I agree, the liberal framing of meliorism is so pernicious. This kinda weird, linear concept of progress that posits that every development ultimately benefits us all.

Obviously that’s not true though. I have a little quip that I occasionally dust off when discussing this and it is that meliorism doesn’t account for the invention of the whip.

In more prosaic terms, the Americas really didn’t see the benefits from the development of things like advanced seafaring or gunpowder and it’s undeniable that these advancements of Europe caused an unfathomable amount of suffering, deprivation, and dispossession. But in all honesty I think that’s the pro-colonialism and white supremacy that comes built into liberalism and its idealised notion of meliorism shining through; it’s all pretty great, just as long as you don’t consider brown people!