Jay-Den and Darem’s recent scene together illustrates it well, I think. And the negative reaction to it from people online who say things like “woke” and “cringe” illustrates that many people are so uncomfortable and afraid of the concept of being vulnerable that they dismiss it out of hand.

But to be clear, I actually went out of my way not to describe this as “new or groundbreaking”. If anything the messaging I highlighted in my OP has been the consistent through line for the past decade in DSC, SWW, and SFC (and to a lesser extent Picard). I (and many others who thought the new series have been too timid with their politics) have been missing the forest for the trees.

We can laugh now at TOS preaching the “illogicality of racism” to be self-evident, but during the time of scientific racism and Jim Crow laws, stating that self-evidence was considered radical. TOS never had an episode about Uhura earning her right to be on the bridge. She was just there. Discovery never had a plot line about Adira coming out as non-binary, they just did.

“Vulnerability is strength” is the radical idea of our modern era where things like emotional insecurity and ability to tolerate loneliness are held up as examples of strength, and not the reality, which is that they are the beliefs of a fearful person.