Historians considering the state of American depravity will doubtless pause to reflect on the remarkable support in certain quarters for accused killer Luigi Mangione, charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last year. Mangione was caught on video pumping bullets into Thompson, a father of two, as he entered a hotel. There were times when cold-blooded murder would inspire universal revulsion; however, we do not seem to be living in those times.

It isn’t that anyone doubts Mangione committed the murder, but rather that many Americans praise him for having committed it. Hashtags like #FreeLuigi have proliferated. His website has reportedly raised over a million dollars, and his statement on it says it all. “I am overwhelmed by — and grateful for — everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t wishful thinking. According to an Emerson College poll taken a year ago, 41% of voters under 30 found the slaughter of Brian Thompson “acceptable.”

Depravity visited the Providence, R.I., campus of Brown University, where students were studying for their final exams before returning to their families for Christmas break. A gunman took an automatic pistol and fired 40 rounds at students studying for an economics exam, murdering at least two and injuring nine. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students hid in their dorms or in shelters for hours as law enforcement searched for the killer. Everyone at Brown will feel the trauma for the rest of their lives. “Students should be sledding on cafeteria trays from the (Brown dining hall) today, between studying for finals, as the snow falls, not sitting in lockdown, fearing for their safety, or mourning lost friends,” posted Zaid Ahmad Ashli, the head of solar energy company Nexamp, who attended Brown in the 1990s. “This cannot be the norm.”

Ten thousand miles away, on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a father-son mass murderer duo targeting Jews massacred at least 16 people celebrating Hanukkah. At least two rabbis were killed, at least one child and a Holocaust survivor who died while trying to shield his wife from the gunfire. It was, as Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt put it, “a sad and shocking event.”

Since 1,200 Jews were slaughtered by a genocidal group that invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Jews have seen dramatic increases in anti-Semitic assaults.

It’s long past time to stop pretending that chants of “Globalize the intifada!” and “There is only one solution — intifada revolution!” and “From the river to the sea!” are much more than endorsements of killing Jews. Those who have tried to put lipstick on that pig, prettifying anti-Semitism by posing behind professions of progressivism, share responsibility for killings like those that occurred on Bondi Beach with those who pulled the triggers.

They ought to be ashamed.

They aren’t.

A season of peace feels like a season of homicide. Countries like the United States and Australia, that are supposed to be exemplars of civilization, are looking like killing fields.

And in too many quarters, the intentional taking of life is indulged, or even glorified.

Difficult days.