They really struggled to make it seem much different or worse.
Man in the High Castle has this problem. too.
“Oh no, they’re learning about how the Founding Fathers had slaves - in a good way - instead of it being swept under the rug…”
“Oh no, the cops are all racists…”
"Oh no, the 1960’s US is eradicating people with disabilities…
“Oh no, the ghetto of Black Communists is being strong-armed by violent secret police…”
Props to the show for doing a 1-to-1 comparison between a child handing himself over to be euthanized and a child handing himself over to fight in the Vietnam War, though. Probably the only good thing to come out of it. The rest of the show is just “Return to the Normal of 1940’s America”.
PKD’s Man in the High Castle should at least be commended for having one of the only examples of an alternate-alternate history. There’s an in-universe novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, that describes an alt history of the Nazi’s defeat and then a kind of glorious American future. I think PKD knew what he was doing here, because the alt-alt post-war America instantly starts colonizing Africa, the USSR is dissolved, and half the world gets American factories built within them. This is all described in positive terms and the book is read for comfort in Nazi America. Also there’s a Cold War… But it’s with the UK.
I haven’t seen the show though, only read the book.
