4 ms·

Scott Adams is a smart guy who’s been going in this direction for years (not just since Trump). His comic centered on seeing through bullshit and you can’t writ

by fwlr 4y ago

Scott Adams is a smart guy who’s been going in this direction for years (not just since Trump). His comic centered on seeing through bullshit and you can’t write a comic like that for as long and as successfully as he has without seeing through some bullshit yourself. Since this was very predictably going to happen sooner or later, presumably he has already made arrangements for his financial security in the event of being cancelled. He is quoted as saying “I’m ruined”, which (knowing Scott) is equally likely to be the truth or be a clever manipulation - let them believe it worked so they move on.

paulryanrogers 4y ago
I'm not so sure this outcome was so inevitable. Fame and riches do offer some buffer to mistakes, yet this one comes across as epic. He's calling black people a hate group, and based on some flimsy 'evidence'. That's a big red line for anyone to cross, IMO at least.
mindslight 4y ago
A hazard of "seeing through bullshit" is that you eventually come to take the perspective for granted, think you have some innate ability to do so rather than the continual uphill battle it is, get complacent, and then end up getting stuck in a different reality distortion field. The same dynamic is at play with all of these US-focused anti-imperialists who had spent decades seeing through the US's bullshit, but then end up getting totally taken in by Russian imperial bullshit because it's familiarly anti-US.
KyeRussell 4y ago
Even compared to normal society, HN seems to have a complete blind spot for any sort of performative behaviour on both sides of ‘cancel culture’. The recent thread on all the ‘censorship’ of Dahl’s books made that incredibly evident. Plenty of people here seem so excited to point out any overreach by pearl-clutching modern progressives that they can’t differentiate legitimate pearl-clutching from someone (in that case, Dahl’s estate / the publisher) performing a poor imitation because they themselves are scared of the mob. And then on the other side, people seem unable to differentiate between a run of the mill cancelling, someone manufacturing their own cancelling because it’d suit their narrative, and someone legitimately becoming increasingly unhinged and deranged.
- defrost 4y ago
  > they can’t differentiate legitimate pearl-clutching from someone (in that case, Dahl’s estate / the publisher) The 'woke edits' (for want of a better term) at the direction of the publishers on behalf of the estate (their client) was the furtherest thing from legitimate pearl clutching possible. They (both parties) wanted to make money, they released a new edition, and they made their PR releases to highlight the changes made to "make Dahl better" (for a new and more woke audience). That's not pearl clutching, that's just marketing .. and worse very likely deliberately manipulative in order to reach eyeballs via contraversy. What was the end result of that? Double payout!! They have apologised for the sin of altering Dahl and are re-releasing 'Original Dahl' - so they are making bank from both their new revision edition and from a new release of old editions for all the outraged new self declared Dahl fans that want only the original works with the enormously fat descriptors. Dahl's My Uncle Oswald would have loved the marketing here.

by fwlr 4y ago

paulryanrogers 4y ago

I'm not so sure this outcome was so inevitable. Fame and riches do offer some buffer to mistakes, yet this one comes across as epic. He's calling black people a hate group, and based on some flimsy 'evidence'. That's a big red line for anyone to cross, IMO at least.

mindslight 4y ago

A hazard of "seeing through bullshit" is that you eventually come to take the perspective for granted, think you have some innate ability to do so rather than the continual uphill battle it is, get complacent, and then end up getting stuck in a different reality distortion field. The same dynamic is at play with all of these US-focused anti-imperialists who had spent decades seeing through the US's bullshit, but then end up getting totally taken in by Russian imperial bullshit because it's familiarly anti-US.

KyeRussell 4y ago

Even compared to normal society, HN seems to have a complete blind spot for any sort of performative behaviour on both sides of ‘cancel culture’. The recent thread on all the ‘censorship’ of Dahl’s books made that incredibly evident. Plenty of people here seem so excited to point out any overreach by pearl-clutching modern progressives that they can’t differentiate legitimate pearl-clutching from someone (in that case, Dahl’s estate / the publisher) performing a poor imitation because they themselves are scared of the mob. And then on the other side, people seem unable to differentiate between a run of the mill cancelling, someone manufacturing their own cancelling because it’d suit their narrative, and someone legitimately becoming increasingly unhinged and deranged.

defrost 4y ago
> they can’t differentiate legitimate pearl-clutching from someone (in that case, Dahl’s estate / the publisher) The 'woke edits' (for want of a better term) at the direction of the publishers on behalf of the estate (their client) was the furtherest thing from legitimate pearl clutching possible. They (both parties) wanted to make money, they released a new edition, and they made their PR releases to highlight the changes made to "make Dahl better" (for a new and more woke audience). That's not pearl clutching, that's just marketing .. and worse very likely deliberately manipulative in order to reach eyeballs via contraversy. What was the end result of that? Double payout!! They have apologised for the sin of altering Dahl and are re-releasing 'Original Dahl' - so they are making bank from both their new revision edition and from a new release of old editions for all the outraged new self declared Dahl fans that want only the original works with the enormously fat descriptors. Dahl's My Uncle Oswald would have loved the marketing here.