I'm reposting this cartoon from 2012 and will take this occasion to make note of the recent death of Scott Adams. I think I blogged my first Dilbert cartoon in 2009, and since then have inserted occasional others when the blogging day involved too much doomscrolling and I needed a mental health break.
I have been occasionally reprimanded by readers for not ghosting the Dilbert cartoons because of Scott Adams' political and sociological viewpoints. These matters were addressed in this week's New York Times report about his death:
“Dilbert” was a war cry against the management class — the system of deluded jerks you work for who think they know better. Workers posted it on their cubicles like resistance fighters chalking V’s on walls in occupied Paris. But their bosses posted “Dilbert” in their offices too, since they also had a boss who was an idiot. In the Dilbertverse, “It’s turtles all the way up,” Mr. Adams explained to me when we met. The bottom rungs are filled with put-upon competent workers, oppressed by an infinite bureaucracy of people upholding a system that isn’t actually based on actual expertise.Maybe Mr. Adams was an early Trump supporter because “Dilbert” was itself proto-MAGA. The strip’s everyday resentments and cynicism added up to a now-familiar worldview. “There’s no such thing as expertise. It just doesn’t exist,” Mr. Adams said...Mr. Adams thought this extended even to issues like international trade. “In these big complicated situations, no one really knows if we have a good deal. It’s best just to negotiate from ignorance and hope the other side gives in,” he told me. “In the real world there is a fog. In a world where nobody knows, the loudest person is going to get the most.”From his point of view, I had lived so long among the well-credentialed languishing in abstract thoughts that I was fooled into thinking complex problems required expert solutions. “In your movie,” by which he meant my perception of reality, “there’s a big incompetent guy who doesn’t know the details,” he told me. “I’m telling you it’s the best thing possible. When President Trump acts without all the information and his facts are not accurate, he’s operating on a higher level, not a lower level. He’s operating in the real world.”
Ars Technica made note of evidence of racism and atheism:
In his last two decades, Adams shifted increasingly from the world of comics to politics, where he became increasingly vocal—and abrasive—about his conservative views and his support for Donald Trump.In the final years of his life, these attitudes cost him most of what he had built with Dilbert. For instance, in 2022, as Rolling Stone recounts, “over 75 newspapers dropped Dilbert after Adams introduced the strip’s first Black character, which he then used as a prop to mock ‘wokeness’ (the character identified as white and LGBTQ+ for work purposes).”..Adams eventually relaunched the strip as the subscription-only Dilbert Reborn, which he said was “too spicy for the general public.” He focused more on his business and political books, including one on Donald Trump and the importance of “persuasion” over facts.
I mostly stopped blogging Dilbert cartoons when the series went subscription-only. But I don't regret having included the cartoons in TYWKIWDBI. I'll repost some old ones after this post, and I'll offer here some links to other ones I've particularly enjoyed in the past.
Addendum: A tip of my blogging cap to an anonymous reader, who found a well-informed (and well-written) obituary about Scott Adams in The Comics Journal.
Genuinely appreciate a respectful article about the man.
ReplyDeletere: “There’s no such thing as expertise. It just doesn’t exist,” Mr. Adams said...
ReplyDeleteIn light of this, Adams' decision to self-treat his cancer with Ivermectin, a horse dewormer, seems inevitable. RIP Dilbert.
Remember when things were just funny and not tied to politics somehow? I miss those days.
ReplyDeleteI was never much of a fan of Dilbert because I found most of it to be only so-so at best. However, there were flashes of brilliance. I have a few that I used at work numerous times because they fit recurring situations perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAs for the man behind the cartoon... In the late 90s I was at a software conference where Adams was one of the keynote speakers. I wasn't going to attend but ended up going because friends wanted to. It turned out to be an hour of nothing but constant laughs - better than most "comedy" acts I've been to.
Except these days I realize just how much of the "modern" Scott Adams was on display even back then, just in a different guise. What we saw as part of his downfall was always there, just partially hidden and/or not as vocal/obvious.
I don't remember any specifics from that keynote except one anecdote he related. In one panel he used the term "dork" as a disparaging remark. Someone with the surname "Dork" wrote in to ask him to stop using it that way. After that he used further panels to berate/belittle this person (and, obviously, all those with the same name). Sound like something someone else we know of would do (although, Adams was much more sharp witted so it was more acidic and sometimes subtle)?
