Over the last few years we’ve all witnessed just how toxic and damaging cancel culture can be, as social media has become a place for many to play judge, jury and executioner over things that can sometimes be insignificant or irrelevant. In a response to how out of control it’s become, our forever President Barack Obama recently called out cancel culture during a recent appearance.
As reported by @HuffPost, while speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago earlier this week, Barack Obama didn’t hold back his feelings on cancel culture and Twitter outrage, emphasizing that they are “not activism” and also pushed for Americans to abandon ideological purity tests when it comes to politics.
During the panel, moderated by “Grown-ish” star Yara Shahidi, Obama explained that politics, like the world in general, is messy and no one is perfect:
“This idea of purity, and you’re never compromised, and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
However, his most interesting critique was aimed at the cancel culture epidemic that has spread like wildfire on social media, specifically Twitter:
“There is this sense sometimes of ‘the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people, and that’s enough.’ Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb. Then, I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because, ‘Man, you see how woke I was? I called you out.’ I’m gonna get on TV. Watch my show. Watch ‘Grown-ish.’ You know, 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.”
As always, Barack Obama spoke very eloquently about a popular cultural topic in a way that everyone can understand and appreciate. We definitely miss the days when he was in the White House.
Roommates, what are your thoughts on this?
