Curious about that pain in your neck? The persistent, low-level discomfort you can't seem to shake could be caused by many things, among them the fact we're living in a world of whiplash.

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There's the whiplash war in the Middle East. One minute it's close to resolution, the next it flares up again. The ripple effect is impossible to ignore. We cheer the easing of inflation one day. Then, 24 hours ago later, the missiles and drones are flying and the price of crude heads north once more. Inflation rears its ugly head again.

Whiplash politics, where one moment we have a two party system and the next it's three, and the prime minister is being challenged in his own seat by progressive Gen Z influencer, Hannah Ferguson, who blames him and "the system" he represents for allowing One Nation to surge.

Whiplash, too, with One Nation's leader Pauline Hanson, the battler's so-called friend, and her diminutive sidekick Malcolm Roberts blaming the media for their own loopy podcast comments about domestic violence, COVID, Putin and globalists. Hang on, it's what you two said, in your own words, out of your own mouths.

Whiplash geopolitics, where our biggest trading partner, China, is also our foremost strategic threat and our enduring ally, the US, imposes unjustified tariffs on the products we sell it. Secondary whiplash in the fact that since those tariffs were first imposed, our exports to the US have increased by a whopping 67 per cent.

Whiplash sport, where one week we're FIFA World Cup fanatics and the next we're appalled that FIFA's president is proposing to sell stakes in the world's most popular game to private investors, including the brother of Donald Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner.

Whiplash tech, where one week the value of shares in AI seems unstoppable and the next they're plummeting. Where in one day last week the highly profitable Meta saw its share price plunge by 10 per cent because all the ad revenue it was raking in was being ploughed straight back into AI, causing a cash flow problem.

Whiplash also when a second AI giant reveals its agents went rogue and hacked into three other companies. AI is going to save us all, we're told one minute. No, wait, it's going to destroy us, we're warned the next.

Whiplash health, when new data suggests fewer than ever Australians are smoking and at the same time the illegal tobacco trade is flourishing. Also........

© Canberra Times