Pinker is in so deep he's going to be insisting things are better even as millions of climate refugees flee north and resource wars break out across the world.
What will it take for him to admit things have fucked up?
Maybe, but he's been doing this schtick since a time when the establishment was, on the whole I think, genuinely sure they'd "won" and that End of History was nigh.
If he'd just emerged, I'd be right with you.