‘This is Not Activism,’ Barack Obama on ‘Call Out Culture’—WATCH

GayNrd Editors October 30, 2019

President Barack Obama made a point to address so-called ‘Call Out Culture’ at his 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. The world is messy, there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. And share certain things with you.“

According to Business Insider, “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.'”

Watch President @BarackObama make an excellent point about call-out culture. pic.twitter.com/P6mw9aLWTQ
— 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.”

Noted Ethicist Dr. Steve Mintz, author of Beyond Happiness and Meaning: Transforming Your Life Through Ethical Behavio, says rudeness is everywhere, and while President Trump is to blame for some of this because he has “lowered the bar with respect to incivility,” our society has lost sight of basic virtues.

“The ethical expectation in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights is that we should treat

others the way we wish to be treated. Today, we treat others in a way we wouldn’t want to be treated but do so anyway because the end goal of making those with whom we disagree look as bad as possible overrides the course we take to achieve that goal.”