Dilbert: Quiet quitting

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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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The ACTUAL question was this:
Do you agree or disagree with this statement: “It’s OK to be white.”

Are you aware of the baggage associated with that statement

That's another part of the problem: that particular question has an Internet-historical background that many people aren't aware of:


It's the same issue that Bryan Cranston pointed it with MAGA: make America great again - for who? Historically, that only applied to middle & upper-class Caucasian Americans. In some people's minds, it means bringing back jobs & industry & manufacturing to America, but to other people, it comes across as racist, just like how in my coworker's mind, his flying of the Confederate flag wasn't racist, but was representative of things like small government. It's the same issue of "black lives matter" vs. "all lives matter". Of course all lives matter, but the focus of the movement was initially designed to highlight the treatment of minority groups in modern America, as an agent of change.

Which is why it was kind of silly of him to even make that video in the first place. Easily misconstrued, stripped of context, and went viral in the media. He lost syndication of his comic, his book publisher, and his book agent. Oh well.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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People got their headlines and have moved on. You can tell by the replies no one is taking more than 5s to bother taking in the EXACT context. It's pretty easy to tell if something is racist. Replace whatever color in question in with another, how's it sound now?

This is why I hesitate to even join in on threads like this, and why I don't participate in P&N much. Because then people slide into the trap of accusing YOU of being X, Y, or Z (political, racist, whatever) & things just kind of melt into a flamewar. For me, I think this controversy boils down to:

1. It's pretty clear from his follow-up interview that he isn't racist.
2. But that was a pretty bad video to put out. It definitely hurt his business reputation, but I don't think he cares very much about that.

Same deal with Musk. Musk did pretty good when he was focused on technology & had a (growing) list of oddball behavior. But then he got on Twitter full-time & really started tanking things. It seems like he's chilled out a bit from the backlash & Tesla stocks have started coming back up, but it's really changed people's opinions about how they see him & his products. I suspect it will be the same way for Mr. Adams...a lot of people are going to associate "Dilbert" with "racist creator" forever now. His loss!
 

MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
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The spot between Zits and Beetle Bailey and was formally occupied by the Dilbert strip, in my local paper.

1677625412600.png
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
12,078
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There is a discussion on what it means to say "it's okay to be white" and independent of the originator of the question and the immediate, mostly kneejerk reaction thereof. The question's meaning is actually not clear cut at all and there are at least two interpretations that could manifest.

Because there is one form of the statement meaning "behaving in a manner that is more in conformity of white conduct". Indeed, this matter and colorism was portrayed in fiction such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, where the matter of whether being of fairer skinned but not actually being white meant better treatment.

In addition, a quarter did answer that it is not okay to be white. Of great consideration is exactly how such an outlook manifests in everyday conduct; and the virulence may actual not be blacks against against whites, but the anti-acting white blacks doing psychological warfare against other blacks or mixed individuals showing some action is "embracing whiteness".
 
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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
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People got their headlines and have moved on. You can tell by the replies no one is taking more than 5s to bother taking in the EXACT context. It's pretty easy to tell if something is racist. Replace whatever color in question in with another, how's it sound now? For example:
This is a zero, but if uh lets say Chris Evan's makes this statement, but says anyone white? How's that going to pan out for him?
For clarification, I honestly don't care how this comic feels, he could be mini-Ye, I don't know or care enough to spend time to find out, but just pointing out how much of an over reaction the media takes with anything race related if it fits the agenda they want to push.
Wait. Isn’t what she says okay because it is satire. The object of that satire being the award's judges?
 
Nov 17, 2019
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Is this the thread the administrators want the OT to die on?

There is but one legitimate venue in which to invoke mods and admins, and that is Moderator Discussions.

Perknose
Forum Director
 
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
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Rassmussen “poll”….

A question/statement originated on 4chan as a troll for libs…

Yeah, seems about legitimate…LO-fuckin’-L

everything always comes back to 4chan lol

(except when it comes back to somethingawful)
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
51,542
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The spot between Zits and Beetle Bailey and was formally occupied by the Dilbert strip, in my local paper.

View attachment 77373

I have a longer post over on reddit on the impact of people who are the face of brands when they go haywire, but a few notes in particular:

1. Adidas says split from Yeezy will cost it $1.3 billion.

2. Kanye had $1.5 billion evaporate from his net worth.

3. Tesla investors lost $12 billion over 10 days a result of Elon Musk's tweets about "funding secured" a few years ago, not to mention his recent Twitter activity...Tesla's market capitalization has dropped close to $700 billion from its high last year, thanks in no small part to how the brand is now perceived publicly, with certain people being embarrassed to continue owning & using his products.

