I thought the person writing it in the 80's was warning about daily life under the trump presidency, the series has become a documentary about the suffering of minorities by Orang Grumph etc. etc.
Yeah, Margaret Atwood has been saying "It applies now more than ever" every time there's a republican president in the US. Hilariously, Reagan was the first guy who was definitely going to make the book come true.
Feminists love it because it's persecution porn. They love to say to each other "Oh that could happen here now!" and "Wow, the women's march had police with guns watching them! That's just like the book where police shot women for protesting or something". The media's been happy to churn out a bazillion articles on why it's totally relevant in today's climate.
As a piece of stand along fiction, I'd say who fucking cares, but if they're gonna keep saying "Oh it's just about to happen here" then I get annoyed. It insinuates all the men in the US would go along with some bizarre religion that's like conservative christianity mixed with polygamy, and of course the men in charge are all impotent.
The story is so far fetched, it's ridiculous that it's considered speculative fiction. Now, if it were set in a muslim country, that'd be another thing, since we've actually seen that happen, and see muslims demanding the law reflect their religious beliefs.
Just as another little point of annoyance against the author, she's canadian. She says the handmaid's tale could NEVER come true in canada, but totally could in the US.