Barack Obama laid into call-out culture: ‘That is not activism’ – INSIDER

• Former President Barack Obama laid into call-out culture Tuesday in a speech at the Obama Foundation summit.
• “I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, that the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that’s enough,” Obama said.
• “That is not activism, that is not bringing about change,” he said. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Former President Barack Obama derided “call-out culture” in a speech at the Obama Foundation summit on Tuesday, saying achieving real change was more complex than being “as judgmental as possible.”

“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,” Obama told a crowd in Chicago.

He added: “I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, that 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, did you see how woke I was? I called you out.'”

—ATTN: (@attn) October 30, 2019

“The world is messy,” the 44th US president said. “There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids and, you know, share certain things with you.”

“That is not activism,” he concluded. “That is not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far.”

• Read more:
• Trump’s al-Baghdadi raid Situation Room photo has one big difference from Obama’s Osama bin Laden picture ⁠— and it tells you everything about their styles
• Watch former President Barack Obama deliver a moving eulogy for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings: ‘There’s nothing weak about being honorable’
• In unearthed audio, payday lenders were caught discussing how to raise money for Trump’s reelection in order to thwart new regulations