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| (Maple leaf, in my yard) |
(See the New York Times, "Obama on Call-Out Culture: 'That's Not Activism.'")
Barack Obama has objected to "call-out culture" and "wokeness."
“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff,” Mr. Obama said. “You should get over that quickly.”
“The world is messy; there are ambiguities,” he continued. “People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.”
Well thank you President Obama! Civil discourse is possible after all.
Obama objects to "cancel culture"; viz., "behavior that mostly plays out on the internet when someone has said or done something to which others object. That person is then condemned in a flurry of social media posts. Such people are often referred to as "canceled," a way of saying that many others (and perhaps the places at which they work) are fed up with them and will have no more to do with them."
Cancel culture, as a manifestation of wokeness, is thinking you can bring change by being as judgmental as possible about other people, and that suffices. Obama said:
“Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb,” he said, “then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, ‘Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out.’”
Obama concluded: “That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. “If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.”
Correct. Former President Obama is right about this. Hopefully, some are listening.
