Yeah, they're a lot better at by example reflecting why there is one sometimes than emphasizing how to fix problems with it. There's also a Riker ep where he gets caught and the society is in roughly 1990's era (surprise!) society and the government--which finds out and everything!--does a Roswell on the population because they aren't ready. It's almost painfully on the nose (painfully. It's seriously just like Roswell), but it's one of the few where they give a good defense of the PM.

Mindwipe - should not be your go-to. However, to be fair, TNG did once mindwipe themselves for an alien species who didn't want to be found. Twice, even.