Politics

Twitter Wasted No Time in Pointing out the Irony of Melania Trump's Speech

November 3rd 2016

At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Thursday, potential future first lady Melania Trump expressed fears that America's culture was becoming "too mean and too rough." More than a few Twitter users found the sentiment ironic, given the behavior of her husband, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

During her speech, Trump praised the values and virtues of "kindness, honesty, respect, compassion, charity, understanding, cooperation," USA Today reported, saying, "I do worry about all of our children." She then went on to declare that our culture — especially on the internet — is "too mean" and she will focus on online-bullying if she is made First Lady.

As The Daily Beast transcribes:

"Technology has changed our universe, but like anything, it can have a bad side. We have seen this already. [...] Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough... [W]e have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other. We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media. It will be one of the main focuses of my work if I'm privileged enough to become your First Lady."

Twitter users quickly pointed out that Donald Trump is one of the most prominent examples of the "mean" and "rough" behavior that takes place online.

Huffington Post Senior Politics Editor Sam Stein took it upon himself to provide some examples of the candidate using his Twitter account to bully others.

Trump's mean tweets are signs of a bigger issue.

Trump's bullying isn't exclusive to Twitter; much of his rhetoric during this election cycle has been accused of being hateful toward large groups of people — by both the left and the right.

When Trump's supporters beat a protestor at his rally who was part of the Black Lives Matter movement, Trump approved of their actions. When Trump disagreed with a judge, he accused the judge of being racially biased, saying, "We're building a wall. He's a Mexican." When his supporters engaged in anti-Islamic language at a town hall, he didn't push back. Trump launched his campaign by claiming that Mexico wasn't sending their best people, they're sending "rapists."

In supporting, encouraging, and yes, tweeting (or retweeting) these racist views of his supporters, Trump is normalizing racism. That's why the irony of Melania Trump's pleas of kindness are so rich — because it's not only that Trump tweets mean things at Rosie O'Donnell. He says hateful things that endanger peoples' lives.

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