In case you didn’t hear, permanently aggrieved rich guy Scott Adams finally took his bullshit too far and got his cash cow comic strip “Dilbert” dropped from basically every newspaper by being a racist monster. That’s right, Adams shot himself in the foot by getting on YouTube and calling Black people a hate group. I’m sorry, what? Not only is that racist as hell, but it’s also just confusing and categorically wrong. Here is the context. I warn you; it doesn’t make his comments better! Per AP News:
During the Feb. 22 episode of his YouTube podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” he referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.” Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of Black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure.
Adams said that in response to that poll, white people should “get the hell away from Black people” and that Black people should be considered a “racist hate group.”
Well, Adams has now, as the kids say, f*cked around and found out because newspapers dropped his ass. Turns out hosting a racist jackass every day and giving them a platform is bad for business. Of all the stupid reasons to affect your bottom line, this is undoubtedly one of the dumbest and by far the easiest to avoid. Saying nothing is free. Adams is, of course, refusing to take accountability and instead opting to play the victim. Stupid is as stupid does. From AP News:
Adams said Monday on YouTube that his distributor didn’t really have a choice because clients and other cartoonists were mad. “They were just forced into it,” he said.
On Twitter, he said his book publisher and book agent had “canceled” him. The Penguin Random House imprint Portfolio said it wouldn’t publish Adams’ book “Reframe Your Brain” in September, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Yes, it was everyone else’s fault you got on YouTube and something racist, Scott. Everyone’s hand was forced by the thing you voluntarily said, and now you’re canceled. Just like you always wanted. Finally, something to be upset about!
Never one to mind his own business and always wanting to be the center of attention, even if the attention is bad attention, Elon Musk is, of course, wading in. Per Huffpost:
Twitter CEO Elon Musk questioned why people were complaining about racist remarks made by the cartoon creator of “Dilbert,” then deleted his tweet and instead went off on how the media is racist.
“What exactly are they complaining about?” Musk tweeted early Sunday in response to cartoonist Scott Adams highlighting The Washington Post and other papers dropping his cartoons.
Did Elon not get enough attention as a child? Is he lonely? What gives here? This is just weird. The man is a billionaire. He could literally pay a stadium full of people to chant his name daily for the rest of his life and not run out of money. Why is he seeking out this kind of attention?
Naturally, people not named Elon Musk aren’t that upset about Adams finally being de-platformed because, let’s face it, that guy’s been a dick for years, and Dilbert hasn’t been funny since the ’90s.
In announcing that “Dilbert” would be cut from the Kansas City Star, the newspaper’s community engagement editor, Derek Donovan, said Adams’ “antagonistic, childishly macho persona” has been a constant for years.
“It’s not cancel culture,” editor Richard Green of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in California said. “It’s doing the right thing.”
Now, look, I’m sure plenty of diehard conservatives are already rushing out to purchase whatever product Scott Adams is pushing, just to make a statement, because this is what they do. They did it when the obscure Dr. Seuss books went out of print because they were no longer appropriate for modern audiences. They did it with Goya products.
Being a far-right reactionary is a grift, and a very lucrative one!
Being a right-wing conservative a-hole pays well, my friends. So if you’re so inclined to shed a single solitary tear for Scott Adams, you might want to rethink that. I’m sure he’s going to be just fine.
Also, he’s a racist. He gets what he gets.
(featured image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash)
