It’s been very funny actually watching the right try to decide if they’re pro-Palestine or pro-Israel. I look at my (former) friend’s Twitter sometimes and he’ll share pro-Palestine and pro-Israel memes pretty equally. It’s really always been like this, /pol/ used to have struggle sessions over whether to be pro-Palestine due to antisemitism or pro-Israel due to hating Muslims.
I think there’s something else going on though which is the deepening of the dem/gop divide based on financial/petit bourgeoisie class divisions. The gop is not so “pro-Palestine” as they are anti-globalization. They try to pass this position off as an antiwar or anti imperialist position, and they’ll make gestures towards being pro-Palestine, because they know such positions will win them political points and undermine the dems antiwar reputation, and also maybe win over a few inexperienced leftists, but then they’ll turn around and talk about going to war with China, bombing Iran or invading Mexico. So the anti-globalization thing is more a reaction to these wealthy financial elites profiting off global exploitation while they undergo a process of proletarianization at home partially due to the financial elite’s globalization projects. Ukraine and israel are in the financial elite’s interests, to keep open and expand these markets and markets in those regions. It is not in the national/petit bourgeoisie’s interest as such markets compete with them, and they’d much rather more isolationism and protectionism.
Maybe someone can explain better than me. But that’s sort of the materialist explanation. But of course you also have contrarian brainworms and, I’m convinced, some former leftists and bush/Obama era libertarians who went hard right due to stupid stuff like Covid lockdowns, pronouns, and the trans panic who still retain some former positions like being pro-Palestine (or, at least, anti-flattening a hospital, maybe they’re two-state solution types or something)
2020 as a year sucked, but I was extremely proud of how people in my life, including me, stepped up and handled Covid. I also really enjoyed moving home and spending time with my sister and family for the first substantial period of time in years.
2021 was tough since that’s when the vaccines came out, which should’ve been a good thing, but since our response to Covid this whole time has been just wait for the vaccines, immediately everyone throws caution to the wind. My family was still pretty cautious which was good.
2022 I started noticing no one around me was taking precautions. My family, without telling me, dropped a ton of precautions. They were still doing more than most, but it was literally the barest of minimums. I start to notice like mid 2022 that I don’t feel safe around my family with the level of precaution they’re taking.
2023 has been my bleakest year on record. My family is still taking bare minimum precautions, but it’s clearly just because they know I’m worried. Not that it matters since I mostly stay in my room anyway to minimize my time around them, or mask in the house if they just came back from a trip. My dad’s disdain for me is just barely concealed. Another fun part of the pandemic is watching him just go full fash because he couldn’t get a haircut from March-sept 2020. I don’t know what to do or where to go, there are no precautions anywhere. Everyone who is still active and going out just seem sad, like they’re telling themselves they should be having fun, and they’re acting like they’re having fun, but it’s all just a sad imitation of the way they all remember life pre-2020, they haven’t yet figured out that time has moved on and they’re clinging to that which no longer exists. Then there’s me and all the people in my Covid cautious groups, stressed and depressed to the point we’re not sure what’s the long Covid and what’s the effects of living through collapse, telling ourselves well at least we know what’s going on as if that matters as we slowly waste away. I dread what 2024 will bring, and I can’t believe it but if we must have a pandemic, I miss 2020.