@ris

[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

[@ris @risby]

@loveDoges111 You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

[@ris @risby]

@bindelj Error on the interweb. I think you might mean extricate rather than
extrapolate

[@ris @risby]

@Ka81 I'm fairly sure "effect" is a noun and the verb you're looking for is "affect".

[Joel Ashton 🍃🌳🍃 @_JoelAshton]

Ok, this is beyond a joke now!! 😡 @NationalHways, PLEASE tell me why your contractors are out mowing down approx. 20 MILES (no joke!) of #wildflowers in the form of Oxeye Daisies, Sainfoin, Red Clover and MANY more, on the side of a straight section of the A1M??
Let’s say this was 5m wide (much wider in places), that’s approx. 160,000sqm (16 hectares or 39.5 acres!) of #wildflowermeadow you’ve single-handedly wiped out overnight!

No sight restrictions, no safety concerns.

Please have the decency to respond. So much for a #NoMowSummer.

Photo taken by a passenger.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

@HelenBa16838378 Yes.

[Kaveh Solhekol @SkyKaveh]

Gary Lineker suspended by the BBC for upsetting the Conservatives because he stood up for some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The same BBC whose chairman gave the Conservatives £400,000 before helping to arrange an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson

[Peter O'Donnell #ThankYouNHS🚴🏽‍♂‍👍🇺🇦☮️ @almightypod]

@supertanskiii Yeah and start reading Ladybird books again….

[@ris @risby]

Lest we forget

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Please spend 10 mins watching this. All the way through, please. Please share as widely as you can. Please keep it in a place where you can find it, in the months to come.

[@ris @risby]

@nut_meggy What did you replace his nutmeg with?

[Samuel West 💙💛 @exitthelemming]

I'm supporting a great new campaign to defend our brilliant #NHS.

Go to https://t.co/Q4QM36n9u4 to take their five simple actions. Follow @YourNHS2021 and join the fight. Let's save this national treasure.
#YourNHSNeedsYou

[@ris @risby]

il est un bon gar

[Le Papotin @JournalPapotin]

Les journalistes du Papotin ont rencontré le Président de la République, Emmanuel Macron, pour une rencontre sans filtre.
Rendez-vous samedi 7 janvier à 20h30 sur @France2tv pour découvrir l’émission.
#LesRencontresDuPapotin #Papotin

[@ris @risby]

'My' MP. Never got my vote. Why, why, why

[Put Elon Musk in jail @raycasey2003]

6⃣9⃣MPs who voted for the #GorillaGullis Rwanda Bill:

No.6⃣2⃣ Royston Smith

Worth repeating:

*He voted against Free School Meals
*He then went for a cynical photo op at a Food bank
*He then claimed a £1 parking fee for the photo op

#ToriesOut162 #RefugeesWelcome 💙

[@ris @risby]

@JeremyClarkson inadvertently reveals how delusional he is by writing “Everyone who's my age thinks the same way”. #TheSun give freedom of speech a bad name

[@ris @risby]

@Carthy_25 @NoContextBrits Roger & Val Have Just Got In

[@ris @risby]

They're all criminals

[Paul Geraghty🇪🇺🎨 @paulgeraghty11]

Health Under Secretary for Health, Maria Caulfield, says there is no money for nurses.
Maria swapped nursing for an £87k MP salary and employs her husband as her office manager. Claimed £200,000 expenses 2021/22.

[Patrina Finch #FBPE @Siege_Perilous]

#GMB Kate…you talk of “ordinary people” being affected by the strikes…what on earth do you think the people who are striking are? They’re “ordinary people” too. And Pierce is wrong that support for Rail workers has evaporated…real people are behind their struggle

[Taj Ali @Taj_Ali1]

Nurses today are earning £5000 a year less in real terms than they were in 2010. It's no surprise why 1 in 9 left the NHS last year. Staff and patients alike are impacted by dangerously low staffing levels in the NHS. Nurses are striking for all of us. And we should back them.

[Peter Stefanovic @PeterStefanovi2]

MP pay 2010 £65k

MP pay 2022 £84.1k

28% rise & real terms rise of over £4k

same period nurses pay down 8% against inflation with real terms pay cut of £3k

RT if you think MPs telling nurses they don’t deserve a rise are taking the piss
#EnoughIsEnough

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

The cost of meeting nurses’ demand for an inflation-busting pay rise: £1.6 billion.

The cost of Rishi Sunak’s bank tax giveaways: £7.3 billion.

If we can afford handouts for the rich, we can afford to meet the basic needs of those who keep this country afloat.