I like scifi. I like to explore the strange and push past the walls of reality. I like dangerous visions. Big ideas.
But interpersonal drama, identity-stroking and, yes, politics. It’s just weak and boring. It’s small. Damn small.
Do you see the difference?
Unfortunately the majority of people prefer the small stuff so that’s who they write for.
So scifi will always be a niche culture.
This popular stuff is not scifi. It’s the old dumb crap dressed up in spaceships and aliens.
Sometimes startrek goes big. Sometimes it doesn’t.
But you don’t need spaceships and aliens to do that. It’s just fetishwear at that point.
In real scifi it isn’t fetishwear. It actually serves a purpose.