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> How or why Scott Adams went completely of the rails is perhaps something we'll sadly never understand. Was this opinions he'd always had, but suppressed, The

> How or why Scott Adams went completely of the rails is perhaps something we'll sadly never understand. Was this opinions he'd always had, but suppressed, They weren't surpressed; he was very open about them from very early on in his career as a comic artist; they were central to his “origin story” and were woven directly into the comics. Its just, for a while, other aspects of his still-recent experience in corporate America gave him other relatable things to say that were mixed in with them, which made it easier to overlook them.

cptskippy 10mo ago
Has anyone take the time to prove that out? I was a fan of the comic for years and don't recall there being a lot of casual racism strewn in.
- jimmydddd 10mo ago
  Even in early (20 yrs before Trump stuff) interviews, Adams said that one of the reasons he tried various businesses out (like the comic) was that his coprorate manager told him that the manager was being strongly discouraged from promoting white men. That's likely what folks are referencing with regard to his "origin story."
  - dragonwriter 10mo ago
    He definitely blamed both the end of his career in banking and at PacBell on alleged discrimination against promoting White men in/into management (and I think he claims responsible people at both told him explicitly that that was the reason he was being passed over). Somewhat later (but still quite a while before what people describe as him “turning”), he would also claim his Dilbert show on UPN was cancelled because he was White, making it the third job he lost for that reason. (More likely, it was cancelled because its audience was both small and White and UPN was, looking at where it had successes and wanting a coherent demographic story to sell to advertisers and in an era where synergies between the appeals of shows on the same network was important to driving ratings, working to rearrange its offerings to focus on targeting Black audiences.)
    - tim333 10mo ago
      I'm not sure being against DEI stuff is completely off the rails.
      - hashmap 10mo ago
        "DEI" is an inherent part of the system - being "against DEI" is simply a statement about what kind of "DEI" you actually want.
    - Auracle 10mo ago
      If a show that mostly featured black people was cancelled due to "looking at where it had successes and wanting a coherent demographic story to sell to advertisers and in an era where synergies between the appeals of shows on the same network was important to driving ratings, working to rearrange its offerings to focus on targeting White audiences," would you so readily dismiss the creator at being miffed at that?
- AnotherGoodName 10mo ago
  I specifically do remember comics poking fun at diversity initiatives. A quick search of "Dilbert comic about diversity" brings up some examples. At the time i read those i probably thought they were on point. I've changed my views over the years. You can't keep them or you end up like Adams. That's probably the key to understanding him. He grew up in an era where black students were not allowed to attend white schools. The world changed. He didn't.
  - Aloha 10mo ago
    At the time, a lot of them were little more than lipstick on a pig. It took a long time to actually get to diversity that was beyond token "person of group" inclusivity.
    - DaSHacka 10mo ago
      > It took a long time to actually get to diversity that was beyond token "person of group" inclusivity. Are we really beyond that now? Many of the initiatives I've experienced are the same thing today, which is why I'm not a big fan.
    - amrocha 10mo ago
