Posted in: Comics | Tagged: dilbert, scott adams

Scott Adams Makes Dilbert Private Subscription Only After Cancellation

Scott Adams has taken his Dilbert comic strip, and related video content, to a private subscription site, after newspapers and syndication cancelled the strip.

Once upon a time, bad actors on the internet began popularising the phrase "It's OK to be white" as an attempt to troll society, something that was objectively true and inoffensive, and then tagging it to white supremacist groups, and claims of white victimhood, to the extent that to many, and quite deliberately, it became a dog-whistle signifier of racism. Basically pretty much what happened to Matt Furie's cartoon character Pepe The Frog.

The right-wing polling company, Rasmussen, asked people if they agreed with the phrase, and only half of Black Americans agreed. Less than three-quarters of white Americans also agreed with it. It is pretty likely that the disagreements were down to being aware of the use of this specific phrase. There was no reported "why?" follow-up question.

Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams then decided that this meant that Black Americans were a hate group. In an intentionally provocative YouTube video which he promoted as something that would get him cancelled, he stated that white people should stay away from Black people and wondered how cancelled this would get him. Turns out quite a lot. Because while newspapers were able to ignore his dog whistles before, these statements were a little out-in-the-open, undeniable and irreconcilable. Newspapers started dropping the strip in droves, and announcing it too. And now his own syndication network has followed.

Hugh Andrews, Chairman Andy Sareyan, CEO and President of Andrew McMeel, stated "Andrews McMeel Universal is severing our relationship with Dilbert creator Scott Adams. The process of this termination will extend to all areas of our business with Adams and the Dilbert comic strip. As a media and communications company, AMU values free speech. We are proud to promote and share many different voices and perspectives. But we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate. Recent comments by Scott Adams regarding race and race relations do not align with our core values as a company. Our creator-first approach is foundational to AMU, and we deeply value our relationships with our creators. However, in the case with Adams, our vision and principles are not compatible."

Free speech of course includes commentary rooted in discrimination or hate. One might also ask, is this really the first time they've noticed any of this? I mean, if this were a Dilbert strip, this would have just been a plot in which Dilbert was intentionally getting himself fired. Saying to a black boss, "I think white people should stay away from black people and I'm putting that on YouTube." "You're fired". "So you agree?"

Of course, no one has the right to have their cartoon strip nationally syndicated. But Dilbert is still available. This panel is from today's Dilbert cartoon strip by Scott Adams, which was posted on Twitter. I appreciated the irony, considering it would have been created weeks or months ago, so I doubt it could have been intentional.

Lukey McGarry posted his own cartoon response, also on Twitter, saying "Scott Adams blocked me ages ago, so he won't see this… but here's my Dilbert tribute." It has now gone rather viral.

While new Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to the news, clearly reading the room, saying "The media is racist. For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they're racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist."

But Scott Adams is on the move. After tweeting "Has anyone checked the price of free speech lately? It's worse than eggs", he has now stated that "Dilbert has been cancelled from all newspapers, websites, calendars, and books because I gave some advice everyone agreed with. (My syndication partner canceled me.) Dilbert (and more) will only be available on the subscription site http://scottadams.locals.com when sorted out." On his new site he states that he slept that a dream, that he did not see this coming, but that he feels like he's in a perfect situation. That he is supposed to be doing this right now, that he can't rely on big tech (including, one presumed, Elon Musk) and that media have now handed him far more power by cancelling him. How very Kenobi of him. Oh and that four organisations. China, "Hillary Democrats", radical Black Americans and Anifa all want to kill him. Yup, definitely launching himself as an internet success guru.

The Locals website seems to specialise in all manner of such objectionable free speech, including hosting Project Veritas, Russell Brand, The Quartering, The Rubin Report, the 2000 Mules documentary, and more, so he'll probably fit right in, and make bank. It seems to be the new business model these days. There have been plenty of other social media responses of note, across the media and comic book/cartoon industry. Here are a few:

John Derf Backderf: "Today's Cleveland Plain Dealer. I can state, with absolute honesty, that this the first time a Dilbert strip has made me laugh out loud."

Ben: If I ran a failing social media site that was headed for bankruptcy, I would simply lure advertisers back by siding with Dilbert on his plan to reintroduce segregation

Rob Dobi: The absolute fucking funniest timeline would be if conservatives started adopting dilbert as if he was the punisher logo

Judd Legum: Scott Adams posted a viciously racist rant calling Black people a "hate group" and advising whites to stay away from them As a result, newspapers dropped Adam's comic, Dilbert Elon Musk responded by saying the media is racist against white people

Scott McClood: Time for my periodic reminder that I am NOT Scott Adams. Different "Scott" altogether. Please do not confuse us.

