There is a reason Americans are perpetually the butt of every international joke: because they let people like Donald Trump speak for them. Moreover, they have no problem letting celebrities with an overt background in sexual predatordom walk freely instead of punishing them as they deserve to be. Indeed, they’d rather interview these famous people in order to ensure higher readership or viewership based on the scandal.
Trump’s latest embarrassing political turn has found him a friend in Sarah Palin, who we mistakenly thought we’d gotten rid of after the 2008 presidential election in which she rode on the sole virtue of having a vagina in the vain hope that this would excuse her thinking you can see Russia from Alaska. And so, clearly, this makes her a perfect ally to Trump, who is banking on the national stupidity level of his voting constituency by further turning his campaign into something out of a Barry Levinson movie. Maybe Trump figures that, at this point, it’s better to go full-fledged in the mockery he’s made of American politics by enlisting Palin’s public backing. And yet, somehow, this might not be quite as bad as R. Kelly’s latest interview with GQ, stating his defensive feelings toward Bill Cosby.
Apart from the fact that R. Kelly might actually “trump” Cosby in levels of grossness, he has still managed to sustain the favor not just of devoted fans, but fellow musicians now awkwardly trying to distance themselves from certain collaborations. Kelly’s disgusting response to the Cosby situation is as follows: “When I look on TV and I see the 70-, 80-, 90-year-old ladies talking about what happened when they were 17, 18, or 19, there’s something strange about it. That’s my opinion. It’s just strange.” Really? Is it strange that a woman would think it’s more trouble than it’s worth to come forward about their assault with gaslighting men like Kelly and Cosby to tell them nothing foul happened? Not only that, but Kelly doesn’t seem to have any information grounded in reality. Are any of the women who have spoken out against Cosby ninety years old? No. Is R. Kelly mentally impaired in some way? Quite possibly. But what does this mean in American terms? He’ll probably run on the Kanye West ticket in 2020. Because Americans don’t give a fuck about shame. To them, that’s what makes their country great.
