Just got to thinking about this after those threads on The Expanse and Military Sci-Fi (which admittedly is probably the sub-genre least affected by this trend).
I know the case can be made for the existence of some conservative authors or sometimes conservative themes, of course they exist, but are they “swimming upstream” so-to-speak? Going against the flow of “the mainstream” of Sci-Fi?
I’m not looking for a list of conservative authors by the way, I want to hear if the people here think that Sci-Fi as a genre may or may not have an inherent bias towards the new, the previously unseen, and thus “progressive” ideas and ideologies. Not even necessarily to castigate Sci-Fi, merely to attempt to understand what’s happening.
The “Sad Puppies” folks probably have some insights on this subject but I don’t know much about them beyond their existence and their claim that the Sci-Fi book awards system has been subverted by leftist/progressive ideologues:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies
Sad Puppies activists accused the Hugo Awards "of giving awards on the basis of political correctness and favoring authors and artists who aren't straight, white and male".
I do see the ideas of sci-if and “progressivism” as connected, but I’m not sure if that’s an inherent aspect of the genre, or if that is perhaps a cultural relic. I lean towards the idea that it is likely largely cultural (i.e. well respected sci-fi authors of old put “culturally progressive” themes in their books about Scientific “progress”, and that has carried on to this day) but I’m interested in where everyone else falls on the subject.
Ooo, you would have loved to watch Prisoners of Gravity back in the day; I think you can still find odd episodes around on YouTube.
I would say that people who write sci fi are inherently "progressive", at least in some ways. That being said, I do remember reading at least one story that involved the POTUS going missing, because he had a plan to nuke his own cities to get rid of all the commies and hippies and reset the US back to an agrarian state. And he succeeds. Can't remember what it was called, bought it for ten cents at a used book store in the 90s.
And some authors just can't resist putting in their own bullshit in an otherwise normal story (Rendezvous with Rama, Clarke just had to put in polyfaggotry as an aside for "character building" reasons or some dumb shit. The story would just the same if we assumed the MC had a normal wife and kid.)
The thing about sci-fi is that it presents a way for authors to send their message (left or right) in a palatable form, like wrapping a bitter pill in bacon or cheese for your dog. Want to know when television started getting subversive? I'd say it was the day that The Twilight Zone debuted in 1959.