Replying to tweets about the controversy, Musk said it is actually the media that is “racist against whites & Asians.”...
In further tweets Sunday, Musk agreed with a tweet that said “Adams’ comments weren’t good” but there’s “an element of truth” to them, and suggested in a reply that media organizations promote a “false narrative” by giving more coverage to unarmed Black victims of police violence than they do to unarmed White victims of police violence....
Here's the Musk tweet, responding to someone who tweeted that the MSM had concluded that Adams is racist:
The media is racist
Musk then added:
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.
And when someone tweeted...
Adams' comments weren't good. But there's an element of truth to this...it's complicated. Mainly we've leaned into identity with predictable results, and power today is complicated. We were on the right path with colorblindness and need to return to it.
... Musk responded:
Exactly.
I used boldface to identify text that is not in the WaPo article. That is, the WaPo writer does not open up the question whether identity politics is a tragic mistake and colorblindness could be the right answer.
Posts
134 comments:
It’s the people who want to make you afraid to say anything about it who make it seem complicated.
It’s not actually complicated.
Here’s the deal, prof.
You get rid of your identity politics bitch, feminism, and then we can talk about chucking the racism blabbing.
You go first.
The MSM operates by using just headlines and the context fallacy (omitting important facts). Ann has highlighted the use of the context fallacy.
A Lincoln Journal Star reporter (Chris Dunker) tweeted “Nature is healing” after I withdrew as a candidate for the NE Power Review Board. Dunker and I had Twitter interactions regarding masks and the shutdowns during Covid.
Since the old regime at Twitter kicked me out, I sent Dunker an email. He just published the first lines on Twitter; including my email address. He left out the part of my email asking him to do a story about how he and the MSM were wrong about Covid and it has been very costly to America.
Musk is one of the bravest people in the world.
Btw, I withdrew because the Dems threatened to filibuster my nomination on the floor of the Unicameral. I would have been subject to all sorts of verbal abuse. They probably would have read my tweets and Power Line posts.
Somehow Elon Musk is slowly becoming Sherman McCoy.
They are white and asian racists because they can’t afford to lose any black vote…so it isn’t as bad as black racism, you see…
Maybe the billions they gave to the teamsters will let them be less white and asian racist?
From the comments over there:
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist who owns one of the largest and most influential social media companies on the planet still doesn't understand either the First Amendment or how and why companies in the public eye suffer reputational damage and when to shut up."
And:
"He’s not nor will ever be a true American. So no, he has not a clue what the 1st Amendment is about. He’s chosen the side to destroy the USA and we can’t allow that to happen. Call EVERY anti-democracy tweet or statement he makes into the light for all to see."
Terrible!
Musk said it is actually the media that is “racist against whites & Asians.”...
Almost right. Racist against straight male whites & Asians is more to the point. There are still women who get to play the “sexism” card, though fewer than in the past. And if Pete Buttigieg were straight he’d be back home in Indiana 18 months ago.
Reputational damage? He means tow the liberal line or Progressives will boycott your company.
Not a true American? How about a true Scotsman?
But what about the six million Illegal aliens Biden has let into the country? How’s their understanding of the First Amendment?
I like that the Marxist lecturing black lady has to pay reparations because she’s a descendant of slave owners…
Race blind public laws and policies are likely the most effective strategy. The alternatives include (1) segregation, and (2) the strong putting a boot on the necks of the weak.
The basic issues are:
1. Some people are rabid competitors and demand that their in-group be winners. They may be White, Jewish, German, English, Black, Asian, etc. That may be Christians, Islamic, Communists, Greens, or in any other religion/ideology. They may be oligarchs and successful land owners, or working class people and unions. Etc.
2. Powerful groups routinely attempt to force all to comply with their world view (anything in #1), or they eliminate competitors a la Hitler, Stalin, Mao, the Spanish Inquisition, or the execution and sterilization program of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. This was a planned 100 day effort of one African tribe to wipe out a competing tribe inside Rwanda. Also see Idi Amin of Uganda and other African dictators.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Idi-Amin
Race blindness is the best public policy because it's the only one that "lets sleeping dogs lie." When latent competitors are not constantly confronted with historical evil and negativity, sometimes current and future evil can be avoided. We live in a fuzzy organic world without clear solutions...except for the routine recreation of naïve and aggressive "final solutions" that always cause far more harm.
Tow = Toe
Traditionally "racist" is not about literal racism but about a kind of malevolence, a malevolence based on race.
Literal racism is just that you think different races have different characteristics, not necessarily genetic. That's pretty much the scientific position and the sociological one. A literal racist on that score winds up just anybody who has looked into it.
Today "racist" is supposed to mean malevolent where obviously it isn't malevolent. That's the stupidity.
Scott Adams uttered the unspeakable:
The Hudson Valley is one of the most liberal areas in the country. BLM’s reign of terror and the ensuing crime wave perpetrated mostly by blacks ignited a massive exodus from NYC, as everybody who could got themselves and their kids out. Housing prices skyrocketed.
Woodstock, one of the commie left oases, is heavily populated by white hipster parents who fled NYC to get their kids out of city public schools. They fled black gangs and violence. This has been going on my entire life.
Everybody knows this. Nobody speaks about it. The refugees often become the most obnoxious racism ranters, accusing their neighbors. We all know personally that we cannot live alongside the violent, dysfunctional black communities. Adams is insisting that it’s time to call blacks on their behavior. Cue the usual stupid, obnoxious and deceptive racism ranting.
