It seems like we have lived in a nonstop moral panic in recent years. Orange Man Bad. Russia Russia Russia. COVID. Police misconduct.

And now the Jews. The Jews are the real problem.

One of the distinctive characteristics of recent moral panics is how often they are tied to totally unhinged, occasionally violent behavior.

During COVID-19, for instance, people who did not comply with mask mandates were chased and harassed. The George Floyd riots left a trail of bodies in their wake and parts of cities burned to the ground. Trump supporters got harassed constantly for wearing red hats.

And now the Jews:

Stephen, I've been following higher education news for @LegInsurrection since 2012 and I have to say, I think this was a turning point. pic.twitter.com/j4OBkBZuuq

— Mike LaChance (@MikeLaChance33) November 1, 2023

Moral panics short-circuit rationality. People become mobs, and mobs behave as all mobs do. Whatever the object of the panic can be demonized and acted upon in ways that wouldn’t happen in normal times.

Hey @ucdavis, do you think it’s appropriate that one of your faculty advisors, @jemmaisOKeh, is publicly threatening to murder Jews at their homes and their children at their schools? pic.twitter.com/xAx97LHYbr

— Jason Bedrick 🇮🇱 (@JasonBedrick) October 19, 2023

Pogroms were driven by moral panics. There is a trigger, and then there is a mob.

What is most striking about the recent moral panics in the Anglosphere is that the irrational mob is filled mainly with the elite classes. It is the most educated class who leads the mobs. Whether or not the bulk of the mob is from this class is irrelevant; the educated elites fuel the drama.

Protest culture on college campuses now regularly features mob action.

Full video: https://t.co/50z2QOURju

— Adam Guillette (@adamguillette) April 27, 2023

Our instincts tell us that the more educated one is the less susceptible to irrational outbursts one should be. Yet experience doesn’t back that up. Soccer fans can turn into a mob, but the same appears to be true with college students. They just tend to get riled up about slightly different things

The events of the past few years remind me of the Chinese Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 to 1976. Mao recruited the young and ideologically insane to harass, shame, and even kill the enemies of the Party.

"We were taught that our parents are just biological parents. The real parents is the 'party' and Chairman Mao." @XVanFleet calls out similarities between the Chinese Cultural Revolution & today's America.

🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET: https://t.co/jQJK7aAWtR pic.twitter.com/KJOJq4w0nE

— Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) October 28, 2023

This is justified by the perceived evil of the target. They represent some larger, malign force that stands between the fallen world of today and the utopia that is to come. Fear and hate are at the center.

You will notice that our educated elite has once again singled out a target–Israel–and excused any evil committed against Jews because Israel is the focus of evil in the universe right now.

I was a debater in high school and in college. I’ve been wondering if debate is still possible after the woke Cultural Revolution of 2020.

It seems that the answer is “no.” Debate is no longer possible. https://t.co/pXMRFlKJVG

— Yoram Hazony (@yhazony) October 31, 2023

That Harvard students–the top 1% of the top 1%–can surround a Jew, block their movement, and shout them down isn’t just scary, although it is scary and borderline violent. It is indicative of the deep cultural illness that has infected the education system. It is the result of the DEI/alphabet agenda, in which “safety” is defined in a very specific way–the dominance of the Left, and only the dominance of the Left.

Riley Gaines, who was assaulted in San Francisco, was a threat who had to be eliminated. Violence against her would remove that threat.

I expect this sort of thing to escalate because so far the revulsion most Americans feel for the antisemitic outbursts hasn’t awakened anyone on the campuses yet.