      Funny enough, to get to actual representative diversity you need to explicitly hire underrepresented candidates and pass up on white dudes. Which Scott famously complained about. Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
      - parineum 10mo ago
        > you need to explicitly hire underrepresented candidates and pass up on white dudes If the initiatives that promoted diversity explicitly said that, they probably wouldn't have passed. The whole argument was about whether that was true because proponents would never be honest about that part so the public debate never got past that.
  - PlanksVariable 10mo ago
    Diversity initiatives are often racist or regressive, in which case they should be mocked, and he wasn’t in the wrong for doing so.
- mikeyouse 10mo ago
  Later on there was a ton of weird anti-feminist content in the comics.. he also had his blog where he wrote way too much so ended up in holocaust-denial and “evolution is fake” territory. Another person talented in one field and pretty unremarkable otherwise who needed to air his terrible opinions about everything else.
  - mrguyorama 10mo ago
    >Later on there was a ton of weird anti-feminist content in the comics Others provide convincing demonstrations of what Adams himself said about women so this is more of a tangent.... But good god that was well within the era of "I hate my wife" comedy being rampant. I will never understand fellow men who seem to think "Women suck" or "The person I married is garbage" as the pinnacle of humor. It's just not funny.
    - mikeyouse 10mo ago
      Yeah every once in awhile I’ll catch an old comedy special and it’s almost jarring how much of the content from some comics was “my wife is awful and she’s really dumb for expecting things from me”. Neighbors of a certain age have that same mindset.. “Want to come over for a drink and get away from the ball and chain?” Or “After your done with the lawn, would your wife let you come over for a drink?” I mean I wouldn’t mind grabbing a beer but your view of relationships is exceptionally weird.
      - parineum 10mo ago
        This comes from a generation where people stayed in bad marriages instead of getting a divorce.
the_af 10mo ago
Were there early signs? I don't know of them, but to be honest, I mostly "knew" him through Dilbert. When he turned out to be a bigot it was a disappointing surprise to me.
- neaden 10mo ago
  I had one of his books from ages ago and it had a long bit on the end about affirmations and his weird views on quantum physics and the ability of human mind to manipulate them.
  - diydsp 10mo ago
    I read his blog every now and then. He was cheering and celebrating the technical aspects of Trump's manipulative language... with no regard for its impact.
    - WesolyKubeczek 10mo ago
      That was when I stopped reading his blog. It’s one thing to, say, acknowledge and respect the cleverness of a villain succeeding by pulling a trick and then deconstruct the trick. It’s a totally different thing when you go beyond mere respect/acknowledgement and start incessantly praising the villain’s cleverness, professing your love for the villain, worshipping the villain, publicly fantasizing about having hot sex with the villain, etc. Adams at first was vaguely alluding to do the first thing, but testing the waters showed him which side of the sandwich was buttered, and he went fully with the second.
  - tanepiper 10mo ago
    Well... Scott Adams was on Art Bell Coast to Coast AM a few times, so that tracks.
- LiquidSky 10mo ago
  I don't recall any of his rightwing stuff, but I remember one of his 90s books had some stuff at the end about how quantum physics meant you could control reality by envisioning what you want and then you'd enter the universe with it. I was a teen and remember being utterly baffled.

