Based on the coconut tree from which I fell, my IRL social circle skews heavily towards white, conservative evangelical and Catholic types. I also have an unhealthy obsession with following these same politically conservative white evangelical individuals and groups on social media.
And what’s surprising to me is, since shortly after Oct 7, it seems that the overwhelming opinion of relatively younger (let’s say under 40) people in this demo is at least some sort of soft anti-Israel opinion. The boomers, they still have that Fetterman-esque love for Israel. But younger conservatives… I usually see opinions about how we shouldn’t send Israel any more money, or acknowledging that Israel is committing a genocide. And it seems like it’s the overwhelming opinion from young conservatives, too. I’m sure there’s plenty of younger conservatives that do support Israel, but anecdotally that group feels very small.
That’s not to say I’m seeing a lot of pro-Palestinian sentiment, because I’m not. That’s probably a bridge too far for them. Also probably related to the fact that most Americans are just so incredibly ignorant about what goes on in other parts of the world, they can’t formulate full thoughts on these issues.
For months now, I’ve been all geared up to argue with anyone I know IRL who supports Israel. But it’s just never happened. Either people care or have any opinion one way or another, or they are critical of Israel. Not what I was expecting.
I wonder if AIPAC and Israel realize just how much they’ve lost younger Americans, probably for good (not that they care, they’ll just keep buying off American politicians).
Remember in the first days of the genocide, when Israel bombed a hospital (I think it was Al-Shifa?) and killed like 400-500 people? Except Israel came out and said “oh that wasn’t us that was a wayward Hamas rocket”. And then the American media did a full court press of taking everything Israel and the US govt said at face value. And even beyond that, all the major news outlets would keep bringing on OSINT guests who would explain how it could have been a Hamas rocket, but rarely if even did they explain why it was Israel?
No one can possibly think that it was anyone other than Israel now. But that whole thing has been memory holed (like the beheaded babies) so even if you try to remind people about it, they don’t care.