A Brit's Point of View....

Right? Left? Centre?
Political news and debate.
Put your views and articles up for debate and destruction!
Post Reply
User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 15085
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

A Brit's Point of View....

Post by Joe Guy »

I believe this is from 2019, but it's as relevant as ever....
A must-read from British writer Nate White:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

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:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
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.”

-Nate White

liberty
Posts: 4775
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:31 pm
Location: Colonial Possession

Re: A Brit's Point of View....

Post by liberty »

I have a British website I could introduce you to, to demonstrate that you're wrong. Not all Brits dislike Trump; a considerable number actually like him too.
I expected to be placed in an air force combat position such as security police, forward air control, pararescue or E.O.D. I would have liked dog handler. I had heard about the dog Nemo and was highly impressed. “SFB” is sad I didn’t end up in E.O.D.

User avatar
Bicycle Bill
Posts: 9741
Joined: Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Surrounded by Trumptards in Rockland, WI – a small rural village in La Crosse County

Re: A Brit's Point of View....

Post by Bicycle Bill »

liberty wrote:
Sun Aug 24, 2025 6:31 pm
I have a British website I could introduce you to, to demonstrate that you're wrong. Not all Brits dislike Trump; a considerable number actually like him too.
Actually, what that would demonstrate is that with the world's population standing at eight billion individuals (more or less), you can find crazy people anywhere on the planet.
Image
-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 19670
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: A Brit's Point of View....

Post by BoSoxGal »

liberty wrote:
Sun Aug 24, 2025 6:31 pm
I have a British website I could introduce you to, to demonstrate that you're wrong. Not all Brits dislike Trump; a considerable number actually like him too.
UKIP and MAGA are two sides of same coin.

Yet two wrongs don’t make a right, just like my grandma always told me.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

ex-khobar Andy
Posts: 5747
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:16 am
Location: Louisville KY as of July 2018

Re: A Brit's Point of View....

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I spend about two months a year in UK; and even my conservative friends and relatives (i.e., one time Thatcher fans) ask me WTF is it with Trump? And, as I have said many times, even worse that Trump himself - after all, we have always had liars and conmen and frauds and the mentally ill, and we have learned how to live with them (mostly, hope they go away and bother someone else) - is that half the country, give or take, think he is just the guy to be president.

Post Reply