subvert our baser instincts and push past capitalism. Gotta do it for the kids
So by your logic any system is fine with the proper regulations in place. How about we go back to slavery then? Just make sure theasters are benevolent right?

This subject always makes me wonder if what happened to the sonic washing machine would happen to the replicator, as soon as someone invents it.

Would Capitalism allow the instrument of it's eventual demise to exist?

I mean, it does work Just not nearly as well as its proponents claim.

It works really well…. Just only for a handful of people…
Yeah, it has its strengths, but I don't think it's good for us long term.
- I prefer to think of it as a transitory stage. I don't know what comes next, but I sure as shit know that this ain't the peak of human civilization.
- I see it as a stepping stone to the inevitable (socialism). But I would not want socialism now.
  Capitalism seems to drive innovation too, which with climate change humanity needs pretty desperately.
  I'm giving it 100 years. I think at that point capitalism will have done its job. We'll all be free of many ailments and the world will be connected. Some resolution for climate change will be in effect, and we can take a breather, start transitioning to UBI and then eventually to full socialism. That will bring better social order and welfare and we'll be in good shape.
Turns out, as in basically everything else in existence, you have to strike a balance and can't just go YOLO on maxing out 1 economic philosophy, food, workout routine, recreational activity, work task, air conditioner knob direction, component of air, fundamental force, universal constant..
But somehow capitalism is the magic fix for all of society and any considering any sort of nuance/tweaking is far-left communist radicalism despite the fact that nobody actually supports getting rid of all regulations and everyone inherently understands that that would be a disaster.
I'd say it works flawlessly. I mean yes, millions die each year from starvation, preventable diseases or equally preventable wars,... buuut it allows a small group of people a life of luxury and excess putting Louis the 14. to shame.
What i'm trying to say is capitalism is a system which maximizes exploitation of people and environment. You could say it is efficient but not fair. Some people value efficiency over fairness, and in capitalism their voices are amplyfied by their ability to influence the media.

Touche, that is indeed a socialist utopia!

It does work. Way more than any communist or socialist ideals

Well, we've never seen actual Marxist communism in practice, and Nordic countries seem to be doing pretty well with a bit of socialsm.
- Nordic countries don’t have socialism. They have social democracy which is capitalism with a solid social safety net.
  Marxism fails from the start because it’s entirely predicated on the state being a monopoly on violence to enforce societal norms. Marx postulated that after a proletarian revolution, the State would be an instrument of the proletariat, used to forcibly take State ownership of all means of production and shift to a socialist mode of operation, after which the role of the State will diminish until it becomes solely a tool of economic coordination and ceases to exist as a State in the traditional sense.
  The problem with that is that it still relies on having people running the State, and you end up with the same kind of people that seek power. Only now you have given them absolute power over the entire means of production too.
- I don't see how that's a fair argument, as we've never seen real capitalism in practice.
I think we're going to have to pick up at least some socialist/communist ideals as time goes on. AI and automation is going to force our hand at some point.
- I think we should do so as a people, voluntarily.
Socialism has never truly been realized bc capitalists and tyrants ruin it every time SMH. Late stage capitalism is a terrible system and we should be doing everything we can to prevent them from consolidating power to make what little democracy we have left a full blown dictatorship.
- Socialism can never be fully realized because it relies on giving the state total control over the entire means of production, and seizing that control through force.
  So you either have democratic elections for the leaders of the State, and the common people are stupid and easily swayed by populism, which opens the door for leaders like Stalin or Mao to take power. Or you remove democracy and have it ruled by committee, which does the same thing.
  But once you give the State absolute power, you’re fucked anyway.
- Ah the classic, "not real socialism" defense.