It's kind of funny to me how this is get interpreted entirely as a critique of left-wing fiction, when anybody who reads a lot of hard sci-fi knows that "books where the protagonist turns to the reader and complains about the protests against the Iraq War" are a sizable portion of the market.
When artists/entertainers say their work isn't political, they usually don't mean "my work has nothing to say about human society." They usually mean "it's not a culture war polemic, it doesn't directly say you're a bad person if you don't agree, don't tell millions it's only for the 'other side.'"
