To which I have to say, the fallacy is in limiting SF to stories about space exploration. Despite it's fourth season dip, Battlestar Galactica is an extremely well-presented and popular science fiction series, taken seriously as quality drama by the mainstream media (TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, elsewhere), and they engaged the current Iraq war head on just a few seasons ago with their New Caprica storyline, which dared more than pretty much any other show on television by casting the heroes as the terrorists. Then there's Cory Doctorow's Little Brother,
which takes on the incursion into our civil rights and liberties taking place right now - certainly Cory is "someone with something to say" choosing to say his piece in SF, and as for this being "the place where people go to read what such people have to say" - well, Little Brother has been several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. And don't even get me started on the increasing numbers of "mainstream" authors - like Michael Chabon, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy - who are choosing to go to SF as the place to say what they have to say.Please.
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which dared more than pretty much any other show on television by casting the heroes as the terrorists
I'm not so sure. I don't think the characters lost much sympathy by attacking robots who were able to respawn after they died.
I think The Shield was more daring in having its protagonist brutally torture and kill a man that the viewers knew to be innocent.
Ha! I knew if I posted about BSG as SF you'd show up! In fact, you are an hour or so later than I expect you!
And, as you recall, the suicide bombers aren't just targeting the Cylons, but the human collaborators who are being trained as police as well.
But let's not nitpick. The point is there are still people with things to say, choosing to say those things in an SF context, to very large audiences.
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