At the root of the Panician phenomenon is waiting for/seeking out "permission" to catastrophize, despair, etc. People must internalize that these behaviors are never productive in any situation
It is remarkable how many older people fall into these traps
Another aspect of the never-ending hysteria you see online is the “sunk cost” that comes from emotionally investing yourself in a position that later proves to be incorrect. Rather than admitting that they were wrong (potentially damaging ones’ self-image), people tend to just look for new situations that prove they were actually right over the long term. These feelings only harden if they come under external attack for bad behavior (panicking/condemning allies/etc.), triggering an ego-preserving defensive response.
The desire to be proven right only increases as you are proven wrong again and again, with each new emotional wave being used to reinforce your earlier (incorrect) convictions. Everyone who fell apart over the Israel-Iran slap fight will fall apart again and again until they can finally justify a “clean break” to themselves and just go full-on anti-Trump, which is to say full-on pro-defeat. I have seen this cycle repeat again and again, with demoralization and bitterness spreading like a disease.
Tangentially related, figures who burn bridges during these flare-ups come to realize that they are now distrusted and excluded from potentially productive activity—anyone who has to do things in the real world understands how damaging panic can be and doesn’t want to work with those who spread it. As a result, these excluded people believe their only path back “inside” is to trigger some kind of collapse that would remove their intra-factional rivals. They have professional and financial incentives to spread panic and despair, increasing the likelihood of a liberal victory, in the hope that the resulting chaos will provide an opening for them to reinsert themselves. You can’t “convince” someone not to do this because there is no good faith discussion occurring.
The problem of panic has a lot of dimensions. It’s important to always keep in mind that you cannot reason someone out of a view that they do not actually hold. The only way forward is to recognize unproductive behaviors when you see them and refuse to engage in cynical and circular discourse. People who indulge bad actors are just as harmful as the bad actors themselves.
Never forget, the goal is to win (objective outcome), not be “proven right” (social outcome).
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I think it's also a desire to appear more "based" than everyone else. They want to make it known that they care so much about what they think is the most important issue (Israel) that they are willing to fight for it at the expense of everything else.
There's also the urge and incentive to break with Trump over "principles." You saw this a lot with pro-lifers saying not to vote for Trump because of IVF. It's like people are lying in wait for the delicious moment to signal that they too disagree with Trump.
The most insane response to the whole situation that I saw was one “Leonarda Jonie” replying to Trump’s Tweet informing of the Iranian strikes. “You will go down as the worst president in history. Congratulations on betraying the American people.” 45K likes. Absolutely baffling to me. How can you say something like this and still be treated as a serious political figure?