What’s the opposite of a blonde bombshell? A blond blunder? Who does that description make you think of? If you didn’t just think of Donald Trump, he can’t be far down the list!
So, the Blond Blunder is shooting for the White House again. Has America become a blunder nation – full of blundering people only capable of making blunders? Perhaps Americanism is the biggest blunder of all, the grand mistake that humanity will forever regret. The rather eerie thing about Donald Trump is that he is a product of the American ideology. And that should frighten every American.
If Trump is any indication of American values – which he is, because half the country is willing to vote for him – america is doomed. Trump represents how absurd and individualistic American ideals are. In fact, anyone who’s familiar with the concept of the American dream should know that. It’s the way of America to glorify the individual at the heavy expense of the collective.
The American Nightmare
Let’s assume that the American dream is the highest American ideal. It’s the idea that no matter who you are, you can always move up – become more successful and create a better life for you and for your family. Immediately, your focus is reduced to two things: you and your family. Anything outside that is not your responsibility. Every other person and their families can just fend for themselves. This creates an environment of competition between families. Families are given no incentive whatsoever to help each other or to collaborate.
By (ideologically) reducing the focus of every American, this nightmare creates an environment of pure competition and hardly any collaboration. Families act as if they’re in a vacuum, without regard for the broader context that accommodates them. Anyone who becomes rich does so at the expense of many other people – but that’s not wrong, according to Americanism. In fact, that’s things playing out exactly as they should.
Americans have an increasingly cynical view of their government. Despite some of them being enormous patriots, their criticism of the government is endless. Their loyalty is in fact not to the government but to Americanism – a hollow ideology that promises success and liberty to everyone in a system where only a few massively successful and liberated people can be accommodated. So committed to this non-existent dream are these patriots, they will fight to the death to defend their illusion of it.
The fact of the matter is that not everyone can become successful in America. In fact, a startlingly small portion of the population can. Millions are stuck in jobs they don’t like or drowning in debt, and the American dream provides no assurance, no way out for these people. It’s easy to chant about liberty and the American dream when you’re already doing OK, but no one ever spares a thought for the legions of people who didn’t “make it”, often through no fault of their own and now live soul-crushing lives. How can the American dream possibly be considered valid in a country where a vast majority of the population is extremely unsuccessful? Clearly, something’s going wrong.
The American dream is meant to be for everyone and yet it comes true for almost none of them, and the wasteland of constantly competing families isn’t going to get any easier to endure. No one can claim that the American dream is still alive today. For a brief period, perhaps it was, but not anymore. Not for most of America’s history.
If America cannot live up to its own proposed standard, then what does that say about what a blunder it is? It really couldn’t have veered further off course if it had tried. It fucked up to the maximum extent. Instead of the American dream, most people live the American nightmare – the precise opposite of the dream. Chances are, you’ll never be successful to the full extent your talents deserve. That’s the American nightmare – the American dream turned sour and selfish. The American nightmare: you live forever in subjugation to those who made it.
Liberty for All
Liberty is likewise a thing only a few people have to its full extent. With success comes money, and with money comes liberty. The people with the most money are always the most free. Liberty for successful people is much more expansive than liberty for unsuccessful people. Thus, liberty becomes just as unequal and hoarded as money is. Liberty is not a right – it’s a commodity.
In such a capitalist nation, why would it be a surprise that everything becomes a commodity? Even beauty, freedom, and knowledge are commodified.
Democracy: You get to choose which rich asshole tyrannizes you
Predatory capitalism: You get to become a commodity to be bought and sold
Your resume: Your sales pitch via which you sell yourself and your precious time to an owner
You ready to go on the market? Never has there been a greater lie than the concept of the “job market”. In reality, there’s an “employee market”. You’re not buying them; they’re buying you. Just look at who has all the power in the employer-employee relationship.
Better make yourself look good. This is your chance to impress them. You have to do it or you’ll live in abject poverty all your life – if not on the streets with nowhere to go, begging for money.
Your vote matters! Except it doesn’t, because every rich asshole is just like every other rich asshole. All super rich androids are alike. They have the same basic programming. They may vary in their execution, but the underlying code is equivalent in what it achieves, which is to say, it enriches the rich and puts down the poor.
Why do social welfare programs exist? They exist to stop a furious and desperate underclass from rising up against the super rich. But these are often degrading. It’s only a matter of time.
Whether its end comes by the mistreated underclasses or corporate drones who don’t want to be treated like robots anymore, America has doomed itself. It has invited its own destruction by mistreating people and being an institution of the super rich. It’s run by the rich, for the rich. That is why it must fall. You don’t ignore 99 percent of your people and get to survive for long. People are what make a country.
How many presidents will there have to be before Americans figure out what they are – the stooges and patsies of the super rich?
Whatever the case, the American people will have to do the smartest thing – they will have to figure out that it’s extreme individualism that creates unfair systems like this. Without the very individualism with which they are doused, the super rich could not rule over them. They’ll have to stop being selfish and realize that a fair world without super rich rulers is one that values everyone for who they are, not just you.
Are you smart? Then enlighten people. Intelligence is not a commodity.
