Follow

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“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

@Paulos_the_fog 👍 this is exactly how I feel. I mean, wow — I can look at Boris Johnson and see how he got elected. My god, he’s not my guy. But among his endless consequential flaws he has nuggets that can be marketed well.

But Trump? … I can only imagine among his fans there is such complete disillusion with the world that Trump represents a leader who gets them. And that is really awful.

@Paulos_the_fog

I completely agree.

And "It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t." YES ❤

@benjohn

@Paulos_the_fog

No joke, this is the one thing about Trump for which I’m sincerely grateful.

#Trump isn’t the only person like this. But before he forced himself on our political milieu, you had to make the effort of getting to know someone before you could ascertain that he or she was a mentally lazy, bigoted peabrain with massive entitlement issues and no moral compass.

Now, you can simply ask if this person voted for Trump. It saves so much time!

#USPolitics
#USPol
#US

@Paulos_the_fog

Though I'm not British I feel quite the same about the orange. And I think Americans are not nice, not in a profound way, like British being kind (at least mostly). Americans are flippant and self-referred, it's their way of getting along with everything in their lives easily and without too much thinking about.

@Paulos_the_fog (I know, you're not Nate!)
Dear Nate, what a lovely text. The vocabulary, the play with words. The alliterations, the metaphors. This is what proper use of words looks like. Thank you for the absolutely best reading experience of the last days.

@Paulos_the_fog A lot of Americans would agree with this. And it does distress a lot of us that so many can still think he’s the one to vote for. More so it’s disturbing. And those supporting other candidates are just terrifying.

@Paulos_the_fog
I'm American and I see it exactly the same way. I don't get it. He brings out the hate and rage people would usually not express and makes those feelings ok.

Fortunately there are a lot of us who feel ashamed of him and his cohorts.

@Paulos_the_fog

This gets a couple things wrong. Americans can recognize Trump is reprehensible. I think his support is because a critical mass of Americans were raised to sexist, racist, homophobic and entitled positions that are considered shameful. I feel like a public figure that is at once evil and completely shameless provides a kind of comfort.

All of us see him as a disgusting, amoral person. Most of us mind.

@Paulos_the_fog And I'm an anglophile, but I find this article uncomfortably smug. Maybe Britain is too clever, droll and plucky to support someone like Trump, but I think a country that passed Brexit and gave Piers Morgan a career has the potential.

And the British hate bullies? Would the Irish and Scottish agree?

I get that some Brits might feel superior right now. In 2015, so did a lot of Yanks.

@Paulos_the_fog This was first published as an answer on Quora, but it was removed. No one knows why, but it's assumed moderation removed it because Trump fans complained too much.
It's such a great essay.

@Paulos_the_fog

This sounds almost exactly the type of thing - albeit in greater detail - that Donald Trumps own mother said about her piece of shit son.

@Paulos_the_fog as good a description of Trump that this is, the smug British exceptionalism woven throughout makes me cringe. We aren't so immune to the influences of nasty grifters either, Johnson being the obvious example, but it pretty much includes every Tory minister of the last 5 years.

@Paulos_the_fog We also voted to impose economic sanctions on ourselves which requires a quite extreme level of sheepish devotion to those same nasty grifters. Finally the corruption of our Tories far surpasses that of the GOP when assessed as percentage of GDP, where Tory corruption is now truly at nation breaking levels.

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.