it's delulu diplomacy, babe 🙂‍↕️

On American nuisances and a grab bag of trends on-the-mind.

Feb 09, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Things are…grim, which makes this newsletter a bit of a bummer at times. I encourage you to skip to the culture section! Or: silo news consumption via Reports™ like these and other concentrated, one-stop-shop sources. Log off and make change! No one benefits from you stunning yourself still via the fire hose of information. I’m going to try to temper the dark with the light, zooming further into culture without going full head empty too. If you’re looking for an easy way to help, the immigrant legal aid non-profit my mother works for is in financial need: donate here. Now…onward to regular 😧 programming!

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Trump proposes U.S. ‘take over’ Gaza
Netanyahu vows to restart war in Gaza
One of the more evil moves this week, which Trump suggested would become “The Riviera of the Middle East.” This all builds on Biden’s enabling the demolishing of the people, the place, and the culture which has inspired a justified-and-not finger-pointing debate between pro-Kamala and never-Kamala people. No one loses. Anyway, a plea for you, Kendrick Lamar: since Trump will be at tonight’s game…can you please kill him with DEI? Please? Not to be outdone…

Trump to Fight ‘Anti-Christian Bias’
Casino mogul Court to revisit defamation rule
Trump: reverse initiative to phase out plastic straws
More madness, etc.

A group of DOGE teens are aiding in Elon
The biggest breach of US data is under way
‘Rapid Disassembly’ of the Government
The coup d’dorks started this week, with literal teens breaking into all of our sensitive information without literally anyone’s permission. Thankfully, Tesla’s sales are plummeting in Europe. Also? We should start protesting at Tesla dealerships.

Junk From Temu, SHEIN Will Cost You More
How Trump's tariffs could impact you
”The De Minimis Exception”
“2025 hair trends”
Trump to pause tariffs on Canada, Mexico
USPS Reverses Decision to Halt Parcel Service
The tariffs (or threat of them) will reshape international culture and trends, as things become insulated and confined by borders. It will be interesting, that’s for sure! The culture drought looms large.

Democrats elect Ken Martin as national chair
"David Hogg's election as DNC vice chair"
We’ll see how this goes! I’m hopeful but also realistic given Chuck’s antics. Now…will the Dem hail mary special elections actually mean anything? I have doubts, but how great would that be?

Inside JPMorgan’s new headquarters
“Lighting that matches circadian rhythm”
“We don’t want you to leave.”
You won’t believe it but this is the most dystopian story of the week.

Global Temps Shattered Records in Jan
🙄

There are so many points in Rachel Kushner’s 2024 book Creation Lake where protagonist and spy, Sadie Smith, seems to be using her Americanness as a cleaver to wedge through a culture that isn’t her own. As she navigates French country folk and the related class dynamics, she modulates her national identity to slink around, scheme, judge, manipulate — then leave. While she would never admit it, she’s a geopolitical nuisance whose livelihood comes from meddling with local and international activism, sticking her nose from place to place as she assumes her Americanness contributes nothing to this point of view when it is in fact the basis of such behavior.

It’s a fitting read, particularly as we spent the week watching another American nuisance — Onijah Andrew Robinson — comically terrorize people whilst abroad. Whether due to mental breakdown or extreme New Yorkerness, Onijah’s story of stranding herself in Pakistan in pursuit of a 19 year old she catfished has created an international incident. Yes, the videos of her are very funny. Yes, she absolutely deserves the meme status. But, like Sadie in Creation Lake, her dirty fingerprints are all over a people and place, interrupting what would otherwise be normal life: everything in this small corner of Pakistan has been upended by one American’s stunning delusion. (As of yesterday, she’s back home.)

This fictional and real example embody the modern “ugly American” trope that is both always-as-its-been but increasingly geographically unconfined thanks to media, to soft powers: to be American is to project that the world belongs to you, that anything, anywhere, is yours to toy with. There is an embedded soft-imperialism in the culture that allows one to view themselves as special instead of a global citizen. Unfortunately, much of this isn’t only Americans in a place misbehaving (Hello, Mexico City!) but American ideologies reshaping modern diplomacy. USAID is the best example as worldwide humanitarian aid has been recalled, creating a crisis in places like Sudan where half the population needs food aid. Gaza too, levelled by Biden, is now Trump’s beachside fantasy that he believes he’ll win a Peace Prize for as he enables the conflict anew. Contemporary and evil anti-queerness has inspired a country like Argentina to follow suit while also pulling out of WHO. Exiting the Paris Agreement has followed, as right wing leadership in Indonesia and New Zealand took the American bait. Desires to conquer Greenland and Panama and Canada have some young Canadians longing to be absorbed. While racist anti-DEI items are largely American, the trickle down isn’t: governmental dismantling of diversity enables corporate (Amazon, Google, Target, Meta) anti-diversity which enables corporate (Amazon and Amazon) anti-sustainability — which enables the EU to cut green reportage and harms the world. “Arnault, who attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington last week, said he felt a ‘wind of optimism’ in the US and returning to France was a ‘bit of a cold shower’,” FT reported of LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault last week, where he praised “lower US taxes, cheaper energy costs and higher growth, especially compared with Europe.” American madness, exported. No tariffs needed!

