Barack Obama on the Trump Administration’s Intimidation Campaign Against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/10/19/obama-omar
@daringfireball how old does one have to be to write a post like this? Childish stuff.
@daringfireball It's not that you're a fascist at all, or any of those other names. It's that by being on that website you're contributing to the fortunes of a sincere, blood-and-soil white nationalist who also happens to be the wealthiest person on earth. It's a personal choice you're making to enrich that website, to not have anyone ever have to go "oh wow, no John Gruber in search results?" You can't get out of it by saying "a former president posts there too" - that's a category mistake.
@daringfireball If you find X useful, good for you. But I suspect many in your audience will think lesser of you for it (which is fine; we're all not perfect). Same reason why I don't eat at Chick-Fil-A -- It's still popular, I just don't want to patronize it. Same difference with X.
@daringfireball
John, you whole heartedly endorsing X in a reaction to what some riled up kooks have written to you here encapsulates what is wrong with America today.
To wheather this storm we all need to keep our heads cool. Living in X is not helping us do that.
@daringfireball False dilemma is false.
@daringfireball How did this go off the rails so damn fast. Folks can disagree with your take without being crazy. I (and many others) said as much without calling you a racist or a bigot. I guess this just seems like a weird hill for you to die on. It’s one thing to use X. It’s another to declare to the world that anyone who refuses to use it on principal is crazy.
@daringfireball When they go low, Gruber goes lower. Sad.
@daringfireball I find X vile, and know it's a dangerous place for many (most?) people. Gruber could almost make a case for it being relevant to him as a blogger, but that's not the case he makes.
The case he makes is that it's great. And like many X users, you can see him getting off on offending people with his proclamations.
That he made this post about a truly horrifying moment in US history into a fun "owning the libs" post is truly embarrassing.
Smugness with nothing to back it up.
@daringfireball yeah, this fella isn’t saying you or Obama are fascist. What a weird, blinkered take.
If you want to support Elon Musk’s businesses you do that. No need to start stretching truths.
@daringfireball President Obama is gravely and soberly sounding the alarm regarding America’s increasingly perilous democracy, and lending his support to Rep. Omar during the culmination of a frightening and harrowing intimidation campaign that MAGA has subjected her to for years.
Way to make it all about you.
@daringfireball You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came
@daringfireball what a fucking stupid read on the criticism of X and the defense of continuing to use X, @gruber. it’s just a sign of your cog diss, after being called out even by your peers for your privileged and cringe-worthy take of “hey the racists and nazis on X don’t affect me so it can’t be that bad”.
you get Apple, sure, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a siloed weirdo on other topics.
So for those comments underneath Obama's post on Twitter.. would you consider them... remarkably friendly and inclusive?
@daringfireball I agree with your points overall but you twisted 3 of the 4 examples. On the whole even banal down the middle posts on Mastodon get really aggressive pushback, to say the least, and certainly original or individual thinking is not well received. The last place I would go to have a convo where I can learn something. I'm likewise thinking it's time to pack up and head out.