 

RPD

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
5,109
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Wait. Isn’t what she says okay because it is satire. The object of that satire being the award's judges?
Is it? Lets say it was, Chris Evans does it for his "race", same response by the media? Simple yes or no will suffice.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
51,542
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BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,990
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Misery loves company, and this is clearly a miserable aging man that wants to spread his own disappointment and anger to others. It would be great if we could just ignore his pathetic ass and let him shout into the void of nobody listening.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
20,992
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People got their headlines and have moved on. You can tell by the replies no one is taking more than 5s to bother taking in the EXACT context. It's pretty easy to tell if something is racist. Replace whatever color in question in with another, how's it sound now? For example:
This is a zero, but if uh lets say Chris Evan's makes this statement, but says anyone white? How's that going to pan out for him?
For clarification, I honestly don't care how this comic feels, he could be mini-Ye, I don't know or care enough to spend time to find out, but just pointing out how much of an over reaction the media takes with anything race related if it fits the agenda they want to push.

For starters, I'm going to point out that you're comparing Scott Adams saying, "you need to get the hell away from all black people" with "I hope some black people win some awards today".

That aside, let me pose a hypothetical scenario to you:

Two kids in a school. Kid A has been making kid B's life an absolute misery, beats the living shit out of them every chance they get, etc.

On a given day, let's say kid A has done it again, but gets caught red-handed this time. What's your reaction here?
Now let's change that situation and say that kid B has finally had enough of kid A's bullshit and beats the living shit out of kid A. What's your reaction here?
 
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Mar 11, 2004
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I watched the context in the video. There is no extra nuance there. You don't get to throw around racist BS and then say, "I must have left my more nuanced statements in my other pants".

I'd also like to point out that you basically didn't address anything I wrote.

Kaido seems to like to be a contrarian. That often makes people act like dickheads and idiotically defend shitty behavior.

If Kaido had actually given a shit about proper context instead of chastising others for not considering it, he'd realize that the guy is just a raging shithead who has said a lot of fucked up stuff over recent years, hence the actual context for what is now happening.

Its exactly the same bullshit behavior we got repeatedly about Turmp and all the other gaggle of right wing shitheads that constantly spew hateful garbage thoughts, only for "moderate" dickheads like Kaido to defend them as though their specific comments were said in a vaccuum and not part of a cumulative recurring pattern of behavior by these people. But, but, but, context! we're told, by people ignoring the actual context.

Sorry, Kaido, if you've got a problem understanding that, then maybe you should go and get some context. Until then, STFU with this "context" bullshit.

This is literally the exact same dickhead behavior we got from the people worshipping Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and every other right wing asshole. Somehow we're taking them out of context by not taking in the multiple hour long shit where they spewed their horrible ideals. But then when we do that, we see that in fact, they are still every bit as shitty as the little soundbite makes them out to be, but then we're being unfair to them by doing that as well, because something something media bad something.

I like how Kaido tried desperately to make sure we know he's not racist by literally making every argument. "Well sure it sounds bad, and like he should know it sounds bad before saying racist stuff, but he didn't mean to be racist by saying it, but also he should know better than to say racist stuff, because the media is bad and will make you look bad if you say bad stuff, but like that doesn't mean he's bad, look at all this other context (I'll conveniently ignore all the other context that supports he actually is in fact that shitty, lulz why don't you guys understand context???). If you have to explain the explanation and then explain your explanation for explaining the explanation, maybe realize you're just looking like an asshole defending horrible shit? Nah, nah, Adams is just not understood but he doesn't understand how his privilege makes him look bad when he says bad stuff, but that doesn't mean he's really bad, it just means he doesn't have to face consequences for saying bad things very often, but those bad things were taken out of context, here let me literally fucking say what he actually meant in my own words, but guys, yes no racism is bad. Super bad, and like look, I'll say it yet again, racism is bad. But like, maybe give this guy saying racist stuff a free pass for it, cause, like its unfair to him to hold him accountable for what he says no matter how bad it is. That will set a bad precedent. Context, context, context! Ok, I'll ignore most of the context, but like obviously racism is kinda a sore subject in America, so maybe tread lightly when saying blatantly racist things. Which, sure, Adams should have known that, but he's not racist. Oh and also Elon Musk! They're not racist because like they're just calling the media what it is and they don't have to actually answer for their behavior, so let's put it in context and give them a free pass. Just to be clear though, racism is bad. But this wasn't racist. Ok, so it sounds super racist, but look, here's proof he's not actually racist. People need context. So please only focus on the context I'm providing and ignore any other context. Because I know, but you don't because you don't have the context like I do, and like that's why I don't comment on this stuff, because people always take me defending horrible stuff out of context." I actually did get a laugh when he literally argued "affluenza"/rich white privilege as serious defense of this guy.

Won't we consider the real victims in all of this, the poor, horribly persecuted, rich white men who just have to say awful stuff because they're rich and privileged and don't understand how people will take them saying awful stuff badly? They need to be more nuanced and say the awful stuff in ways where people won't have a problem with it. But their actual awful beliefs are totally a-ok. Yes racism is bad, but like, this isn't real racism, plus did you know this guy is white, so if we hold him accountable for his racism, then like that's the real racism, and like then, it just shows he was right, the world is racist against rich white dudes. That's the real context, guys!
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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I watched the context in the video. There is no extra nuance there. You don't get to throw around racist BS and then say, "I must have left my more nuanced statements in my other pants".