When I say “America is that girl,” this is both compliment and condemnation: it’s a place of outsized (self-)importance and influence, a problematic yet popular trend setter that originated main character energy, inside and outside the border. Like Trump, like American TikTokers, the culture is entertainment by nature. This is sweetened by it being the global financial leader, enabling the younger siblings of the world to “take cues,” to model themself accordingly, to immigrate, to change. For citizens, this can enable a feeling of “Wherever I go, me and my problems are most important.” which is akin to geopolitical micro-aggressions. Sadie Smith, Onijah Andrew Robinson, Donald Trump, me and my compatriots: not the same — but are we that different? I would have many, many nickels for all the “I bet life in Spain is great now.” chats I’ve had which — to the above — proves the main character point: the local far right forces are emboldened, alongside Meloni and Le Pen and Orbán. In fact, yesterday they held a “Make Europe Great Again” rally in Madrid, courting Musk and bemoaning “woke”. Did I mention the Nazi tome we found outside our apartment yesterday? The signs of tyranny, the alarm bells are exported in big and small ways.

Wherever you go, there you are — or, wherever you go, those red, white, and blue problems are there too.

Millennials annoyed by Lily Collins’s surrogacy
"pregnancy is for poor women"
Not to be the friend who’s too woke but this ladders into a subject we talked about two summers ago: the definitions of humanity and how a human “is made” is shifting, as we figure out what that means at the speed of life. Not that surrogacy “is wrong” but it's becoming increasingly, um, ethically sticky.

Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ Eyes Cannes Debut
We’re so back, although I couldn’t make it beyond an hour of Beau Is Afraid because it was so messy and stressful, which isn’t typically something I “can’t” weather but there was an indulgence that was too much for its own good. It was like shoveling salt in your mouth while chugging the Pacific.

Sarah Jessica Parker to judge 2025 Booker
The Booker Prize 2025
I missed this last month but major that both Sarah Jessica Parker (!!) and Kiley Reid (!!!) are on this year’s Booker Prize judging committee (among others). Especially considering SJP is seriously literary without all the bullshit of commercialized book clubs! (Speaking of SJP, some brain rot to think about: did she originate the Roblox “oof” audio meme? I have my doubts but I want this to be true.)

Dogs exposed to chemicals more likely to get cancer
…and you too! From vinyl flooring to air pollution, lots of things affect our precious angels. Be careful!

"’kids laughing’ stock audio played three times"
“Shoulder length beach waves”
"Riverdale name. AI generated song."
Items to file under the degradation of entertainment, which is also to say that stuff like this won’t be noticed by many which is exactly how AI slop will take over mainstream media: people don’t notice or don’t care about cultural slop.

Lady Gaga - Abracadabra (Official Music Video)
“i am 9 years old”
“mom hates the new Lady Gaga”
“in a stranger’s apartment”
“barely 24 hours”
"Who is your pop diva?"
I have to let my Little Monster out for a sec because Lady Gaga’s comeback has felt flat — until now. The “Abracadabra” song and video are — not to be hyperbolic — perfect, cleverly using Susie Sioux style theatrics for faux-ballroom fun. Is this a recession indicator? A pre-war meditation on dancing until we die? Unsure but it unlocked a 19 year old sleeper cell that had been dormant, who longs to be in a sweaty, WeHo club dancing until 4AM. I’m glad someone is doing their job well! We all must personally thank ally of the year, Mr. Gaga, for this. Follow this up with horsegiirL’s “Take It Off” and Oklou’s “harvest sky” too.

There were a lot of things that I wanted to write essays on but I couldn’t decide which one to commit to. So, to have my cake and eat it too, here is a pu pu platter of trends I’ve been watching.

