Today, we have social media “influencers” who are idiots.

Overall it is a loosey-goosey argument but I did like this.  From Wisdom and Influence by Arnold Kling.  The subheading is We suffer from their disconnect.  

Here is a simple theory of history:

When wise people are influential, good things happen. When unwise people are influential, bad things happen.

I will just offer two data points. During the era of the American founding, influential people included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and other men who had great wisdom. Today, we have social media “influencers” who are idiots.

While I generally agree with the overall observation, Kling does not actually make much of an argument for his theory and I fail to see how it could easily be operationalized.  "We need more wise people in positions of power" sounds right, but how?  Kling, probably half facetiously, proposes what is essentially a deus ex machina solution which amounts to letting AI identify the wise and then hope that people will choose those who are wise as leaders.  If there is anything worse than Plato's Philosopher Kings, it has to be Philosopher Kings nominated by AI.