In my initial short searches I did earlier, Antonio Gramsci comes up as addressing the issue of “cultural hegemony”, where art and entertainment tends to represent the dominant bourgeois culture, which makes a lot of sense. I’ve heard of Gramsci in passing, but haven’t read anything by him yet. I think it’s a good place to begin regarding a critical analysis.
Also worth reading is Camus' short piece "Create Dangerously", on the responsibility that artists have to challenge.
Going back to the 80s here, but I would recommend the Taltos series by Steven Brust. It's a very catchy read, great world-building. It starts as pretty much hard-boiled hitman whodunit in a fantasy setting, but escalated to much higher stakes. He's still writing the series.
Brusts other stuff is good too.
I second the other suggestion in this thread of Becky Chambers', classy stuff that really draws you in, very cozy, but not epic sci fi!
The other series I'd recommended then is an old one by Greg Bear: The Way series, starting with Eon. It is about an asteroid which appears in orbit when Earth is at the brink of war, and is one of the most mind-bending, far-fetched sci-fi stories I've read, that is still arguably hard sci-fi.
I agree in general terms, but Bernie is not the only "uncompromised politician" in the world. How many politicians outside the US can you even name?
The Earthsea books match your description exactly. Spooky.
another is the hypertext transfer protocol... (?!)
I presumed Arthur Miller
My understanding is that it will eventually used to improve autocorrect, when they get it working properly.
I don't have it bookmarked any more, but Slashdot is the grand-daddy of them all, and still going strong. Unlike Ars Technica, I can't vouch for it's comments being quite as informative or interesting (not for a few decades now)