Matthew Brown

Producer, Photographer, Vodacom Journalist of the Year Nominee. Views are usually someone else's.

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@ctoLarsson CTO, people died because of this person. I know he loves to say he did this for some kind of good, but he’s just a drug dealer.

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@DeanObeidallah Just please not back to South Africa.

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@trussliz @RNC Ok Eva Braun

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@MarianneThamm Let’s hope so

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@elonmusk Censored whose speech specifically?

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

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

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@TheCryptoLark $FIL huge gap just to get to ATH and has real world use

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@therealkoops Can't wait for your Discord Channel!

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@RobertJenrick https://t.co/rfhMDYWNCi

[Godfrey Albertyn 🇿🇦 🇵🇸 @galbertyn]

Why was Ivor Ichikovitz involved in the Zoom call of African presidents ahead of the peace mission? His company is one of the largest arms manufacturers on the continent and has been embroiled in multiple corruption allegations 😬

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@merseyflow What the hell is wrong with you bastards? It’s 2023 and I have to create an account online and pay a minimum of ��10 IN ADVANCE of using a £2 tunnel because you are too cheap to pay actual humans. You suck. @BCTMerseyflow

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@Juliest101 and 6 cops needed to do it

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@NeillBlomkamp

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

The Inge Lotz Story is now available on @spotifypodcasts - @CatherineR2015 and I are so thankful to @News24. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this possible and put up with me over the last 11 years, esp @laurenbeukes @antonyaltbeker @leigh_jarvis

[Richard Pearshouse @RPearshouse]

Eduardo Mendúa (center), an Indigenous activist who was fighting to protect Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest from oil extraction, was shot dead by gunmen on Sunday.

His murder should be promptly + thoroughly investigated and those responsible held to account.
https://t.co/RgpKDzy9eT

[Kate Lefko-Everett @opinionkate]

@RobynPorteous Apologies, I’m not sure who I saw tweet this a few weeks ago but I saved the graphic and it includes references.

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@Roman_Trading Well of course - I just bought a bunch of alts so I’m bang on as usual…

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@Adobe @AdobeUK @creativecloud you now have no support chat or email or ticket system. I am trying to give you money (as I have done for 20 years). Please come back to me with a contact for a human in billing support.

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@itsgfreviews Pong

[Matthew Brown @mattbrownSA]

@JimInhofe Yes, let us be thankful you are gone at the end of the month, along with your lies and immoral deals. May you always be remembered as the senator who sold out our planet for a few bucks.