this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Secretary of State Rubio has concluded that Calibri is a woke font. US diplomats must revert to Times New Roman in official communications.

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[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 103 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So they're doing this because Biden changed it to Calibri in 2023, and because it improves accessibility to those who have dyslexia and other difficulties reading serif fonts, which is considered under the umbrella of DEI.

A combination of pettiness and cruelty.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago

And ignorance. Don’t forget ignorance.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago

I'm sure Rubio doesn't give a shit one way or the other. This is pandering to petty and cruel people, because WOKE BAD gets votes.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 58 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Jfc. I’m so over this timeline. If Calibri is woke, does that make Comic Sans an enemy of the state? Like what the fuck are we even doing anymore?

[–] manxu@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As everyone knows, "Sans" is just short for "Satan's!" /s

[–] radix@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Comic Sans, Papyrus, and Brush Script. Better known as the Axis of Evil.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago

Papyrus just got denied its citizenship ceremony and Wingdings keeps getting called a sexual predator by literal pedophiles

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Authoritarian fuckwits making sweeping ultimatums to change typefaces for spurious, racist, and political reasons?

Believe it or not, this has happened before. Perhaps most famously... yes, guess who!

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Funnily enough, the decree banning the use of Schwabacher Judenlettern ("Jew-letters of Schwabach") went out using a Nazi party letter head that was printed in a Fraktur typeface.

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[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Came here to make the same exact joke:
Antiqua unlocked.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 16 hours ago

it's more because hitler hated it

Nonetheless, Fraktur typefaces were particularly heavily used during the early years of the Nazi era, when they were initially represented as true German script. In fact, the press was scolded for its frequent use of "Roman characters" under "Jewish influence", and German émigrés were urged to use only "German script".[7] However, Hitler's distaste for Fraktur saw it officially discontinued in 1941 in a Schrifterlass ("edict on script") signed by Martin Bormann, which asserted that it was falsely called "Gothic" and actually consisted of Schwabacher "Jewish letters".[8]

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I remember briefly thinking Times New Roman looked serious and professional. Around the time of my first book report

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

That's because it was literally designed for a newspaper

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah and it was before I learned who owned the newspapers

[–] Carmakazi@piefed.social 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Didn't Nazi Germany ban a typefont for silly ideological reasons?

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago

Fraktur is rather a ‘calligraphic hand’, i.e. the manner of drawing the letters, which can be implemented by different specific fonts.

Anyway, Hitler just personally disliked Fraktur, and already gave a speech against it in 1934:

Your alleged Gothic internalization does not fit well in this age of steel and iron, glass and concrete, of womanly beauty and manly strength, of head raised high and intention defiant [...] In a hundred years, our language will be the European language. The nations of the east, the north and the west will, to communicate with us, learn our language. The prerequisite for this: The script called Gothic is replaced by the script we have called Latin so far.

Then in 1941 Fraktur was finally banned, with the pretext that it was actually not Fraktur but Schwabacher, a different blackletter style, which allegedly was Jewish.

Moreover, it was banned so hard that cursive scripts Kurrent and Sütterlin were also forbidden — and as a consequence, people educated after 1941 often couldn't read handwritten letters and notes of their ancestors.

[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago

Please be The Onion, please be The Onion

Damn.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

These idiots will do anything they can to make this world dumber.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago

Honestly you've distilled the truth more perfectly here than maybe anyone else has.

[–] chellewalker@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And now Times New Roman has been ruined for me... what the hell is wrong with this timeline?

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

What isn't wrong with this timeline?

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago

No change is too small to waste the time of high level officials to revert out of spite

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 8 points 1 day ago

So now fonts are political. Please, someone wipe this timeline and start over.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

Mr. Rubio’s order cited the origins of serif typefaces in Roman antiquity.

So, it's best because it has "Roman" in the name. And if they like "Roman" salutes, clearly they want "Roman" fonts too.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 5 points 1 day ago

Calibri Light is my go to. Fuck you, Rubio.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 16 hours ago
[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was certain Comic Sans was going to be involved somehow.

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Comic Sans is the Stephen Miller of typefaces. It’s behind the scenes getting all of the competent typefaces banned because designers mocked and bullied it out use in respectable publications.

Only far-write typewringers would accept it. Now, it’s getting revenge.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Tehyc amfe orth edixselisc, bu tid idontp toresetb eucaesI wsnan otd ixselci.

Seriously though, what’s next… banning left handed scissors as woke?