Dilbert loses newspapers, publishers, distributor, and possibly its website

[Black Phoenix]

Some time ago I remember seeing a post about Dilbert being in hot water because of some journals dropping his daily strips.

As something that is part of most the engineers and office workers daily routine to check the new strip released, I thought it would be good to point this news.

https://www.thepopverse.com/dilbert-comic-scott-adams-newspaper-syndication

Less than a week after Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams said and tweeted new racist comments online, both his syndication partner of more than a decade and his book publisher have cut ties with him, effectively ending his career as a published creator, at least temporarily.

On February 22, Adams posted a live YouTube stream in response to a Rasmussen poll that asked Black Americans whether or not they agreed with the phrase, 'It’s okay to be white' — a phrase that is a known slogan for alt-right and racist groups. 53% of those polled agreed, with 26% disagreeing and 21% unsure.

Adams’ response to the poll was vehement. “If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with White people… that’s a hate group,” Adams said during the broadcast. “I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to White people is to get the hell away from Black people… because there is no fixing this.”

The cartoonist is no stranger to sharing controversial and abhorrent views, having previously written, “the reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone.” In October 2022, he tweeted, “No white man would get hired in corporate America in 2022 if an equally qualified Black man applied at the same time. Everyone knows that. If I were the employer, I would hire the Black candidate every time, to cover my own ass. Everyone would, and does.”

[james_s]

I don't think it's going to matter. The only place I've read Dilbert in the past 15+ years is on its own website and some of the books. I'm sure Adams will find somewhere to host it, and sooner or later the outrage mob will find something else to focus on.

[Stray Electron]

  Print media; newspapers, magazines, and the like, become more and more irrelevant everyday.  Their banning Scott Adams is a perfect example of why.

   I'll continue reading Scott long after their rags print their last distortion.

[CatalinaWOW]

Scott Adams has been pulling back the curtains to show who is running the show for decades now.  This time he exposed a group that trades on the image of having no power.  It outraged them and it is ironic watching them use the power they don't have to poke back.

[newbrain]

The guy was borderline amusing 30 years ago.

It got boring, repetitive, mean and just unfunny quite soon so I stopped following it, then, still many years ago, I happened to read some of the things he had written - what an entitled and self-righteous asshole.

He is free to spout his latest inflammatory bigotry, others are free to not want to listen or be involved with him.
Freedom of speech goes both ways, does not mean you are entitled to have a platform.

IMNSHO, YMMV.

Were I a moderator, I would probably lock this post - not technical, and quite prone to devolve in a shitfest.
I'll report myself.

EtA: Done.

[Halcyon]

I don't see how Dilbert is any different to any other form of media, fashion trend, design, or colour etc... One could argue The Simpsons has outstayed its welcome*.

I'm all for sharing an opinion, particularly a popular one... but is it even vaguely relevant to EEVblog?


* I'm not suggesting this is the case.

[TomKatt]

He is free to spout his latest inflammatory bigotry, others are free to not want to listen or be involved with him.
Freedom of speech goes both ways, does not mean you are entitled to have a platform.

For all the clinging flag calls of 'Freedom' and 'Rights', many people only seem to think it applies to them - and if you choose not to participate, they've been maligned and 'cancelled'.

I'm all for sharing an opinion, particularly a popular one... but is it even vaguely relevant to EEVblog?

Doesn't Dilbert use computers in the office?

But yeah, topics like this are likely to get out of hand.

[MK14]

While we are on the subject of, Scott Adams.

There seems to be differences of opinion, as to if he was an actual (job function) engineer or not, when he was working for employers, before he became famous.

There is agreement, he worked with actual engineers, but not if he (job functionality wise) was one himself.

[TomKatt]

There is agreement, he worked with actual engineers, but not if he (job functionality wise) was one himself.

Well, I don't know if he was an engineer, but a Scott Adams certainly created several great text adventure games.  I think Adventureland was the first cartridge I got for my Vic 20 

[MK14]

There is agreement, he worked with actual engineers, but not if he (job functionality wise) was one himself.

