Former President Barack Obama laid into call-out culture in a speech at the Obama Foundation summit on Tuesday.

"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."

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


"This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're politically woke, and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly," Obama told a crowd in Chicago."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'."


"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, you know, share certain things with you," the 44th US president said.

"That is not activism, that is not bringing about change. If all you're doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far."