The culture wars have always been hot button, and not just because abortion , gender issues , and similar topics are controversial, but also because the Left and even the Right have often smeared the conservatives who prioritize these issues. Many deem the culture wars unimportant or irrelevant compared to other topics such as fiscal responsibility, the economy, and global affairs.

But now, we’re seeing the effect of what happens when social justice issues wrapped in political correctness take root in universities and large blue cities, and it’s deeply concerning.

A Harvard/CAPS Harris poll from last week shows that while, overall, 84% of voters side more with Israel than with Hamas , a significant number of young people are in denial about the atrocities Hamas has committed over the last few weeks.

About 17% of voters refuse to believe that Hamas killed thousands of Israeli citizens through brutal means, and 46% of voters say that Israel, not Hamas, rules Gaza. A slim majority of 18- to 24-year-olds say Hamas slaughtering civilians “can be justified by the grievance of Palestinians” even though the same group also said the massacre was “genocidal.” The moral relativism here is stunning.

Watching young progressives, especially in Ivy League schools, fail to condemn Hamas, terrorists who have been brutally raping, murdering, and beheading innocent Israeli women, children, and other civilians, has been as jarring to behold as the crimes themselves. In large blue cities and on progressive college campuses, protests cheering on Hamas have erupted. These are not isolated events.

These same people once held protests suggesting that mere words, particularly the wrong pronouns, were also violence . They watched as Black Lives Matter burned cities to the ground and said those grievances and violent protests were necessary. Feminists mourned as abortion rights were returned to the states but have said little about female Jews of all ages being raped and murdered in Israel.

On these same campuses and within these same cities, “safe spaces” were built for those who were brave enough to have an abortion, to claim another gender, or to yell in the face of a Christian attorney talking about free speech rights. They couldn’t actually withstand truth, facts, or slight criticism. Yet when innocent Jews are murdered simply because they’re Jews, these groups have not stood for their rights, but boldly asserted their antisemitism.

Moral relativism created a world where social justice issues mattered more than good and evil. Within this worldview, there is no right or wrong, there is only white versus black, powerful versus powerless, the oppressor and the oppressed. Moral relativism gave birth to the prevalence of social justice issues on leftist college campuses and in blue cities, and it’s spawned a society that can no longer call out bigotry but instead embraces it.

Many of these people have been told their whole lives they’re the only ones who need coddling; they’re the only ones who require safe spaces for all the injustices they’ve endured. Now that there is a real war going on, and good and evil are going head-to-head, progressives can’t condemn evil because it doesn’t fit into the only framework they know. We all should have seen this coming. The culture wars have proven to be more relevant than ever.

Nicole Russell ( @russell_nm ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a mother of four and an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.