Thread by @EconTalker

The deepest insight for understanding the lenses people use to understand the world comes from @KlingBlog in his superb, concise book, The Three Languages of Politics. Simple idea. Liberals see the world as a struggle between oppressor and oppressed. Conservatives see the 1/

world as a struggle between civilization and barbarism. Libertarians see the world as a struggle between government coercion and personal liberty. Kling's insight helps makes sense of what is going on right now in Israel and Gaza. Before October 7, liberals sympathized with 2/

Palestinians as the oppressed and Israel as the oppressor. Conservatives sympathized with Israel as the standard bearer of democracy and decency against the barbarism of its neighbors. (Libertarianism isn't so relevant on this issue--so I'll stick with liberals and 3/

conservatives. October 7 rocked the liberal narrative. Children killed in front of their parents. Parents killed in front of their children. People burned alive. Young and elderly people kidnapped. And much of it filmed and shared unashamedly by the perpetrators. Barbaric. Of 4/

course Kling's taxonomy of how people view the world isn't purely binary. Many supporters of Israel can empathize with the plight of the Palestinians. Many supporters of the Palestinians understand that there is a lot of barbarism throughout the almost exclusively 5/

totalitarian Middle East. October 7 forced a lot of people to take the conservative narrative more seriously. The videos of depravity that have emerged force the viewer to recognize terrorism as barbaric and unjustified regardless of the tragedy of the Palestinian situation. 6/

And for at least one day, Israel was oppressed and Hamas was the oppressor. The pro-Palestinian rallies in NYC, London, and Sydney also affected people's views. In Sydney, a crowd of thousands chanted "Gas the Jews" on the steps of the opera house. People who perhaps hadn't 7/

been paying close attention heard the phrases "Free Palestine" and "from the river to the sea" and had to confront the reality that these didn't just mean freedom from oppression for the Palestinian people from Israeli actions. They meant an end to the Jewish state. And for 8/

many people, a Jewish state seemed for the first time in 80 years, a really good idea. It became clear this week to many, that there is a lot of violent hostility not just toward Israel, but toward Jews. And the idea that Jews--everyday Jews, mothers, fathers, children, and 9/

elderly--faced the kind of homicidal fury and delight that we saw on October 7, was a wake-up call from reality that could not be ignored. Some people have shifted their lens to seeing the world as a struggle between civilization and barbarism. They're done assuming that 10/

Hamas is about fighting for freedom. They've been forced to look at the Hamas charter which aims not just for autonomy for the Palestinian people but for the destruction of the Jewish state, a Palestine ruled from the river (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) sea. But not 11/

everyone has changed their lens. For many, the narrative of Israel as oppressor and the Palestinians as oppressed remains intact. That is why a Cornell professor can find October 7, "exhilarating"--a blow to the Israeli occupation. That is why the @nytimes unhesitatingly 12/

quotes Hamas blaming Israel for 500 hospital deaths. That's why the Times even while now saying there are uncertain claims on both sides still has a video on their home page about the suffering caused by the blast and interviewing Palestinian doctors saying that there was a 13/

playground next to the hospital. And then showing the colorful backpacks of children scattered haphazardly on the ground as if children had been killed in a blast that everyone agrees took place in the middle of the night when no children were present. And perhaps most 14/

tellingly, the need for people to hold on to their narrative of Israel as oppressor and the Palestinians as oppressed is why there are no rallies from the left on behalf of either the kidnapped hostages in Gaza or demanding that the Palestinians of Gaza who want no part of 15/

Hamas deserve to be sheltered by their fellow Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. Yesterday, a friend wrote me asking why there isn't more pressure on those neighbors to shelter Gazans temporarily. Why do people who purportedly care about the Palestinians only demand 16/

Israeli pacifism in response to the tragedy of October 7 instead of demanding that those neighbors, many wealthy, not open their doors to their brothers and sisters? It's a complicated question but part of the answer is that suggesting that Gazans leave Gaza even temporarily 17/

is to give Israel, the alleged oppressor, a victory in an war of narratives and national aspirations that is at least a century old. If you see the world as a struggle between oppressor and oppressed, anything that favors the oppressor is an injustice. The other factor that 18/

is complicating the way people see the world is that people are starting to think that this is about more than just a territorial dispute in the Middle East. They're starting to see that it is about Jew hatred. Why can't the media walk back their indictment of Israel as 19/

the cause of what happened to that hospital? Why are people chanting "Gas the Jews." Maybe anti-Zionism is actually anti-semitism. I think this also partially explains why even politicians--Eric Adams, Joe Biden, and Rishi Sunak, have done so much more than decry the 20/

brutality of October 7. They have said they stand with Israel. Period. And that's despite having many constituents who would not agree. The hatred shown on October 7 and the subsequent hatred that has been unleashed (a synagogue in Berlin and one in Tunisia were both 21/

torched last night for example) certainly appears to be about more than Israel and as much about the Jews. The Jewish state was established in 1948 to provide haven from Jew-hatred. The world has been forced to confront the reality that a Jewish state with secure borders 22/

a necessity. The prevalence of Jew hatred in this moment united liberals and conservatives. The liberals see that Jews (even sometimes Israeli Jews) are the oppressed, and the conservatives see the Jews as civilized and those who hate them as barbarians. In short, October 7 23/

radicalized some people pushing them toward the conservative lens. For others (seeing the Jew hatred unleashed by Hamas) being pro-Israel is suddenly consistent with their view of the world as oppressor vs. oppressed. I don't know how long this will last. Whatever Israel does 24/

in Gaza will shift things once again. But for now, I am struck by how costly Hamas's "victory" on October 7 has been. They have galvanized a country that was on the verge of civil war. They have created a resolve in both Israel and elsewhere that Hamas has to pay a serious 25/

price. And they have forced a number of people around the world to view this moment in a radically different way, as a struggle between civilization and barbarism and not just between oppressor and oppressed. Thoughtful people can hold onto more than one narrative at the same 26

time. Hamas has unwillingly created a few more thoughtful people around the world. 27/27