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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023

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2023 Predictions

Where percentages mean the expected share of predictions at that percentage that are correct by the end of the year. Essentially, I expect 4 of my 5 80% predictions to occur, one of my four 25% predictions, etc.

Asset Markets will:

  • 50% at some point in 2023, the SP500 will be 12%+ below its December 31st, 2022 value.

  • 25% at some point in 2023, the SP500 will be 20%+ below its December 31st, 2022 value.

The Federal Reserve will:

  • 80% raise interest rates by 50+ basis points.

  • 80% not cut interest rates before July 1st, 2023.

  • 50% raise interest rates by 100+ basis points.

The Bank of Canada will:

  • 80% raise interest rates by 50+ basis points.

  • 50% raise interest rates by 100+ basis points.

Canada will:

  • 50% have a “moderate” recession which begins in 2023 defined as either of: (1) a cumulative decline in GDP of 2% across any number of quarters, (2) the unemployment rises to 7% at any point.

  • 80% see detached house prices decline by 15%+ as measured by the December over December CREA national benchmark.

  • 25% Canada will have an election in 2023 and … the Liberals will win a minority government.

  • 50% Canada will have an election in 2023 and … the CPC will increase seats and win the most votes.

  • 25% Have a constitutional or jurisdictional crisis over provincial / federal issues, probably related to guns, but possibly related to the Alberta Pension Plan, health care funding, or equalization. This is hard to define, but I would take any kind of Meech-Lake style conference, or Supreme Court decision on constitutional questions, the creation of the Alberta Pension Plan, or refusal by local police to enforce federal gun bans as positive evidence.

At the risk of narcissism, I will:

  • 50% Buy a house.

  • 80% Save over half of our family's after-tax income.

  • 25% Switch jobs.

Not going to estimate certainty, and I don't even have a specific prediction, just want to be on record saying: something's up with the trans front of the culture war, the vibes are shifting. Whereas I don't really see BLM / CRT / MeToo / other aspects of wokeness going anywhere (other than the volume being turned up or down), I have a strong feeling there's something unstable about the trans stuff. Will it lead to a collapse, and if so will it be this year? Don't know, just saying keep an eye on this space.

50% Buy a house.

Oh, a house! At first I thought you were planning on buying a horse. Well, good luck either way!

My sense is that we're in a lull right now. A culture war recession. It's hard to even rank them. I would almost say MeToo is the highest right now but only because of the recent Roe decision, but that turned out to be more of a pop than a bang, didn't it? Maybe the affirmative action case decisions in June will stoke the BLM/CRT set.

One theory is that Blue Tribe turns the burner up or down for purposes of tactical or strategic advantage. Given that they're more or less back in control, what advantage is there on turning the burner back to high?

Thousands of extra black people are being killed per year, compared to five years ago, and this rise correlates neatly with the largest social intervention in law enforcement in living memory. But this is an inconvenient correlation to examine, so it simply goes unexamined, and people mention how it seems like things have chilled out lately. Well, sure. The chillness or lack thereof of our collective environment is entirely determined by Blue Tribe social consensus, and is entirely detached from any actual facts of our physical existence.

BLM was a crisis of the cops hunting black people in the street, not because the cops were actually hunting black people in the street, but because the media and other organs of blue-tribe social consensus generated a collective delusion that it was so. Now black people are actually being killed at rates approximating those delusive rates, but no one cares. This is how it works, and in fact how it has always worked. We've collectively outsourced our cognition to a small cadre of radical utopians, and we dance to their whim.

It will remain so until the existing system ruptures badly enough that the problems become undeniably immediate.

I'm sorry, what? Is this supposed to be a COVID thing? If so, "killed" is a rather questionable word choice.

I want to see a source.

I wish I had some faith we won't see the exact same demands for sources the next time this issue comes up.

No, I’m convinced on this one. I really did think OP was somehow blaming COVID policy, which clearly wasn’t the case.

He also gave a source and I concede that the phenomenon is real. I even mostly agree with the reasoning!

By all means hold me to this in the future.