Thursday, October 1, 2026
Where are all the government’s best and brightest? In the current administration, there are fewer models for academic achievement, moral rectitude and ethical behavior. The swamp is real, and it’s drowning the smart and dedicated people who go to Washington to serve the country.
Many of our best federal officials have been muted or sidelined by the Elon Musk-Donald Trump one-two punch.
The president has appointed a succession of officials who are unprepared for their demanding jobs. He has trolled the bottom for people whose only standard is loyalty to the regime. As they sink and flunk out, as scandal after scandal unfolds, as their inexperience and absurd behavior come to light, they leave and are replaced by other sycophants.
As education standards sink, we witness the rise of “influencers,” self-appointed experts who have co-opted the attention and expendable income of millions of people old enough to use a phone. We are ceding critical questions about our health and well-being to self-promoters who may have no real expertise and even less education. What many of them do have is a social media presence and the marketing know-how to garner thousands — even millions — of followers.
This isn’t a new problem, but it’s getting worse.
One example: In February, The New York Times published a story titled, “Do Energy Drinks Offer Benefits Beyond Caffeine?” The takeaway was that most of the boost in these drinks comes from old- fashioned caffeine, not the add-on vitamins or extracts or purified water. Even though many drinks are marketed by health influencers as enhancing focus or endurance, the evidence, the article said, is inconsistent. In addition, the high caffeine levels in these jazzed-up drinks are concerning for those with a variety of health issues.
What you get from some of these aggressively marketed drinks is an expensive thirst-quencher with a ton of caffeine.
This is just one example of how we have surrendered our power to people who may have no scientific background at all when it comes to herbs or lotions or foods or exercise regimens. They are “influencers” because they say they are, and because they hold sway with millions of followers whose only source of scientific information and medical advice is social media.
They are influencers, too, because their audience often doesn’t read or listen critically to what they are peddling. The social media audience isn’t researching the claims made on Instagram, for example, because many don’t know how to do research. And it’s so easy to just click and buy and think your pimples will disappear with a new product. We need a savvier buying public, and that comes with old-fashioned, top-tier education backed by quality teachers who are paid generously for the immense responsibility they carry — to educate our young.
The problem starts at the top, with an elected influencer in chief and his unqualified appointees, and it continues with an increasingly uninformed public whose only information comes from social media, a circular firing squad of ignorance.
In China, during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, intellectuals in every discipline were banished to the countryside. Illustrious scientists and writers were made to sit in public squares wearing dunce caps while being pelted with stones by members of the Red Guards. Allegiance to Mao was all.
I think of this as our best-trained military leaders are fired by Trump, as longtime officials in the FBI and CIA are replaced by flunkies, as people like Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi spin through the revolving door of our dysfunctional government.
A true leader seeks to elevate the best and brightest, without a loyalty test as the filter.
The concept of influencers has roots dating back to the early 1900s. It began with celebrities endorsing products. Remember the Marlboro Man who smoked his way to fame? And all the dead lung cancer victims who followed his lead?
I don’t understand the influence of influencers, the promotion of know-nothings whom we empower to tell us how to live. I do know that to survive as a viable society, we must educate a new generation of critical thinkers.
It starts with our kids and grandkids, who must learn the difference between scientific-based information and random opinion offered up by charismatic but ignorant actors, even when they are handsome and riding a black stallion. Even when they live in the White House.
