For every pretend step taken, the actual reality is hidden and moved out of sight for those in the first-world.

People live in better conditions today

I see way too many poor, chronically ill, and visibly distressed people. This isn’t normal, not even a little bit.

even just considering social acceptance

Social acceptance has been nonexistent for me as a gay, autistic male - people frequently tell me about their similarly horrible experiences.

and not technology

Technology has advanced, sure, but it just serves to enslave, manipulate, and spy on us in increasingly dystopian ways as the years go by. Mass surveillance, centralized databases, and unregulated AI have been normalized.

or medicine

As a chronically ill person, medicine has significantly caused me more harm than good because doctors are too overworked to identify side effects and complications - and I have nearly died several times due to medical negligence/iatrogenic illness. No, I’m not exaggerating. There have been many key advancements in medicine, but our healthcare industry is very sick - even in countries with socialized healthcare. There are people experiencing relief that previously wasn’t possible - I’m not denying that.

Most societies are at least in theory democratic, where people get some input towards the ruler.

Democracy is largely illusory, especially here in the states. Consent of the ruled is not present in many “democratic” societies if you’ve been paying attention.

There are legal protections against slavery

Slavery has exploded overseas to support first-world needs (even child slavery), prison/slave labor is incredibly pervasive in the states, and before Trump became Führer an estimated 40%~ of US agricultural workers were undocumented immigrants - modern slaves.

misogyny, homophobia, racism, transphobia

The legal protections are effectively nonexistent to prevent discrimination in practice. Two-party consent laws for recording are really terrible for those subject to abuse.

Trade unions have successfully campaigned so that now people work less than they have since the start of the industrial revolution

Unions are largely nonexistent, people still work significantly more than they need to, productivity has risen but wages have largely stagnated, people are largely in significant debt and they cannot afford a house or a car, they cannot afford to reliably access healthcare (and even if they can “afford” it, it isn’t timely), higher education is inaccessible and college debt is unreal, etc.

in unprecedentedly better conditions.

Yes, and no. There are many careers that harm you in ways that only modern society can. Like plastics workers being exposed to a greater risk of cancer. I have known many people in various careers that have been denied access to necessary PPE in multiple fields.

Have we taken some steps? Sure. But we’ve taken many, many, many more backwards while people are oblivious in their bubbles. Pop your bubble, please. More people than ever before in history are suffering silently in ways that only can happen in modern times.