The sands of time are slipping through the hourglass. Next year, for better or for worse, will be hugely consequential for democracy. None of us know what the future holds.
But in these last hours of 2023, let’s look back on the year’s biggest stories and trends.
War is not over
We humanists dream of peace, but senseless animosities still divide people. Wars roiled the world in 2023, most of them motivated by religion.
The biggest story internationally was the outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza. In the so-called Holy Land, religion is like an ouroboros of mutual hate that makes peace unthinkable. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu quoting the genocidal verses of the Bible as a how-to guide is an example of why the problem remains intractable. I also wrote about why tribalism attracts us in dangerous times.
In Ukraine, Russia’s brutal war of aggression drags on. Vladimir Putin has enlisted the Russian Orthodox Church to cast the war as a holy mission, like the crusaders of the past.
In Afghanistan, the US has departed, but war rages on between the Taliban and ISIS in a spiral of mutual fundamentalist hate.
Abortion bans keep losing
The biggest domestic story continues to be that Americans hate abortion bans. In Ohio, Republicans tried to change the rules to block the passage of a pro-choice constitutional amendment. They failed, and the pro-choice amendment passed easily. In fact, 2023 was another banner year for Democrats, as they racked up wins in local and state elections across the country.
However, Republicans are undeterred by these repeated losses. Their next strategy is attempting to ban women from traveling to where abortion is legal.
The net result is brain drain in red America, as doctors and other professionals flee these hostile backwaters. Meanwhile, blue America is doing better than ever.
LGBTQ rights
Similarly to abortion, the Christian right can’t let go of its burning hatred for everyone who doesn’t conform to their narrow notions of gender and sexuality. Despite the cultural tide turning decisively against them, they’ve lashed themselves to the mast and they’re determined to go down with this sinking ship.
In a searing demonstration of their priorities, Urban Christian Academy, a free school for underprivileged children, was forced by its donors to close for being too tolerant and welcoming. Conservative Christians also raged against pronouns (yes, you read that correctly) and flooded Target with threats and harassment for its Pride Month displays.
On the other side of the aisle, Catholic vigilantes are hunting down gay priests, which I compared to medieval doctors treating the sick with bleeding.
From a more philosophical perspective, I wrote about how morality is an ongoing experiment that can and should be reexamined and updated. I responded to Christians who believe souls have gender.
Free speech and book burners
Besides abortion and LGBTQ rights, the other red-hot culture-war battle of 2023 was over freedom of speech. Religious conservatives are against it, and they want to ban books and outlaw speech with messages they disapprove of. They want to outlaw everything from drag shows to kids’ books about talking crayons. When it comes to dealing with these people, we should adopt the medieval mindset toward book-destroyers.
It’s a legitimate question to ask what rights parents have over their kids’ education, but these wannabe book-burners aren’t approaching it in good faith. They want to make their prejudices binding on everyone and to shut out everything else. Non-Christians play this game too, as we saw in the controversy over academic depictions of Mohammed.
This is why we need public education, both because pluralism is the seed of progress and because people can only be free when they make informed choices. But even public schools aren’t immune to these insidious messages, as I found out when a PragerU video was shown at my son’s school.
AI and tech
The explosion of AIs that write text, make art, drive cars, and design products continues to reshape our world in ways large and small. I wrote a three-part series about our AI future: why the Singularity may not be so near as its boosters believe, and in fact, why it may not happen at all. The real hazards of AI aren’t sci-fi scenarios about robots conquering the world, but capitalists using them to exploit the rest of us.
However, the thing tech companies most want to use AIs for is also the thing they’re worst at. That’s because AI isn’t an oracle of truth.
I critiqued Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto, showing how it’s built on dubious libertarian assumptions rather than rational analysis.
Demographics
Unremarked upon by most mass media, religion continues to decline and the nones continue to snowball. I wrote about how millennials are defying historical trends by getting even more liberal and less religious as they age. However, Gen Z leaves us in the dust.
At a dim and subconscious level, the religious right knows this, which is why they’re lashing out with such violent frenzy. I dubbed them a doomsday cult whose doomsday fears are true. I also responded to wistfully thinking apologists who think the secular movement is fading just because of the regressive views of a handful of public figures.
TV and media
I wrote a lot of reviews and recommendations this year, including Hilda, The Good Lord Bird, His Dark Materials, and Good Omens.
I especially recommend Shiny Happy People, the documentary series about the Duggars and the Christian patriarchy movement: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
I mused about the priceless gift of attention and how difficult it is to choose from all the cultural treasures of the ages.
Miscellaneous
I wrote about gardening and about walking in rain. Over the summer, the skies were shrouded in wildfire haze.
Sadly, my long-time collaborator Jim Haught died this year at 91. I wrote a tribute to Jim, looking back on his long career in journalism, his fearless advocacy of freethought, and his courageous humanism that never wavered.