2022 will likely go down as a momentous year in world history. In this post, I can only scrape the surface, at best. Overall, the good outweighed the bad, though there is plenty on both sides of the ledger.
Start with the good:
The biggest event of this jam-packed year was surely Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It has had terrible effects (noted below). But also some important good ones. Most obviously, the war has so far been a painful failure for Vladimir Putin and the cause of authoritarian nationalism generally. It has also revitalized the Western alliance, with even Sweden and Finland taking the once unthinkable step of joining NATO. More than any other person in the last decade, Putin has made the West great again!
The war has also led to pathbreaking innovations in US and EU migration/refugee policy, such as the Uniting for Ukraine program, which could be a great model for US refugee policy generally. Biden also made several other good moves on immigration policy.
The world's other big authoritarian nationalist menace - China - also suffered a major setback this year, with the collapse of its cruel zero Covid policy after mass protests against it. There is also now broader support for Taiwan against China's efforts to conquer it. And, of course, Xi Jinping has suffered indirectly from the setbacks taken by his ally Putin.
Speaking of Zero Covid, it is also notable how this year saw the end of most Covid restrictions throughout the Western world. When I first adopted the "vaxxed and done" lifestyle in mid-2021, it was at least somewhat controversial. Now, the vast majority of people live that way, and there is little in the way of government coercion pushing the other way. My partner predicted things would work out this way. I was skeptical, but am glad to be proven wrong!
I don't agree with everything the Supreme Court did this year (e.g. - I hate the recent Title 42 ruling). But they made multiple good decisions on religious liberties, school choice, curbing delegation to administrative agencies, rejecting Trump's executive privilege arguments, free speech, and elsewhere. I would not have done Dobbs. But I think it was understandable, though others disagree.
Donald Trump's political influence seems to be waning, and GOP election deniers did badly at the ballot box this year, far underperforming what the "out" party would normally achieve in an off-year election with high inflation and an unpopular incumbent.
I am one of the few people who is happy about both the GOP taking the House and the Democrats keeping the Senate. The former will keep the Democrats from passing most of the awful bills they would like to push through, and the latter is a deserved rebuke to the party of Trump.
It was a great year for school choice, both at the Supreme Court (big win in the Carson v. Makin decision), and in state legislatures, highlighted by Arizona's pathbreaking universal school choice law.
Zoning reform - one of our most important challenges - made important progress in California and elsewhere.
People may be finally recognizing we can't continue printing money and engaging in sky-high government spending indefinitely.
There have been some impressive scientific breakthroughs, most notably progress on cold fusion.
The Celtics and Bruins had great years, and both are favorites to win titles in 2023!
Sadly, there was also a good deal of bad:
While the Ukraine war has had beneficial effects on world politics, it has been terrible for the people directly involved:tens of thousands of dead, horrific atrocities, and the worst European refugee crisis since WWII. And there is - as yet - no end in sight (though that could change in 2023).
While liberalism got a boost in 2023, nationalism remains a great menace, as witness election results in Italy, Israel, and Hungary, among other developments.
Socialism is also still a menace, as we can see from events in Latin America, and China's increasing reembrace of socialist ideology (combined with its nationalism).
2 and 3 are also relevant to the US. While Trump has been weakened, we may be moving towards a GOP characterized by "Trumpism without Trump," i.e. - a party that continues to promote nationalism, minus Trump's personal awfulness. That certainly seems to be where Ron DeSantis (the main GOP alternative to Trump, so far) is placing his bets. And the socialist wing of the Democratic party also remains strong, though it may have weakened a little.
While most of the cruel and unjust Covid restrictions have been repealed (see above), little has been done to curb the sweeping emergency powers that enabled them to happen in the first place. Indeed, abuses of those powers continue, with both major parties sometimes supporting them (as with Biden's massive student loan forgiveness raid on the treasury, and conservatives' attempts to preserve and expand Title 42 "public health" expulsions of migrants).
Speaking of Title 42 expulsions, this cruel policy - one of the worst of all the Covid measures - continues full force. Biden, Republicans, and the Supreme Court all deserve a share of the blame.
The Red Sox and Patriots both had awful seasons, and things aren't looking good for next year.
The Winter Olympics and World Cup were both hosted by repressive authoritarian governments that should never have been allowed such a role.
Finally, a few events that many people think were hugely important, but I consider hugely overblown:
Everything having to do with FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Everything having to do with Twitter - both Elon Musk's policies and those of previous management. People who get worked up about this hugely overrate the significance of Twitter (far from being a monopolist of political discourse, it isn't even the biggest social media site, or anywhere close to it).
Everything having to do with various social media "influencers" and online culture wars.
Much more can be said. But this is more than enough for one post!
Happy New Year!
