Here's the actual memo, in case you want to read it yourself and form your own conclusions:
https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-ret...
Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
671–680 of 738 posts
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#672The left and right signalling is such a waste of everyone's time and effort. Reactive pettiness
Is it "signalling" when the left's change was for an accessibility reason, to enable more people to be able to easily read? Signaling means there's no tangible benefit to the change, so the Blinken's switch to a sans-serif font would not be signaling. Rubio, however, specifically pointed out the symbolic (and malicious) gesture of his whole switch back to Times New Roman. The left didn't react pettily. Please stop th…
>Is it "signalling" when the left's change was for an accessibility reason, to enable more people to be able to easily read?
Uh, yes.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#673Earlier quoted context omitted.
Politics aside, I never liked Calibri, until last year. I think it has a place for small text printed on paper, but other than that, there are far better fonts out there. The non-sharp/round edges/corners and the fact that it looks a bit childish make me not want to use it in anything serious/professional. It's also waaay over-used by people who don't have a taste in design and just select the default font in their P…
Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face that can be used by any/all OSes and platforms without incumbrances.
If they wanted to go back to Times, they could have at least looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#674Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Virtue signaling" still works because the actor indeed believes they are being virtuous.
Since when is it a virtue to needlessly make things harder for some people?
I cannot decide to what extent they see it that way. They certainly have entirely plausible virtuous reasoning for everything they do. Whether that is what they actually believe or not, I have no idea. It is hard to understand the point of view of someone who seems like causing pain is their only priority, and I prefer to think that only describes a small fraction of the people I disagree with politically.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#675Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing is more inefficient than the secretary of state thinking about and conducting meetings about the font used in documents. It just doesn't matter in the sense that it "doesn't move the needle". I expect the leaders of a government deciding on matters that have a real impact on people's live, not on stuff that from a practical point of view is totally irrelevant.
The global impression of the US is worth thinking about. The font is part of that.
It's an interesting thought, given what current global impressions are.
I'm imagining a scenario in which the President of the United States is doing his usual sort of diplomatic outreach, consisting of waffling incoherently about things he's heard on TV that he doesn't like about their country. At one point he loses his train of thought and starts bragging about how well he's doing in cognitive adequacy tests. The diplomats are waiting until the bit where they get to flatter and bribe him at the end, the bit where he usually reverses his foreign policy, so long as they can get him to understand what they're actually asking from him. One of them speculates whether it's even possible that half the country is actually dumber than this guy.
A staffer wearing a MAGA baseball cap sidles up to them with some briefing notes. And its just impossible not to notice the notes are typeset in the very same venerable font that was once used as the default for Windows 9x.
The diplomats are stunned. No sans serif wokeness here. The typeface exudes heritage and gravitas. At last they realize what a very serious adminstration they're dealing with.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#676Good news: At least he didn't order the department to use Computer Modern.
Bad news: Missed opportunity for Fraktur to make a comeback.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#677Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
1.) Overwhelming majority of political violence is by right wing. 2.) About Kirk specifically, liberals signaled "murder is bad" hard and frequently. Meanwhile Kirk himself signaled hatred. 3.) Meanwhile, Trump, Vance and Hegseth are constantly signaling "murder is good actually, if we are doing it" and "bullying is manly thing to do". And that is exactly why it is userful to distinguish between "good thing signal" a…
> About Kirk specifically
I notice that people are largely staying pretty quiet about the politics of the Kirk murder since shortly after it happened. I assume it is because, to the extent there is evidence of any ideology, groyper fits as well as leftist. Maybe better, even.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#678Earlier quoted context omitted.
Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face that can be used by any/all OSes and platforms without incumbrances.
Nah, it's ugly and doesn't exude "professionalism" at all. For that you'd need a serif font, or at least a proper sans serif like Helvetica or SF Pro.
100% this. There are a lot of sans-serifs that are much more prestigious and timeless.
Being the default in MSOffice also doesn’t help with professionalism as it makes it even more pedestrian.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#679Earlier quoted context omitted.
People will often use their power to do seemingly meaningless things, when they don't know how to solve the actual problems on their plate.
Marco Rubio famously doesn't have the authority to do what is arguably his job. > Trump envoy Witkoff reportedly advised Kremlin official on Ukraine peace deal A more dignified Secretary of State would have resigned when this news surfaced.
> A more dignified Secretary of State would have resigned when this news surfaced.
I remain impressed at the number of longstanding Republican politicians that have been willing to sacrifice their dignity and likely their political career on the Trump altar. It is a one-way trip for their credibility, and when Trump is gone what are they going to do?
The only interesting right wing politician to me right now is MTG. And that's an odd position to find myself in. She is a clown, but suddenly she seems much more real for a moment. Like we might have caught a glimpse of the actual person. I am faintly curious how her political career shapes up over the next few years (assuming her resignation does happen and is not the actual end of her ambitions).
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#680Earlier quoted context omitted.
The global impression of the US is worth thinking about. The font is part of that.
It's really not. The used font just doesn't move the needle regarding the global impression. 99% of people never ever think or care about the font they use. What else should be decided on on the highest level: spacing, padding, allowance of the Oxford comma? It is useful that somebody thinks about that stuff, just not the highest level of the government. That's like the CEO of Microsoft having meeting about coding co…
> That's like the CEO of Microsoft having meeting about coding conventions, space vs tabs, variable name format etc.
Gates absolutely did care when Windows products were bad.