Really, this year only needed two parts, but I wanted to go in some depth about how fucking stupid I was to fall into the Trumposphere so completely. For me, it doesn’t matter that I snapped out of it relatively quickly—by mid-2017 in fact. Nor does it matter that I’ve worked to inform anyone who’s willing to listen about the dangers of giving in to mob thinking, or information illiteracy. Not even my actions in 2020 make up for it, when I volunteered for the Sanders campaign, then once it was obvious that it wasn’t going to make it, pivoted to the Biden campaign to ensure that practically speaking we have something that isn’t a dumpster fire running the show.

I let myself get tricked into full-throatedly supporting a shitty con-man. I hung on his every word, I bugged the single friend I had to watch the debates with me so we could both heckle his Republican opponents first, then Clinton in the fall. The words of his opponents were heard by us, but not comprehended. They were noise, breaks between what we really wanted to hear.

I can’t blame my friend for going along with it. He saw me as a political authority, because despite my idiocy I at least had a basic understanding of US politics from when I was less of an absolute fuck-up. I remember how I would loop a particular video, of Trump dancing in a dark room with pastel lighting to the tune of a poppy song. I’d watch that video for hours, then keep it playing in the background even longer. I was brainwashing myself.

I also applied for a job at the Trump campaign. It brings me pain to post this piece of media where others can potentially see it, but the entire point of this retrospective is understanding, accepting and embracing the absolute dumpster that was my 20s. So, as I contemplate my 23rd year and the agonizing comedown that it was, I leave you with the PDF of my submitted resume to the 2016 Trump campaign.

The part that makes me cringe the most is ‘returning in Fall this year.’ Boy, that really was a fucking lie.