Barack Obama on the Trump Administration’s Intimidation Campaign Against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/10/19/obama-omar
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@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?
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@daringfireball only one of those links actually shows someone doing the thing you claim they’re doing in the link. Did you hope no one would click?
@adamfishercox I hope everyone clicks. The discourse speaks for itself.
@gruber
I find it depressing that you are using your voice to go after some riled up "kooks". They are not important.
Seemingly you are validating X. But you also oughta be worried about the power of Musk to use X for manipulation. He has had no scruples doing just that, supporting right wing extremists and fascists, also here in Europe. Your validation is doing us all a disservice.
Do you consider me an angry kook for writing this? Or an extremist?
@gruber @adamfishercox John I respect you and your work, but I don’t get what you’re doing. You baited folks on these alt platforms with an obviously controversial take, made broad generalizations of what X is like, and now you’re acting surprised that people reacted strongly—while also failing to note the incendiary rhetoric that’s all over X, including on Obama’s own post that you cited.
It kinda seems like fishing for outrage, and then cherry-picking stuff to justify your point.
@gruber @adamfishercox you are 💯 being intellectually dishonest. that’s the absolute worst.
this is what being a wealthy tech bro does to people - you get siloed, then you get weird.
Anil Dash’s criticism of your piece and why he was disappointed about it, having himself been harmed personally by the X platform, was spot on.
this trolling defense of Xitter is just you digging your heels into the benefits of your privilege. it’s quite gross
@gruber @adamfishercox John, the replies to Obama’s post that show up when you’re not logged in speak for themselves.
There are a lot of us who just cannot use that platform for safety reasons, and I don’t think most are arguing that it, like Facebook, isn’t in the zeitgeist at all, rather that it’s host to hate speech harmful to many of us and, yes, larger society.
I don’t begrudge you doing what you want but I don’t understand what you’re arguing for, or–importantly–why.
@gruber the implication that you are being called all of these things is plainly not borne out by any of those examples save for one. Do you genuinely read these as you being called, personally, a fascist, for example? It undermines any point you were trying to make which already felt weak, given how shoehorned it is into an entirely unrelated post about Obama.
@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.