By our own example we must teach children

Er…

Melania Trump gave a speech at the UN “on the dangers of cyber-bullying.”

That’s nice, I guess, but she is after all married to the biggest cyber bully on the planet.

Now, she doesn’t make him do that, obviously, and she’s not exactly responsible for him, not quite so obviously…but she does live with him and stay married to him and appear by his side at intervals. She’s not exactly responsible for him but she is implicated in his bad behavior, because she stays. Is that unfair? No, I don’t think so, not really – not given the highly visible nature of his bullying, and how extreme it is. There’s something ethically wrong with someone who condones that level of brutality, and she does condone it by sticking around.

“We must teach each child the values of empathy and communication that are at the core of the kindness, mindfulness, integrity and leadership which can only be taught by example,” Mrs Trump said, raising more than a few eyebrows in the process, given her husband’s online behaviour.

“By our own example we must teach children to be good stewards of the world they will inherit.

“We must remember that they are watching and listening so we must never miss an opportunity to teach life’s many ethical lessons along the way.”

Like her own kid, who (I assume) is watching and listening to the way his father carries on. That’s some ethical lesson right there.

Donald Trump has been accused of using his own social media accounts to bully a vast array of people.

Accused? We’ve all seen them. We can see them right now.

Comments

6 responses to “By our own example we must teach children”

  1. Steve Watson Avatar

    This week at the UN: The First Accessory gets to talk about wimminthings like being kind to children, while The Man In Charge challenges everyone to a dick size contest.

  2. Kevin Henderson Avatar
    Kevin Henderson

    #1 I don’t think raccoon penises count for Man in Charge contests.

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    Donnie amuses himself while Melania says be nice to the children.

    Image result for zeus devouring his son

  4. Seth Avatar

    She’s his business partner, no better (and arguably worse) than any of his enablers and collaborators. Her proximity makes her more, not less, complicit in his crimes; the fact that their business arrangement resulted in a child makes her more, not less, culpable for suborning and supporting his obvious, egregious, naked, unscrupulous, oafish abuses of decency.

    Quite of a pair, they are.

  5. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Does she ever read what he tweets? Does she even listen to what he says? Does she even know what he’s enacted? Did she listen to what she said? How does someone take on this level of cognitive dissonance and still be capable of walking? Is she so shallow and unaware as to be that utterly ignorant of the complete disconnect between her noble thoughts and her husband’s behaviour? I could get it if she were being hiply ironic and/or she had declared her intention to divorce him at the end of the speech, but this I don’t get. Trump’s ethos (such as it is) might be boiled down to empathy is weakness; rules are for other people.

  6. Ben Avatar

    Whether she’s complicit in his behavior, her anti-bullying platform is thoroughly perverse.