About two years ago, one of my wife’s best friends began to turn down invitations to get together. Then, out of the blue, she unfriended my wife on Facebook.

That’s a rude way to brush off someone, so my wife finally asked her: What gives? Have I offended you? Her terse text response was full of self-righteousness: “John and I are so appalled by the things that Steve writes that we don’t want to associate with you anymore.”