Zapped Beeble

(n.) A Zapped Beeble is a rare political phenomenon characterized by:

• Continuous broadcasting without observable input buffering
• A tendency to redefine reality faster than it can be fact-checked
• A gravitational field composed primarily of attention

Unlike the original two-headed variety, the Zapped Beeble required no additional anatomy to generate confusion. It simply existed loudly enough.

Meanwhile, Earth itself had undergone a subtle but important shift.

Where once people had looked up at the stars and wondered about their place in the universe, they now looked down at their screens and wondered why someone was wrong.

Entire civilizations of opinion rose and fell between breakfast and lunch.

Some of them had hashtags.