Thursday, February 14, 2019

"Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" by Nate White



"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 sniveling 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: 1) Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are; 2) 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?’”



9 comments:

  1. Absolutely spot on chaps. Putrid Putin puppet!

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  2. Precise and articulate. I can be an effective writer but cannot hold a candle to this author.

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  3. Trump's "flaws": his malignant narcissism, his moral relativism, his white nationalism, his perfidious nationalism, his hateful racism, his infectious nihilism, his outrageous iconoclasm, his ruthless competition, his constitutional ignorance, his puerile dereliction, his embarrassing idiocy, his provocative transgressions, his mocking disrespect, his impetuous vulgarity, his belligerent bullying, his pathological lying, his obsessive vindictiveness, his hypocritical cowardice, his compulsive xenophobia, his callous misogyny, his lawless demagoguery, his insufferable bigotry, his disgusting buffoonery, his dangerous idiocy, his droning voice, his repulsive face…

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    1. He IS all that; I agree! (But he DID just give me a chance to refresh the vocabulary I haven't dusted off in years and for that I thank you both.)

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  4. where can I find more of Nate White's writings?

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    1. The article was on Quora and circulating through FB.

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    2. Katie Barnes: You can read more from Nate White by visiting his Quora profile, which has links to his answers to various Quora questions (which is also what his Trump piece is: a Quora answer):

      https://www.quora.com/profile/Nate-White-44

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  5. This article by Nate White is sooooo absolutely right on! I cannot look at Trump or hear him without feeling numb and unbelieving that such a monster is dragging this country thru the mud. When he does his latest demonstration of his soulessness, as he did yesterday in poking fun at people who wear glasses, I always think he can't go any lower. But he will, I am sure of that!

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  6. At the end, when it comes, he will try to take down the USA with him. It's an old story with psychopathic narcissists....

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