Living in Europe, I thought Dilbert was a hilarious over-the-top exaggeration of American office life. Then, about 25 years ago, I arrived in the US, and saw the sad soul-crushing reality of cubicles with my own eyes. Even worked in a few. The fun was gone.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Scott Adams was that he thought he was the exception to his own rule that there is no such thing as expertise. And he died because of it. It is important to point out that tragedy.
He was wrong. On his own expertise. And on the idea that expertise does not exist. It does. However, it requires long hard years of studying. Science-deniers, holocaust-deniers, climate-change deniers, anti-vaxxers and the like all think they can replace that with a Google search or their social media timeline. And this is going to get worse with AI.
They keep being proven wrong. Darwin was right.
Thank you, Minnesotan, for sharing all this Dilbert material despite everything that has transpired around Scott Adams, all well blogged and commented-upon above and I have nothing to add in that respect.
ReplyDeleteMy tuppence-worth follows. I had several real, rare laughs reading these shared strips, and conclude that, since I deplore what I know of his views, in Adams's case his work (or some of it, at least) really does transcend the artist, for this reader at least.
I do understand that it's a difficult cognitive dissonance to pull off -- I sort of manage it, though (just imagine all the books I'd have to burn if I didn't!), and perhaps that's in part because like our host I read Humanities at university, and this must have helped me learn from an early age to accept it as a necessary evil.
As a parting anecdote, let me tell you all that for my twenty-first birthday (c. mid-80s) I was given an old, beautiful, leather-bound edition of Cellini's autobiography. The (C19?) American translator had written a scholarly introduction in which he poured his heart out to his readers, speaking to us of the anxieties he underwent as he forced himself to keep a steady hand and faithfully render all Benvenuto's to-him shocking and repulsive macho boastings, for example of his homicides and prostitute liaisons. In fact, I remember the introduction as well (or as poorly!) as the bio itself.
I just can't see bowdlerisation or cancellation as preferable!
Thank you, alecartuja, for the comments. I think I remember you as one of the "old-timers" here on the blog, and I appreciate your sharing your insights.
DeleteI am indeed an old-timer, if late-boomer (awful term) qualifies me. But I'm fairly new around here, my loss. I'll stick around, though, if I may.
DeleteP.S. will try to spell the handle right next time...
I am part of the Metafilter community. Yeeeeears ago, Scott Adams, posting not as Scott Adams, was vigorously defending Scott Adams in a thread a user had posted. It was sad and riled some people up. He had opened an account just to vent. Paid $5 to yell at internet strangers. Well, he was there for about 3 hours. Cannot remember if he was shown the door by moderators or why he left (at least under his handle) but he was gone in a poof of smoke. His mental arc was not a surprise. Again: sad.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous person, thank you for reminding me about Metafilter. It used to be on my list of websites to visit daily, but over time it drifted to the "every Thursday" folder, which I seldom get to. So I've moved it back to "daily" because there's lots of good stuff there.
DeleteI have debated if I want to reply for some time and have realized I can not bring myself to mark this post as read if I do not reply.
ReplyDeleteTo anyone who did more than read the comics, it was always easily discoverable how deeply unwell Adams was in both mind and soul.
You say you have been reprimanded for not letting him slide into deserved obscurity. I have read this blog for the better part of two decades. This is the only topic I can remember on which you deserve to be reprimanded.
I sincerely hope that you are not implying you paid for a subscription to his hate-as-a-service.
"I sincerely hope that you are not implying you paid for a subscription to his hate-as-a-service." I did not imply that; in fact I stated the opposite: "I mostly stopped blogging Dilbert cartoons when the series went subscription-only."
DeleteI don't mind that you reprimand me and fully understand the reason. But as I stated elsewhere, I am sometimes capable of separating the art from the artist, be that in literature, cinema, or cartoons.
Thank you for the reply. The phrasing implied still having access and choosing not to distribute. It's good to know.
DeleteThe artist using their art for transporting their message -- or not -- is one of the factors deciding if I can consider them apart -- or not.
In any case: thank you for blogging all those years.
You bet. And keep speaking out in comments when you have disagreements with my opinions.
DeleteThe Comics Journal obit for Scott Adams:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tcj.com/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-at-black-people-scott-adams-1957-2026/ I have no mouth and I must scream at Black people: Scott Adams, 1957-2026
Thank you, anonymous person. That's a well-written memorial. I've added a link to it to the body of the post.
Delete