Diplomats and experts urged caution, reminding audiences that international relations rarely hinge on viral moments, yet their measured statements struggled to compete with adrenaline-fueled storytelling optimized for clicks.
Memes exploded, mixing satire with sincerity, blurring lines until irony hardened into belief, and belief into calls for action, illustrating how humor can accelerate misinformation when context evaporates.
The controversy exposed a deeper truth: modern politics is experienced less through policy documents and more through spectacle, where perception often outruns reality before corrections ever arrive. Continue reading…