A Last Word

Speaking of not getting to choose the moment in which one lives, consider the irony of the formidable Zelenskyy, an actor and comedian thrust onto what everyone calls “the world stage” – where little is humorous and nothing is make-believe. Meanwhile, here at home we are beset by leaders who are professional politicians but now seem, comical.

If that seems like a cheap shot, consider who the White House chose to message the world about everything from war and peace to the price of oil. “Tik-Tok influencers.” If you don’t know exactly what that phrase means, it refers to a group of American teenagers who film themselves talking about things above their pay grade or should it be “play grade.” They are now being used to parrot the talking points of the White House Communications Office.

Except this isn’t entertainment. The Tik-Tok platform, apart from the usual crowd-seeking, ego-feeding and sapping effects on the young, runs on a platform owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Every visit an “influencer” makes to this platform, every act or speech, likely gives the profiling, controlling CCP a “treasure trove” of new information about your children and their online habits. We don’t have serious people in charge of our country.