Here’s an example of what we mean: a friend, appalled at the equivocation and apologia in the West after the brutal Hamas killings, told one of us that he used to consider himself a “conscientious objector” in the culture wars. “Not anymore,” he said. October 7 changed that.

Liberal friends were suddenly talking about buying guns. Progressive friends were texting about topics like border security and immigration. In a whisper, one even admitted to watching Fox News.

For a sense of what this real-time political transformation can look like, watch this clip of venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya on the podcast he co-hosts, All In. Palihapitiya, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, explains that he is rapidly revising his view of Trump’s time in office: “As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys did was pretty incredible in hindsight.”

[Perhaps one can appreciate in hindsight as well that the chaos surrounding those efforts were dangerous as well, given how they alienated voters from the correct policies.The obsession over Trump’s persona ended up serving his opponents and the Left. But that’s small potatoes, or perhaps better put, spilt milk. Hamas has stripped the West of its obsession with identity, at least for the moment, and reminded us that the world is too dangerous to just chuck Western civilization into the ashcan in favor of ever-more-ridiculous victimology hierarchies. It’s now “Join or Die” time … again. — Ed]