Barack Obama Calls Out Cancel Culture—“That’s Not Activism” Former president Barack Obama was speaking at his Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago and spoke on the trend of “cancel culture.” He said that “cancel culture” is not activism and that politics, like the world in general is messy and no one is perfect. 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. He also spoke about tweeting when someone does wrong, that’s not bringing about change. if all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. Does he have a point about “cancel culture?”