An alarming trend I noticed over my life—though I haven't read much recent SF or fantasy so I don't know if it's continued—is the inexorable change of speculative fiction from being largely optimistic to largely pessimistic, at least in western specfic.

Old-timey SF in particular was, even if branded as "horror", still pretty positive at least in terms of the setting. Sure THESE PEOPLE may have died horribly, but the world at large was doing fine, and the reason these people could die horribly was because the world was doing well and humanity was spreading out to the stars!

Slowly, but surely, across the '70s and into the '80s and '90s that positivity faded. The world was going to be obliterated in nuclear suicide. The world was going to be an unremitting corporate-driven Hellhole of crime and corruption. We were all doomed and the protagonists of stories were the unlucky ones who'd survived.

Like I said I haven't kept up, so maybe this trend eventually reversed itself (though the popularity of shows like Rick & Morty suggest to me that existential dread and straight-up nihilism still rule the roost). But if it has, that's still nigh-on 50 years of social depression so serious it mimics clinical depression in its feel and its impact.

Is that something worth discussing?

N. K. Jemison just won three Hugos in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy which was deeply dystopian. So the trend hasn't reversed. I do think there is more variety today then at any time in the past but mostly post apocalytic and totalitarian corporacratacies rule.

Do you find this as troublesome as I do?

In our superheroes we've moved to anti-heroes and psychopaths (I consider post-Dark Knight Returns Batman as a psychopath). In our visions of the future we only seem to be able to picture dystopias.

There doesn't appear to be hope for anything in popular entertainment. It reminds me of the endlessly depressing post-holocaust fiction of the '80s.

Troubling, maybe. Realistic, probably.

I'm not sure "realism" is a net good in this genre. SF used to be a vision of hope. Unrealistic hope, yes, but it gave ideals to strive for. When (not "if"!), in the process of striving for said ideals you fell short, you still made the world a better place in the process.

We've lot ideals. We're wallowing in cynicism and self-pity. And it reflects in the world around us: people are more self-involved, nihilistic, and short-term focused.

Yes, Megan brought this up in the discussion. This isn't just happening in Science Fiction. Comedys used to be funny or they wouldn't last. Now cringeworthy is a goal that somehow is supposed to have humor embedded in it.

She's ... not wrong. Comedies in general haven't been funny in ages. It's been more frat boy pranks and sorority "mean girls" for ages now.