First, a disclaimer: I have even less interest in the
activities of Kim Kardashian than in the doctrines espoused by the Pope, but
even I was drawn to read the article suggesting that she tweeted an apparent
accusation that God’s representative on earth was a dope fiend.
As was to be expected, much ado about nothing – and far less
entertaining than the play of that name. She tweeted ‘The pope is dope’ and
according to the Guardian, ‘Most
would probably interpret the tweet ... as an endorsement.’
Would they? I am certainly
not ‘down with the kids’ but I would assume negativity – and at my great age, I
recall a time when a dope was an idiot: at school, if you were then only one in
your gang not to get a joke, you were assailed with ‘You dope’.
More importantly, Kardashian’s
tweet does show the dangers of social media, particularly for the famous. In my
youth, favourite celebrities could be assumed to be intelligent, since we never
heard or read anything other than agent-approved text and footage. The recently-shown
video of John Lennon suggests censoring went on behind the scenes.
Now however, we have only to
read some celeb twitter feeds to get a picture of their actual knowledge and
skill level.
As Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain famously never said: ‘Better to keep your mouth shut and appear
stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.’
