I am willing to give Alpha Centauri a pass, because even though it is kind of blinded or hobbled by the authors liberalism it was kind of trying to gesture at some transcendence and something beyond the End of History. But yeah the Chairman Sheng-Ji faction just being horseshoe totalitarianism is very cringe. And the downside to the explicitly communist/syndicalist faction is "bad at science because me don't tolerate free thought" is also very liberal.
I am willing to give Alpha Centauri a pass, because even though it is kind of blinded or hobbled by the authors liberalism it was kind of trying to gesture at some transcendence and something beyond the End of History. But yeah the Chairman Sheng-Ji faction just being horseshoe totalitarianism is very cringe. And the downside to the explicitly communist/syndicalist faction is "bad at science because me don't tolerate free thought" is also very liberal.
I think it's more because they're dumb blue collar factory workers, which is of course also very liberal.