 Ani-Mia: 1) Dilbert f-cking sucks 2) Scott Adams is an irrelevant, racist douche I will judge any news organization that still prints his shitty, boring comic strips What an absolute garbage human being.

Karen Geier: I don't think the Scott Adams story is about how he finally got dropped, it's about how he spent 10 years saying egregious shit and it took this long for someone to drop him

David Avallone: I have wanted the @latimes to get rid of Dilbert forever. I have considered cancelling my subscription just so I wouldn't have to look at it (though I'd miss @GustavoArellano .) Thanks, Scott Adams, for finally making my dreams come true, by being too big a racist to publish.

CPUK: I see that the Dilbert man has been unfairly cancelled merely for his… wait. What? On video? A video HE published? … I used to love Dilbert when I was a kid. But even leaving aside Scott Adams'… questionable politics… for a moment, it's more than had its day. It's observational humour on office life from a man who hasn't set foot in an office in thirty years.

Clark Bint: Scott Adams is a fascinating rabbit hole

Nikolas Draper-Ivey: Finding out Scott Adams was a fucking racist was not on my bingo card.

Matt Bors: It's been fun watching Scott Adams position himself as an elite master of persuasion, hypnotism, and rhetoric only to fire the Linguistic Kill Shot into his own temple.

Ani-Mia: Scott Adams doesn't understand free speech. He is free to say what he wants, and we are free to call him a racist sh-thead for it. No one is free from the repercussions of their free speech.

Mark Jacob: No, the "woke mob" didn't come for racist cartoonist Scott Adams. The marketplace did. If newspapers thought the benefit of running "Dilbert" was greater than the liability of running it, they would keep running it. Dumping Scott Adams is free enterprise in action.

Chris Cross: So I finally got a chance to see Scott Adams in his glory. That fool must love the taste of scorched earth. Why he thought to bring @donlemon
into his conversation to brand his okay to speak stupid is beyond me. He wants to move to an all white place, show him

Scott Kurtz: I'm glad Andrews McMeel cut ties with Scott "Racist creep" Adams, but frankly, they should have done it years ago. Remember this gem?

Jamal Yaseem Igle: And scene..Scott Adams has lost his syndicator/publisher.

Kim O'Connor: Ahaha, they interviewed Darrin Bell about Scott Adams and he said 'that's comics!' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kelly Williams: Every time I see someone talking about Scott Adams I stop and have to think about who they're talking about. Then when I remember I'm just mad that someone made me think about that trash.

Adam-Troy Castro: DILBERT has now been dropped by literally hundreds of newspapers including the Washington Post and the entire Gannett chain, and what I absolutely need to remark upon here is the part of Scott Adams's pathology, indeed the pathology of anybody like him, who would see this absolutely colossal consequence as a vindication…. You know, I used to love Scott Adams, creator of DILBERT. Loved the strip. Thought it hilarious. Thought it articulated important things about the predatory state of the American workplace, things that I had experienced with explosive frustration myself. I still think all those things are true. Then he began his turn to the right, and I still liked him, because I do believe that what artists give their audience is a slice of themselves, and sometimes the slice remains noteworthy even if not fully representative of the whole. When he became a MAGA Man I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore it, and it actually became easier to ignore it, because by then I was no longer consuming the strip every day. I was holding on to an impression of the work, up to a point, that I still hold, again up to the point. When I encountered it by accident it was usually still funny. Some of you will now snarl about things Adams said a year ago, or two years ago, or three years ago. I throw up my hands. I wasn't watching his every move. And now what he said this week, what he did this week. He has entered the realm of full Not-See.

Tom Galloway: Would appear Dilbert has been called into HR. (Andrews McMeel handled at least both the distribution of current strips and did reprint books. I think they also handle licensing (calendars, stuffed figures, magnets, etc.) but am not sure about that end.)

Scott Shaw: Please don't refer to this scumbag as a "cartoonist." A lot of us realized that he was scum when the National Cartoonists Society awarded him as "The Cartoonist of the Year" in 1997. I think it's time for the NCS to recall that error in judgment.

Robb Armstrong, author of Fearless: A Cartoonist's Guide To Life: Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert: You are a racist. So ashamed that you're on the back cover of "Fearless "! I hope you get the help you need. I also hope my editor responds favorably to my request for a new printing with a revised cover.

Georgia Dunn: I was appalled by the grim, vicious views Scott Adams shared this week. In addition to my own repulsion, I had readers reach out with concerns, wondering if our syndicate would continue to carry 'Dilbert' or publish his books after he made his repugnant remarks. I'm grateful they have responded with a resounding "NOPE!" Thank you, Andrews McMeel and GoComics.

Larry Hama: I never liked Dilbert, Ronald Dahl, or HP Lovecraft, so no biggie.

Tom Toro: For anyone who'll miss Dilbert, I have good news! Every morning you can read any strip from the past 30 years because it was all the same joke.

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