Well, I don't know if he was an engineer, but a Scott Adams certainly created several great text adventure games.  I think Adventureland was the first cartridge I got for my Vic 20 

Thanks, but I think that is a different 'Scott Adams'.

http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/129/

This Scott Adams is not the one of Dilbert comics, but the one of Scott Adams Graphic Adventures.

[TomKatt]

Yeah I know 

I was making a funny by referring to a Scott Adams.

And as much as I'd like to think my Scott Adams wouldn't make a video rant like that Scott Adams, I guess you never really know people you don't really know.

[tszaboo]

I don't see how Dilbert is any different to any other form of media, fashion trend, design, or colour etc... One could argue The Simpsons has outstayed its welcome*.

I'm all for sharing an opinion, particularly a popular one... but is it even vaguely relevant to EEVblog?


* I'm not suggesting this is the case.

Dilbert is an engineer. Sometimes he is a bit of software, sometimes a bit of hardware, sometimes a bit of network engineering. And the phenomena that Scott shows in his cartoon is very much relevant to todays office culture, I see it every way, and having a cartoon for it is nice to have. We don't get that much representation.

Some time ago I remember seeing a post about Dilbert being in hot water because of some journals dropping his daily strips.

Yeah, I think he was cancelled a few times now.

[Zero999]

As usual it's a big overreaction. I don't think what he said was even that bad, even though I don't completely agree with it, given so people say the same with the races swapped all the time. It just proves the double standard.

I think he just wanted to retire and decided to do so by getting himself cancelled. Good on him.

[TomKatt]

I think he just wanted to retire and decided to do so by getting himself cancelled. Good on him.

Either that, or he's just an idiot.

Agree or disagree on the topic, if you hold a public position or your employment relies on the public at large, going on a rant like that today is simply guaranteed to have consequences, most likely affecting your employment.

I hope he feels better getting that off his chest.  He's certainly going to pay for the privilege.  And whining about it won't change anything.

[newbrain]

We don't get that much representation.

I definitely don't want or need to be represented by a misogynist, racist and pretentious asshole.

And even forgetting that, as a reminder, he's decidedly on the PHB side, not "ours".

Some might find Dilbert's strips to be funny (I disagree), but in this time and age it's truly difficult to keep separate an author and their work.
It might have been easier before the Internet.

[tszaboo]

I think he just wanted to retire and decided to do so by getting himself cancelled. Good on him.

Either that, or he's just an idiot.

Agree or disagree on the topic, if you hold a public position or your employment relies on the public at large, going on a rant like that today is simply guaranteed to have consequences, most likely affecting your employment.

I hope he feels better getting that off his chest.  He's certainly going to pay for the privilege.  And whining about it won't change anything.

There is a large movement to build alternatives to the access media.
A few reports are saying he is joining the Daily Wire, and got a large contract.

[TomKatt]

I believe that psychological studies have shown that people tend to migrate towards information sources that align with beliefs they already espouse.

That Fox News is the #1 rated 'news' service in the US proves that to me.  That recent leaks reveal they prioritized viewership ($) over facts is likewise unsurprising.

[Nominal Animal]

So, when Rasmussen reveals that 47% of black Americans do not consider it okay to be white, that is not a problem; but when Scott Adams then says that that kind of attitude means there is no way to have a working multicultural society, and for "[white people] to get away from [black people]", he is the racist, far-right neo-nazi (as todays ExplosmEntertainment "comic" suggests)?

When ideology and isms beat logical and rational thought, the world is lost.

Modern humans do not seem to think much if at all, and rather experience the world solely through their emotions.  We are well on our way to becoming an urban eusocial species, it seems.

That said, the Rasmussen poll would never have been published in Finland.  They would have been heavily fined and possibly ejected from Finland, for incitement to ethnic or racial hatred against black people.  Such racist statistics are illegal here in Finland.  (And racism is defined here as the oppression of ethnic or racial groups by white people.)

[TomKatt]

So, when Rasmussen reveals that 47% of black Americans do not consider it okay to be white, that is not a problem; but when Scott Adams then says that that kind of attitude means there is no way to have a working multicultural society, and for "[white people] to get away from [black people]", he is the racist, far-right neo-nazi (as todays ExplosmEntertainment "comic" suggests)?

