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False vision in choice involving independent California damaging the States (7,8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

optical illusion

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'false vision' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.

'choice involving independent california damaging the states' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'independent' could be 'us' (the puzzle setter and their Independent colleagues) and 'us' is found in the answer.
'california' could be 'cal' (short for California) and 'cal' is found within the answer.
'damaging' could be 'ill' and 'ill' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for optical illusion that I've seen before include "One can't really see it" , "Mirage" , "Something deceiving the eye" , "trick" , "outwardly deceptive" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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