I'd also like to point out that you basically didn't address anything I wrote.

Two points, just to clear up my perspective on it:

1. It's a ridiculous video that he shouldn't have made. Bad choice of words, bad choice of poll, bad choice to publicize it, etc.

2. I also think the media is selectively misinterpreting his intention, as he discusses in the video interview. Again, bad choice of words, poll, etc. It seems like what he was trying to say was "some black people are racist against white people" & he doesn't want to associate with people who are racist & don't want to change.

Not trying to defend him. Not saying racism isn't bad. Not saying the video wasn't bad.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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Sorry, Kaido, if you've got a problem understanding that, then maybe you should go and get some context.

This is a gross misinterpretation loaded with false accusations. To clarify:

1. I absolutely think he should be held accountable for what he said.

2. Yes, racism is bad.

3. Personally I believe his video hurt a lot of people & he lost a lot of fans of his work as a result.
 
Mar 11, 2004
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Some food for thought. Preface:

1. Racism is bad. Let's get that out of the way because some people won't be able to see past the ragebait topics here.
2. Unpopular opinion from the knee-jerk reactions going around: I think he got taken immensely out of context, and a lot of media companies are making a lot of money off ragebait articles about this right now.

I think what he was trying to say is:

1. He feels like the poll is saying that half of black people polled are self-stated racist against white people
2. He then advocates staying away from people who are racist, because trying to change people who hate other people based on race feels pointless

I'm a fan of his comics, cartoons, and non-fiction books. He can go out into left field pretty often, but most of his content requires a nuanced discussion within the context he's delivering it in, not from a knee-jerk reactionary kind of way:

View attachment 77331

Here's a good 2-hour interview with him from a couple days ago:


From his Twitter, where he often calls out the media on their FUD:

View attachment 77334

Musk (another controversial public figure) also called out the media for being "racist against whites":


Case in point, from Twitter:

View attachment 77332

However, ragebait articles from the Internet don't operate in a nuanced fashion. They operate like this:
View attachment 77333

The Internet right now definitely feels like Chicken Little running away with the whole "sky is falling" thing. It seems pretty odd that a guy who has been running a satire comic strip for nearly 35 years would suddenly become publicly racist. It's worth watching his Youtube interview linked above for further context.

The cluelessness with which you started that post is glorious. You literally started by saying, well yes in fact, racism is bad. Buuuut...

If you are defending someone and literally you start the argument off by trying to clarify that you do in fact believe racism is bad, you might wanna rethink literally everything after that, because all I'm seeing is "Hitler was bad, but he had some good ideas..." level of thought. And yep, I went there, deal with it, or you know, don't and keep believing that racist pieces of shit that have been saying racist shit for years aren't actually racist.

I'd say I'd be embarrassed if I were you, but much like one of our other residents of this forum who literally got upset at people calling them racist after they said "why do black people have to do this" saying they don't like it, and when asked why they're ignoring all the white people doing that, their response was "I didn't notice that at all", I genuinely don't think you're capable of actually understanding how fucked up and embarrassing what you posted is. I think you're so blinded by your belief that you are just this really happy go lucky open-minded person, that you're defending blatant racism, and then knowing how that makes you look bad, have desperately sought out a convoluted mess of an argument to defend yourself by defending this other person. I think this belief comes from you genuinely wanting to believe that racism isn't real, or rather as prevalent as it is, and so you think you're doing some good by going "this isn't really racism", but I also think you're being duped by your ignorance. At one point you literally said "this is what he was really trying to say" whilst chastising others as though we're putting words in his mouth for saying him literally verbatim saying completely racist things, was them saying racist things. But we took them out of context, but you can put words in his mouth and tell us we're wrong? Which is ridiculously hypocritical nonsense. That your brain should have stopped you from writing. But it didn't. Because you're having a knee-jerk reaction where you're realizing you're gonna have to defend yourself for defending this behavior. And thus, we have your post.

Let me summarize:
1. Racism is bad.
2. Don't defend racist shit.
3. Don't defend racist shit in a bonkers diatribe full of hypocrisy, ignorance, and condescension.
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
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Kaido seems to like to be a contrarian. That often makes people act like dickheads and idiotically defend shitty behavior.
One counterpoint:
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

― H.L. Mencken

Not stating that's what's going on, just that we shouldn't dismiss contrarians and/or people defending scoundrels.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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The cluelessness with which you started that post is glorious. You literally started by saying, well yes in fact, racism is bad. Buuuut...

If you are defending someone and literally you start the argument off by trying to clarify that you do in fact believe racism is bad, you might wanna rethink literally everything after that, because all I'm seeing is "Hitler was bad, but he had some good ideas..." level of thought.

OK, well, allow me to clear it up, because that certainly wasn't my intention. So that we're all on the same page:

1. I don't agree with what he did.

2. My point was the media taking it out of context. He explained what he was trying to say in the video interview. Still a bad video. The guy obviously has problems.