Trumpism of the Day
“Congratulations to Senator Joe Manchin for not endorsing Radical Kamala Harris because of her DEATH WISH for the Filibuster and the Rule of Law. Joe knows that only the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, can protect our Country, our People, and Make America Great Again!” – Truth Social, September 24, 2024 [Link]
Day 3389 of waiting for Trump to say something intelligent. Well, it doesn’t seem likely, folks, but we’ll keep our eye out!
ONLY Donald Trump can protect our country!! What a narcissistic fuckwit. He’s delusional. He only speaks politician. He doesn’t speak English. He’s never for real. He’s never just a genuine guy. He’s a raving demagogue. Try Trumpagogue! The Trump espouses Trumpisms, the opposite of truths!
Man, all this Trumpic exposure is really setting my Geiger counter off, but this is a job someone has to do! Everyone knows that Trumpons – the highly volatile particle given off by Trump – are dangerous to the brain. Luckily, they’ve invented PPE for just such an eventuality!
If Kamala Harris or any of the Democrats said anything remotely as self-indulgent as Trump says on a daily basis, they’d be decried by Trump fans as narcissists. But when Trump does it of course, it’s okay. Guess all those Trumpons must be seriously messing with their thought processes!!
Get PPE. Stop Trumpon exposure NOW!! Restore American sanity!!!
All the Balls in the World
We got off the train in an orderly fashion, and just ahead was the Zeusian Border Patrol, checking passports while a thunderbolt wreathed in billowing clouds watched over it all. I looked nervously around at my comrades. Some of them had expressions of resolution; others were visibly terrified. I straightened my stolen suit. My disguise was the simplest one of all – I was a traveling businessman come to survey conditions in Zeus and decide whether I wanted to do business there.
I approached the four lines and joined one of them, careful not to look at the thunderbolt overhead, which was making buzzing sounds – the kind that made all the hair on your body stand up. As I inched closer to the border operators, I felt myself begin to sweat. What if I was caught? Would I be sent back to Demeter to endure the freezing winter with no insulation? I couldn’t spend another moment in that place. After a bad case of frostbite on my left foot that left me barely able to walk for weeks, I’d decided that enough was enough, and I’d headed west with the next group of refugees.
It had been a tough choice between Zeus and Hypnos. Generally, Hypnos was the easier choice since it didn’t have a Border Patrol, but it was also ruled by conditions of sleepiness. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life asleep. I just wanted to live in a normal place that was warm enough to keep me alive. I’d been born in Demeter, so every year of my life, I’d endured intense summers and absolutely brutal winters. Every year, someone I knew had died from the extreme cold. And by this point, I had basically no one left.
Or, my anxiety continued to prod, if they caught me, would I be subjected to the thunderbolt and killed? It was all over if that was the case. I’d accepted the risk when deciding to come over, but I didn’t feel at all brave seeing that horrific thing floating softly on the breeze. I’d heard stories, of course. Who hadn’t? Apparently, being struck caused every muscle in your body to contract so strongly that they snapped your bones.
When it was finally my turn, I muttered a “hello” to the operator, who held out a gloved hand for my passport. I handed it over, hoping to heaven that he didn’t notice my anxious tremor. He looked at me for a moment with sharp, critical eyes, then typed something into his computer and scanned my passport.
“Where are you coming from today?” he asked in a bored voice, not even looking my way.
“Uh, Demeter,” I said, thankfully avoiding a stutter.
“And what’s the reason for your visit, sir?”
“I’m here on business. Looking to expand internationally.”
“What is your business?” he asked.
“It’s called Frequency Consulting,” I said, my mouth dry. “We do operations relating to wave travel.”
He looked at me again with the same critical eye. “And what do you expect to find here?”
“Hopefully, more opportunities to do business,” I said.
He stared. On and on. I tried not to think about the sweat that felt like it was running from my hair down the side of my head.
After what felt like at least ten minutes, he smiled. “I see. Zeus welcomes fresh enterprises, as long as they all follow the Law. Are you familiar with it?”
I nodded. “I am. I was sure to read the relevant advisories.”
I couldn’t believe how well this was going. Was it really this easy?
“You applied for a visa at very short notice. Do you know why?”
“Uh, I just … I’m usually quite busy, and my secretary is too. I don’t have much time away from the office.”
I wasn’t sure he bought it.
I heard yelling nearby. I looked around to see one of the Demeterians who’d been on the train getting hauled to a circle on the ground.
“Illegal!” one of the Border Patrol officers was shouting. “How dare you present to Zeus under false pretenses?”
The thunderbolt overhead vibrated, making a loud sound that increased in pitch as the officers left the refugee in the circle and backed quickly away. Then, a blast, a blinding, jagged arc of yellow, a horrific scream worse than anything I’d heard in Demeter. And the refugee collapsed, his body twisted unnaturally and covered in bluish, vein-like scars where the electricity had shot through him.
“Happens every day,” the officer who was checking me said, still sounding bored. “At least one of them tries it every single day. They must have all the balls in the world!” He chuckled and handed my passport back.
I took it with a trembling hand, hardly able to believe it.
“Please enjoy your stay in Zeus, sir,” the officer said with a polite smile.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
And then I stumbled off distractedly toward the road. Behind me the thunderbolt buzzed menacingly … rhythmically, much as an angry rhino might breathe.
I didn’t look back.