It’s 2016 and we have spell-check, physical dictionaries, not to mention the countless websites that allow individuals to correctly order their ABC’s, yet #plagiarism was trending on Twitter.
Why? Well, if you’re asking then you’ve probably been living under an obtuse rock with no cell phone reception and a bag of Cheetos as your sole companion. I’m being facetious. But hey, at least I didn’t steal my facetiousness from somebody else.
Here’s a textbook example of plagiarism in all of its shining glory: Melania Trump.
The Slovenian model and jewelry designer with all-too defined cheekbones graced the stage of the GOP National Convention on Monday evening. She stumbled through the speech, her stiff appearance complimented by the pristine white dress that adorned her brainwashed body.
As she stood on the podium, her words largely echoed similar sentiments to Michelle Obama’s speech from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
The main overlap was when Trump spoke about this omnipotent “bond,” which quite frankly sounded foreign on her tongue: “You work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise.”
Here’s the excerpt from Michelle’s speech: “Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do.”
The Washingtonian used TurnItIn.com, a site we’re all-too-familiar with, in order to double-check this quite obvious faux pas. Surprise! Large chunks of paragraphs were stolen from the 2008 speech, word-for-word.
Let’s pretend Trump has a college education, because that fact is also a highly debated topic in the world of overexcited journalists, their mouths frothing at the mere thought of this potential first lady not having a degree in anything.
According to the IU School of Education, “If you directly copy or summarize someone else’s words or ideas without acknowledging the source, this is plagiarism.”
Let’s just say if Trump had been in my public speaking class sophomore year, she’d be sitting pretty in the dean’s office, her eminent expulsion on the horizon.
But she never went to our fine institution and life is a cruel teacher because the test comes first and the lesson happens later.
That lesson coming in the form of misspelled hashtags and overly personal articles being released about Trump by just about every website on the internet.
But when all’s said and done, this woman is not solely to blame.
That speech went through countless drafts and, somewhere along the line, someone wanted to see the Trump campaign suffer.
For all of the negative talk Donald Trump has about immigration, it’s sad to see his own wife, an immigrant from Slovenia, being shoved into the limelight for his theatrical beauty pageant.
As I said before, this woman has been brainwashed to follow her husband, no matter what. Her only ideology is Donald and what he says, goes.
jlkarl@umail.iu.edu
@jkarl26
