If you’re a fan of K-pop music, or a fan of anything really, you’ve heard the term delulu. It’s a cute way of saying delusional.
Wanna know what isn’t cute? Convicted felon Donald Trump’s supporters or Trump himself. Their brand of delulu is willing to put the entire American experiment up for sale or collapse.
Now don’t get me wrong, America has a lot coming to its ass for a lot of things but letting this spitting blonde orangutan lead America off a cliff EVEN after being convicted of 34 — Thirty Fucking Four felonies — is WILD.
America, you in danger, girl!
Don’t take this as a sell for Biden. I really can’t stand with him either. How he continues to toss American support behind the slaughter of innocent Palestinian children and (hopefully soon to also be convicted of corruption) Bibi Netanyahu is bonkers. It’s like we’re living in a simulation and the players are just tossing in more madness to see if the NPC’s learn, or retaliate, and so far, good little American NPC’s keep strolling and giggling down the streets of a country so concerned about reaping the spoils of all the wars, it has completely ignored the call from within the house. Hello, America is in shit shape.
Our roads are a disaster. Hell, any drive in Louisville is sure to net a flat tire or bent axle from the many potholes in the streets.
Gun violence has become so common that most news outlets don’t cover most of it unless more than 10 people die, bonus if someone famous is in the mix.
We’re a reality TV version of a failed state. Was the Roman Empire this wacky at the end?
Every day that America continues in this state, I feel like we’re being asked to be Voltaire’s Pangloss, or Candide, but most of us are feeling a bit more Martin.
“But for what purpose was the earth formed?” asked Candide. “To drive us mad,” replied Martin.”
I mean, does Martin not make so much sense? What the fuck are we even doing at this point, and really, it is America. There is madness in every society but on the most basic level, America is driving us absolutely insane.
To the point that if you go to another country, people pick America last as a place they’d want to live. In other countries, the idea that America is violent and crazy is quite common. Sure there are a few foreigners who might want to attend a university here (if they can afford it). They might want to visit, but few want to leave their healthcare, transportation and other basic provisional needs that are met by perhaps less insane governments.
Transportation in America… Trash. Healthcare in America… Trash. Education in America… Trash, especially if you’re poor.
“Do you believe," said Candide, "that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?"
’‘Do you believe," said Martin, "that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?"
It is as Martin elicits, man has always been these things, and expecting better, especially from what we currently call government feels like an insurmountable battle.
Perhaps our battle isn’t with the foam on the beer but the beer itself.
“A State can be no better than the citizens of which it is composed. Our labour now is not to mould States, but make citizens,” Voltaire said.
We have so much work to do. We’re coming upon an election of proportions so ridiculous that many of us feel like any choice is no choice at all, so what do we do?
Do we let the ship sink and bail? At what point do we leave the saving for saviors and just let this mess be a mess?
I wish I had an answer. For now, I’m just trying to keep myself out of a depression so dark that it consumes me. American life doesn’t make it easy.
Erica Rucker is LEO Weekly’s editor-in-chief. In addition to her work at LEO, she is a haphazard writer, photographer, tarot card reader, and fair-to-middling purveyor of motherhood. Her earliest memories are of telling stories to her family and promising that the next would be shorter than the first. They never were.