cptskippy 10mo ago

Has anyone take the time to prove that out? I was a fan of the comic for years and don't recall there being a lot of casual racism strewn in.

jimmydddd 10mo ago
Even in early (20 yrs before Trump stuff) interviews, Adams said that one of the reasons he tried various businesses out (like the comic) was that his coprorate manager told him that the manager was being strongly discouraged from promoting white men. That's likely what folks are referencing with regard to his "origin story."
- dragonwriter 10mo ago
  He definitely blamed both the end of his career in banking and at PacBell on alleged discrimination against promoting White men in/into management (and I think he claims responsible people at both told him explicitly that that was the reason he was being passed over). Somewhat later (but still quite a while before what people describe as him “turning”), he would also claim his Dilbert show on UPN was cancelled because he was White, making it the third job he lost for that reason. (More likely, it was cancelled because its audience was both small and White and UPN was, looking at where it had successes and wanting a coherent demographic story to sell to advertisers and in an era where synergies between the appeals of shows on the same network was important to driving ratings, working to rearrange its offerings to focus on targeting Black audiences.)
  - tim333 10mo ago
    I'm not sure being against DEI stuff is completely off the rails.
    - hashmap 10mo ago
      "DEI" is an inherent part of the system - being "against DEI" is simply a statement about what kind of "DEI" you actually want.
  - Auracle 10mo ago
    If a show that mostly featured black people was cancelled due to "looking at where it had successes and wanting a coherent demographic story to sell to advertisers and in an era where synergies between the appeals of shows on the same network was important to driving ratings, working to rearrange its offerings to focus on targeting White audiences," would you so readily dismiss the creator at being miffed at that?
AnotherGoodName 10mo ago
I specifically do remember comics poking fun at diversity initiatives. A quick search of "Dilbert comic about diversity" brings up some examples. At the time i read those i probably thought they were on point. I've changed my views over the years. You can't keep them or you end up like Adams. That's probably the key to understanding him. He grew up in an era where black students were not allowed to attend white schools. The world changed. He didn't.
- Aloha 10mo ago
  At the time, a lot of them were little more than lipstick on a pig. It took a long time to actually get to diversity that was beyond token "person of group" inclusivity.
  - DaSHacka 10mo ago
    > It took a long time to actually get to diversity that was beyond token "person of group" inclusivity. Are we really beyond that now? Many of the initiatives I've experienced are the same thing today, which is why I'm not a big fan.
  - amrocha 10mo ago
    Funny enough, to get to actual representative diversity you need to explicitly hire underrepresented candidates and pass up on white dudes. Which Scott famously complained about. Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
    - parineum 10mo ago
      > you need to explicitly hire underrepresented candidates and pass up on white dudes If the initiatives that promoted diversity explicitly said that, they probably wouldn't have passed. The whole argument was about whether that was true because proponents would never be honest about that part so the public debate never got past that.
- PlanksVariable 10mo ago
  Diversity initiatives are often racist or regressive, in which case they should be mocked, and he wasn’t in the wrong for doing so.
mikeyouse 10mo ago
Later on there was a ton of weird anti-feminist content in the comics.. he also had his blog where he wrote way too much so ended up in holocaust-denial and “evolution is fake” territory. Another person talented in one field and pretty unremarkable otherwise who needed to air his terrible opinions about everything else.
- mrguyorama 10mo ago
  >Later on there was a ton of weird anti-feminist content in the comics Others provide convincing demonstrations of what Adams himself said about women so this is more of a tangent.... But good god that was well within the era of "I hate my wife" comedy being rampant. I will never understand fellow men who seem to think "Women suck" or "The person I married is garbage" as the pinnacle of humor. It's just not funny.
  - mikeyouse 10mo ago
    Yeah every once in awhile I’ll catch an old comedy special and it’s almost jarring how much of the content from some comics was “my wife is awful and she’s really dumb for expecting things from me”. Neighbors of a certain age have that same mindset.. “Want to come over for a drink and get away from the ball and chain?” Or “After your done with the lawn, would your wife let you come over for a drink?” I mean I wouldn’t mind grabbing a beer but your view of relationships is exceptionally weird.
    - parineum 10mo ago
      This comes from a generation where people stayed in bad marriages instead of getting a divorce.

the_af 10mo ago

Were there early signs? I don't know of them, but to be honest, I mostly "knew" him through Dilbert. When he turned out to be a bigot it was a disappointing surprise to me.

neaden 10mo ago
I had one of his books from ages ago and it had a long bit on the end about affirmations and his weird views on quantum physics and the ability of human mind to manipulate them.
- diydsp 10mo ago
  I read his blog every now and then. He was cheering and celebrating the technical aspects of Trump's manipulative language... with no regard for its impact.
  - WesolyKubeczek 10mo ago
    That was when I stopped reading his blog. It’s one thing to, say, acknowledge and respect the cleverness of a villain succeeding by pulling a trick and then deconstruct the trick. It’s a totally different thing when you go beyond mere respect/acknowledgement and start incessantly praising the villain’s cleverness, professing your love for the villain, worshipping the villain, publicly fantasizing about having hot sex with the villain, etc. Adams at first was vaguely alluding to do the first thing, but testing the waters showed him which side of the sandwich was buttered, and he went fully with the second.
- tanepiper 10mo ago
  Well... Scott Adams was on Art Bell Coast to Coast AM a few times, so that tracks.
LiquidSky 10mo ago
I don't recall any of his rightwing stuff, but I remember one of his 90s books had some stuff at the end about how quantum physics meant you could control reality by envisioning what you want and then you'd enter the universe with it. I was a teen and remember being utterly baffled.