“Would Russia or China Help Us if We Were Invaded By Space Aliens?” At least the New York Times is asking the important questions. The answer, by the way, is an implicit no. Scary world out there!

The column itself — by Thomas Friedman, who distinguished himself in his next column by intoning “We Need More Elon Musks” more than we need more Greta Thunbergs — was reasonable, arguing that the major world powers need to cooperate on climate change. (Global warming is a national security issue for all countries, but also, like the hypothetical space aliens, a common enemy.) But the jarring headline itself fit right into the current atmosphere of conspiratorial nonsense; we’re unfortunately becoming used to seeing outlandish, paranoid ravings in mainstream media and from liberal politicians.

The Joe Biden administration, with the media’s help, seems to be largely continuing Donald Trump’s paranoid stance toward China, sounding the drumbeat over a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan and the need for the United States to be prepared. Even Trump’s view of the region seems to have been more realistic than that of Biden and the defense establishment: Trump reportedly said in 2019, “Taiwan is like two feet from China. We are eight thousand miles away. If they invade, there isn’t a fucking thing we can do about it.”