There is a great reckoning occurring in America today. It involves the destruction of Palestine, which in turn, is destroying faith among the religious right — destroying faith in Israel and Christian Zionism.
In the last several years there has been a remarkable turn of events that has soured many on the religious right, much of which has to do with social media and the nonstop broadcast of Palestinian suffering and death.
“Gaza” is said to be the world’s first digital genocide, where images of suffering and death instantly are transmitted onto our screens, as Khaled Beydoun describes, the “nonstop avalanche of images, video, and livestreaming conveying the sheer brutality inflicted on the Palestinian people is unprecedented.” Tens of thousands of children have been killed and orphaned, not to mention people being sniped, decapitated, amputated and burned alive. This is not even to mention bodies buried under ruble, abuse of corpses, and the sexual and other abuse of Palestinians held captive. Scenes out of Palestine rival any depiction of hell.
This avalanche of horror, however, comes with social costs. Some involve secondary traumatic stress that impacts viewers. This is the physical and psychological distress that originates from another’s traumatic experiences. The distress is caused by exposure — hearing, witnessing or dealing with trauma. A different dimension, “vicarious” trauma, occurs after repeated exposure to another’s traumatic experiences. Whereas secondary trauma may begin development instantaneously, with a single incident, vicarious trauma occurs over a period and involves repeated exposure.
The phenomenon shares diagnostic space with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its impacts. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders explicitly references secondary trauma as a possible criterion A event for diagnosing PTSD. Furthermore, the International Classification of Diseases provides for diagnosis of PTSD following secondary trauma for exposure perceived as “extremely threatening or horrific.”
When applied to the widespread and nonstop viewing of the atrocities in Palestine, this concept lays bare the potential effects on audiences. The graphic imagery is proving to be life-changing and is disrupting deeply held beliefs. Some of the most influential right-wing personalities have abandoned support of Israel and voiced vehement opposition to Christian Zionism.
For example, Tucker Carlson even went abroad to witness the suffering in person. In December 2025, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp that had some 2,000 Palestinian evacuees who were seeking medical treatment. Among them were orphans and child amputees. His show broadcast graphic footage of the patients and he said that his team “had to old back tears” as they witnessed first-hand: “Disfigured kids with their limbs blown off, and mangled faces,” scenes that Carlson found to be “so distressing, so shocking.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene is another staunch Republican who broke ranks with her colleagues in calling Palestine a genocide. In one post she writes, “many of us, even though we are Christians, no longer want to fund and fight nuclear armed secular Israel’s wars especially when it leads to starving children and killing innocent people … .” In another she writes, “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct. 7 in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.” Commentary in the LA Times described how Greene’s attitude coincided “with growing global outrage over…photographs and videos of emaciated children and dying infants (that) have proliferated across news and social media, as have videos of desperate Palestinians killed while waiting in line for food.”
Candace Owens has been likewise explicit about how her life has changed due to her exposure to events in Palestine. In the month following the Oct. 7 attacks, she described her own change in an interview with Norman Finkelstein. In that discussion, which focused on the condition of babies and children in Gaza, Owens described the suffering of children as “a major piece” of her “waking up.” As she describes in another interview, “The burning bodies of the children that I’m seeing every day … has transformed my opinion.”
Polling supports this gradual but unmistakable shift in opinion.
For example, a Pew Research poll indicated young people and Democrats of all ages have shown waning support for Israel. A 2024 Religion News Service survey showed a sharp decline between 2018 and 2021 among Catholics and evangelicals in their support of Israel and that Catholics are the least supportive; among evangelicals, support varies by age, with least support exhibited among younger adherents. A similar conclusion was found in a poll by researchers at the University of North Carolina indicating that support for Israel among young U.S. evangelical Christians has dropped sharply.
This shift in consciousness is reminiscent of my research on religious conversion, which taught that changing one’s beliefs often occurs in the aftermath of traumatic events. Such antecedent experiences can set individuals on a quest for meaning. This journey often involves embracing new ideas and relinquishing former ones, including changing one’s name, food choices, clothing and most prominently, beliefs. These observations suggest the digital genocide is afflicting Americans with secondary trauma and laying a foundation for ideological change. Whereas before, support for Israel was a forgone conclusion, social media has changed that — literally to traumatize younger generations and challenge them to reimagine the situation in Palestine.
SpearIt is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.