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 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 @adamfishercox Gruber, this is not it
@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 You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came
First They Came