Louise Roberts: Meghan, take a tip or two from Erin
The permanent victimhood of Meghan Markle, who ludicrously claims to be the most trolled woman on Earth, stands in stark contrast to others who endure far, far worse, writes Louise Roberts.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Poor Meghan Markle. For all her stratospheric privilege, she would like us all to be very clear: No one else on Earth has it worse than her.
The Duchess’s recent announcement that she was the singularly most trolled person on social media is, of course, nonsense on stilts.
But it is also so stinking of unearned victimhood you practically have to open a window to breathe.
Markle is a young mum married to a besotted prince, with doors open to her worldwide thanks to her ‘tiresome’ royal connections, plus a white-linen sofa on which to sit in her $30 million multi-bathroom LA home and ponder it all.
Markle is, it barely need be said, not the poster gal for suffering.
To whatever degree she does have it tough, it is entirely of her own making, as she and Harry now chafe against an institution without which they would both be nobodies.
MORE LOUISE ROBERTS
‘Dear taxpayer, why you should pay for my childcare’
Private school majority pay for the sins of a few
Why I won’t be rushing back to Queensland after COVID is over
What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on an expensively wallpapered palace wall when he and the Queen meet in person again.
Compare Markle’s handling of trolling to the class and dignity of TV host Erin Molan.
Me-Me-Markle and her constant tut-tutting could certainly learn a thing or two from her.
Molan has never played the victim card.
Watch that TV interview from Sunday and it is clear how excruciating it is for her to relive the detail of how one troll in particular wished that her daughter Eliza, now two, was delivered stillborn and that Molan herself would have perished in the process.
Meghan meanwhile had made herself political by crowbarring herself and Harry into the US election process.
Not that this justifies trolling. To be clear, nothing justifies trolling.
But what is Windsor refugee Markle’s endgame here? No one can ‘change the world’ unless she wants to call herself a Megdashian.
Contrast that to Molan who has found a solution for the trolls who blight her life and that of many other Aussies.
She is adamant that reform in the law is the very thing which will change the culture of online trolling.
“The other tens of thousands of Australians who are abused online are not snowflakes. I’m so sick of this victim, shaming bulls..t, “ Molan said.
“There is a s..tload of stuff that I will accept. There are certain things I won’t accept, that doesn’t make me a snowflake.”
That’s authenticity for you.
I was familiar with the disgusting stillborn threat because it spurred Molan to have the vile keyboard warrior prosecuted.
He is also a father of young girls, incredible as that may seem.
But then, as she gulped with anguish, Molan revealed the tragedy behind her decision to immerse herself in a police investigation.
“I have an older sister who had a stillbirth, carried a beautiful little girl to full term, Emily,” Molan said.
“And to watch her bury her child and stand up with a little coffin and say, mummy loves you and she’s so sorry.
“To sit there and watch my sister go through that, meant that my pregnancy was fairly anxious throughout. So to start to receive messages of that nature, really impacted me.”
She added: “This is not about celebrities. This is not about politicians. This is about every single Australian, because this impacts every single Australian,” she said.
“The time to ignore trolls is over. The time to prosecute trolls is here.”
Markle’s only platform is that of a victim with a plea to build “communities of compassion” — a sort of weaponised rhetoric of niceness used to excuse all sorts of awful behaviour.
It is offensive to claim persecution just because the public is questioning her motives or indeed the lectures she and Harry are so fond of giving.
You know, make sure you vote but don’t vote for Trump. Glass half empty sentiment at every media opportunity.
Words and feelings are just that unless you can campaign for something achievable that will genuinely affect how children live.
God knows, by the time my kids become parents, I don’t want my grandchildren to have to navigate the online sewer.
Likewise, in the tale of two trollings, I don’t want to be told how to run my life.
But I do want to hear of ways to crush the Johnnies of this modern world, as Molan calmly explained.
“You need to change the entire conversation, the entire narrative and say, ‘Hey Johnny, if you’re going to troll, do you care about going to jail for three years?’,” she said.
“‘Do you care about being on the front page of the paper and your wife and your boss seeing?
“Do you care about you being held to account and never getting another job?
“‘Do you care about your kids seeing this in five years time that their dad was an a..hole and bullied someone to the point where they nearly took their own lives?
“Do you care about that, Johnny?’”
“Yes, you do. Because then Johnny sees real consequences for his actions. Then Johnny thinks twice about sending something. Then Johnny stops.”
The only Finding Freedom here should be about doing what matters — constructively taking on the trolls — rather than wanting to matter 24/7
@whatlouthinks