Polls and statistics are heavily related - you can massage either to present the result you desire.

FWIW, the phrasing is important here - 47% of Black Americans did not say they do not consider it okay to be white.  The poll asked if the respondent agreed with the statement "Is it OK to be white?".  A subtle difference, but an important one.  Of course, their sample size was a grand total of 1,000 people, only 13% of which were Black.  So, even within their poll, they are suggesting that 47% of 13% of 1,000 people disagreed with the statement.

Of course, the bigger issue is that Rasmussen polling is pretty much right wing biased to begin with.

If you’re not familiar, Rasmussen is a right-leaning pollster that produces semi-mainstream polls but is noted for its murky methods and what the New York Times has called “dubious sampling and weighting techniques.” Rasmussen’s results are often an outlier when it comes to, say, presidential approval numbers, as when Donald Trump famously cited a Rasmussen poll when it claimed to show a 50 percent job approval rating, more than 10 points higher than Gallup’s report at the time.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/dilbert-scott-adams-racist-rant-black-hate-explained.html
 

[newbrain]

So, when Rasmussen reveals that 47% of black Americans do not consider it okay to be white, that is not a problem;

Sorry Nominal Animal, but I think you are being naïve here.
"It's OK to be white" does not have only a literal meaning and Rasmussen is is a very biased and unreliable poll house.

Since I highly esteem your intelligence, I'll leave you the burden of checking on the above.
It might not change your opinion (and I already know we differ quite a lot there), but it will at least be informed.

[TomKatt]

I will say this much - Freedom of speech is important.  But as with anything important, it is subject to abuse.

The reality is that human races are different.  Socially and physically.  We ought to embrace and celebrate those differences rather than use them against each other.  We can strive to be "one species" understanding we are comprised of multiple branches.

Any discussion about race is likely to become sensitive, which is unfortunate because to deny we are different is to deny reality.  And that one race has abused another over the course of history doesn't help much either.  But without discussion, we're not likely to solve issues that drive wedges between us.

[Sal Ammoniac]

No matter what tint of glasses you look through, the U.S. remains a society where racism and misogyny is deeply ingrained. Adams seems to be someone who wears his opinions on his sleeve and amplifies it with his podcast.

[tszaboo]

They would have been heavily fined and possibly ejected from Finland, for incitement to ethnic or racial hatred against black people.  Such racist statistics are illegal here in Finland.  (And racism is defined here as the oppression of ethnic or racial groups by white people.)

There is a large push from the postmodernist woke to redefine words. To give you a very good example:
"Words are violence." If this statement is true, and we have institutions to reduce the violence on citizens, then it's acceptable to call the police on people that used words that are "unacceptable" (please read our current list of unacceptable words, updates every Wednesday and Friday). And that's how you change the law without rewriting it. Don't believe me? There was 3300 UK citizens arrested in 2017 for social media posts.
 “using public electronic communications network in order to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety”
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/schedule/17/paragraph/169?view=plain

If someone, anyone really, thinks that the truth is inconvenient and you write about it, you can get arrested in the UK. And the same is coming everywhere, where this kind of mentality gets root. Welcome to the land of the free.

[tom66]

Old white guy says stupid old white guy thing.  And faces the consequences. 

Seriously, replace "black" with "Jewish" and you'd have something not out of line with what would be said under the Nazis.  Utterly unacceptable.  History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes.

I've never really enjoyed Dilbert so I guess I won't miss it slowly fading off, though I suspect that Adams will still have followers and revenue from other streams for some time and I'll be he'll be fine in his pseudo-retirement.

[jonpaul]

Dilbert was a pseudonym in WWII, Vietnam wars for AF pilot's that messed up

...Wrong flaps...into Saigon IFR...Dilbert bought the farm...

Scott Adams worked at Pacific Bell Téléphone in 1980s where he had the comic strip concept.

many fine characters, comics, books.

Best réf is his website

Jon