Inter-Gen Z War: Elon’s nouveau Hitler’s Youth really highlighted something we’ll be hearing about more and more: there are two Gen Zs. As brilliantly summed up by Rachel Janfaza, the difference is Gen Z in their mid-to-late twenties versus Gen Z who are teens-to-mid-twenties, kids who graduated college during Covid versus kids who graduated high school during Covid. Small time difference but huge cultural difference, where the former were shaped by early-to-mid-2010s progress yielding a better future while the latter were shaped by mid-to-late-2010s chaotics. The younger are the “Gen Z loves Trump” and the larger neo-MAGA people, all best exemplified by the DOGE coup d’dorks: they’re power-hungry meanies who believe joining the 1% is financial success, which will be the death of us all or, rather, death by Mr. Big Balls.
Avant Basic: To the above, basic is being redefined for a specific type of young person, as expressed via the MAGA-ASOS-Zara aesthetic: it’s rich aspiration as expressed through ultra-fast fashion products. If it’s not the linoleum floorboards, it’s the air fryer. This is LA project manager core and we seemingly have a name for the more discerning expression of this: lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter gnocchi, which started as a New York Times cooking meme that is trending toward a way to express Gen Z consumerist identities and purchased cool. Pass that pasta with your fingers, Gabriette, because vibe personality disorder has struck again! Stream “Our Dope Future” by Tony Tulathiumutte!
Neo-Anorexia: To the above as well! Have you connected the dots between today’s cute lil food trends and anorexia? I didn’t but have been fascinated since hearing Claire and Ashley at Celebrity Memoir Book Club explore the subject via the viral story on (salty, briny, lemony, garlicky) “pick me” foods and how they play into faux-wellness non-eating. Think girl dinner as disordered eating and such “cool foods” are put into a concerning, post-BBL context. This gets at Gen Z’s (corporatized) avocado moment, but also the literal empty calorie culture that comes with the loss of body positive views, which we’re realizing was another Millennial forward-thinking win.
Post-Accountable Era: After reports of sexual misconduct and rape surfaced in December, it seemed certain that Brian Jordan Alvarez’s English Teacher was cooked — but nope! It just got renewed for season two. Daniel Penny, who killed Jordan Neely, was found not guilty of the charges — and was recently hired by eggheaded billionaire bitch Mark Andreessen’s venture capital firm and has tabloids following his love life. The Jan 6 felons were freed! Obviously we’re in the post-accountability era. I would not be surprised if Karla Sofía Gascón wins the Oscar and Diddy walks free. Granted, they would defy the blinding male whiteness of the theme.
Post-App Era: A friend and I were chatting about this: no one “talks” about apps anymore, meaning — a decade ago — culture was deep in a “Oh, have you heard of X app?” mode. Today, talking about apps seems like a pursuit from another time as now is more about concepts that go beyond the phone and or the community versus “an app for that.” App culture reeks of old-world tech ideologies which, as we know, is killing our planet and minds as DOGE gestures and loser bros dissolve our lives. Thus, app talks feel like last decade’s tech playbook, which is definitely why the “debating if human connection is scalable” posts were widely roasted. Remember: friendship apps won’t save you! These are all paid distractions from actually living, from actually having a unique thought!
“Now More Than Ever”-itis: I was talking to my friend Rax Will and I realized something, as we chatted politics and queerness and public expression: there’s a very “Now more than ever!” energy now, which mirrors a very 2016 “RESIST!” template that isn’t bad, per se, but will become a mask for inaction. Meaning: I watch TikToks where, before anyone shares any opinion, they give a rushed, forced genuflection of “I stand with Palestine, trans women are women…” statement to position values — which isn’t bad. But if you have to say that, is this because you’re not actually doing anything about the situation? Or that the labor of protest and change has to be forced into any and all content? This is less about the sentiment itself but is more about how, increasingly, so much communication — online and off — is full of caveats of positionality, everyone becoming an “In This House” yard sign, personified follow-up Tweets to support a family in Gaza. These are good instincts! But imagine what we could do with our breath if we weren’t constantly breathing shared values at each other?
Recession Indicating: This old meme is having a moment, as so many culture items express a wrong-ness that seem to indicate collapse. What are some examples of these “recession indicators”? Here are some I’ve logged this week: Cal State system unveiling a huge free AI initiative; Denise Richards’s new show on Bravo, which follows Alec Baldwin’s TLC show; a new Smurf movie built around new Rihanna music which is…a cover of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”; the celebrity acceptance speech becoming political site again; David Dobrik for Boss; everything crypto coin.
Pre-War Fog: Walk with me, because I’m going to sound insane but this has been bugging me: 1.) We have a group of young people who long to be rich but will hit the ceilings of our Great Depression 2.0; 2.) We have world leaders (Trump.) who are reviving imperialism; 3.) A certain country (America.) is revoking international aid whilst stoking animosity; 4.) The largely unemployed group of boot licking young people will be squeezed into the military upon the promise of power only for their broke asses to be sacrificed in the name of an orange monarchic dream. This is history, in a nutshell, no? But the story is so clear to me and I hope to be wrong!