Someone on Quora asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote this magnificent response.
A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
'My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
The British seem to have a real flair for articulation and creative expression of the obvious.
I posted that three days ago, but it is worth reposting for those who missed it. My favorite line is "He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege."
Wow and from after all of that I’m still left wondering why would anyone care about what the British think.?
They tend to think interesting thoughts.
@greyeyed123 and we are global...and sometimes a view from the outside in is insightful...many follow global news and have opinions on Therese Mays, Trudeau, Macron, Merkle, etc. When I travel, I want to know what the people think of America so I can prepare...
@greyeyed123 Yeah well so does my 80 year old neighbor with dementia. ?
@48thRonin I can only assume your neighbor is British.
@greyeyed123, @thinktwice I follow global news just to know what’s going on in other places and to catch things that our media sources usually tend to leave out.
But what any of them has to say about our country is as relevant as what we might say about theirs and from my experience they really don’t care.
@48thRonin Not saying that you can glean any new information...but to gain insight from the experiences and opinions of others helps expand awareness and formulate your own opinions...many do care...what happens in the USA still impacts the lives of others on some level...
@greyeyed123 No just has dementia.
but I do communicate quite often with some people from there through call of duty and mostly they joke about what’s going on over here and for the most part only care about their own brexit issues.
And I refrain from installing my opinions about that because it’s their country not mine and quite the only thing about it that has affected was HBO cutting short the last season of game of thrones which I attribute to hbo’s greed more than anything.
@48thRonin You seem to care quite a lot about something for not caring about it. Is it that you want others to not care also? Why would you care if we care or not? lol
@greyeyed123 I’m not saying that I don’t care it’s just that I don’t care as much as some others.
Seriously if I was to turn on the news and they were to say that half of the world disapproves of what we eat. I’d simply finish my Big Mac with bacon and finish going about my life.
I mean one of gaming friends is actually from wales and I told him that it doesn’t bother me that he shags sheep just as long as he’s got my back while I’m capturing a point.
See I care but not as much as most people.?
You could not have nailed that board any better and I've not been enthused by his gander in forty years of his attacks on many of people of color especially the American Indians since they where allowed the rights to have casinos on their reservation he went out of his mind to a reporter of color when the two casinos in Connecticut saying that they didn't look like Indians to him but you have explained You, Brittish folks quite well I had hoped that perhaps the Queen had an opening for a stable boy cleaning royal dung from the Horses