Basic Instructions by Scott Meyer for March 08, 2021

Does anyone over 40 not look back on their former selves and cringe? (Well, politicians, I guess, but I’m talking people.)

I believe in Justin Bieber. I mean, there’s pretty extensive evidence that he exists.

I expect he’s laying kind of low right now, wondering if his n-word videos are going to bite him if he come again to the fore.

Someone really needs to rewrite Danke shoen with Schadenfreude in the tag line.

I think that the advent of social media around these kids as being an accelerant(?) factor. I look at someone like Billie Ellish. Fabulously talented and choosing a profession where she is showcasing that talent. She’s 19 and been performing since she was what – 15? How was she to know what scrutiny she was under or what horrible people in that industry she would be dealing with? If she were just in her college jazz choir she’d experience probably little to none of this – but wouldn’t have the “fame and fortune”. A trade she doesn’t really have the ability to make now. It reminds me of professional baseball players in some ways – if I had access to millions of dollars as a kid with only a high school education – how well is THAT going to go?

Bieber did get better after this strip, at least where music is concerned.