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!" - Mario Savio, 12/02/1964
When looking at what Adams is doing and why, this is what I see. That said, I have no idea how this will perpetuate any distress to the machine that is producing the attitudes and positions that Adams is opposing here. There's a shitpoasting element to Adams' behavior that has to be acknowledged, but he is most definitely throwing his body on the gears of the machine. When you have the FU money he does, it's an option. Musk can see that, and those who thought the open race-baiting of this era would pass unacknowledged are going to have to deal with it too. One more minor element in the story of this century. Stay tuned.
In light of the fascist left terrorists proclivity in using race as an excuse for aberrant and often abhorrent behaviors as well the usage of the label "racist" to quash dissent and even discussion of such behaviors; and in light of the daily exposure of such behaviors by the " offended " group, is Mr. Adam's opinion and position wrong ?
Adams is a student of persuasion and knows better than to rely on the results of any poll. He also knows that if you ask a question like “is there anything wrong with being born white?”, later ask the same sample of people “do you agree with the statement ‘it’s okay to be white’?” you will probably get different responses, since the second question contains a politically charged assertion.
So Adams was having a bit of fun with his “IF this is true, then . . .” assertion.
It’s a bad idea for Musk or anyone else to wander to far into the cornfield in support of such a conditional statement.
Thomas Sowell wrote that once a country adopts racist racial preferences it never gets better.
It never seems to help long term and the govt just keeps doubling down. And nobody's happy.
It was 40 years ago he wrote that.
"So no, he (Musk) has not a clue what the 1st Amendment is about."
Talk about obtuse. The above comment is ludicrous. The guy exposed Twitter for colluding with the Feds to silence speech.
"He’s chosen the side to destroy the USA and we can’t allow that to happen."
Is the commenter talking about Musk or Trump?
One cannot engage a leftie in debate. Just ridicule them.
"He’s not nor will ever be a true American. So no, he has not a clue what the 1st Amendment is about. He’s chosen the side to destroy the USA and we can’t allow that to happen. Call EVERY anti-democracy tweet or statement he makes into the light for all to see."
You can say the same about Obama.
"Uncle Tom still working for Uncle Bill"
For some reason, reading this post and comments made me think back to the Rodney King incident, the ensuing riots and his famous quote "I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids" That was all the way back in 1992. We've since had a black man elected and re-elected President. We currently have a "black" woman as Vice President. Blacks dominate in many sports and music award events. They are head coaches, run large companies, have positions of prominence on tv shows and in movies. And yet, media agitation makes race relations so volatile. Just recently, I came across some video footage of about 12 to 15 police officers doing some horrendous inhumane things to a tubby white man after a high speed chase. They literally hog tied him to subdue him and left him face down in that position. He suffocated and died. If he had been a black man, that would have been a national scandal. The media has so much to do with igniting the flame.
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist..."
I'm pretty sure the worst epithet in that list is "white."
" Call EVERY anti-democracy tweet or statement he makes into the light for all to see."
anti-democracy
I don't think it means what HE thinks it means.
As I stated in the comments yesterday, I think what Scott Adams said is probably in the minds of millions of people as they read the constant onslaught of how our society has become, what has been deemed the 'approved' doctrines to teach in schools, how the media presents things, how our criteria for hiring and promoting has been skewed, and how some in the Black community request, even demand, segregation. Not to mention the absolute destruction of our cities, and our civility around society.
I'm not (and I doubt that Musk is either) saying Adams comment is a good thing. But it's a real thing. Reality is not something our mass media wants to deal in.
Does Adams really need the print media anymore? For that matter, does anyone? Seems like he has plenty of ways to reach his audience if he even still wants to do so.
And I really like this trend by people like Rowling, Musk and Adams of cancelling the Left.
No hes tony stark
Does anyone ever take responsibility for their own behavior anymore?
The [insert here] made me be racist.
No! Take responsibility!
The whole point of being a leftist is because it affords an opportunity to impose consequences.
Scott Adams is late to the party. Recall The Most Reverend* Jesse Jackson stating he was walking the streets late at night and two men were walking towards him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw they were white.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-12-03-1993337169-story.html
*Sarcasm
Ann Althouse said...
From the comments over there:
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist who owns one of the largest and most influential social media companies on the planet still doesn't understand either the First Amendment...and when to shut up."
Well, that puts Musk on an equal footing with the average WaPo commenter.
"But what about the six million Illegal aliens Biden has let into the country?"
Where is your supporting documentation that six million illegal aliens have entered the US in the past two years?
I assert that Scott Adams' strip should have been dumped by the newspapers because it is badly drawn and has never been funny.
The country is 70% white. The 47% of Blacks who consider them not okay will have trouble negotiating with them. This will be more a problem for them than for the whites....I think Adams' proposal was meant in a tongue in cheek, Modest Proposal sort of way but, if followed, it would certainly aggravate the problem.....There will be no solution to this problem in our lifetime. Sometimes the Serbs and Croats get along and sometimes they murder the children of their neighbors. The Rwandans murdered their neighbors with garden hoes. Well, count your blessings. Genocide in America in the last hundred years has been done mostly on a retail basis. We've never attained European or African levels of wholesale slaughter. Maybe someday though.
Did Adams throw himself onto the gears to make them stop?
Or was he doing his act, dancing audaciously among the gears, dangerously close to disaster, making his fans gasp, but always coming away unscathed...until he stumbled.
The only systemic, institutional (i.e., media, academia, government, business), and intentional racism in the United States today is anti-white (and in academia it is also anti-Asian).
"BLM’s reign of terror and the ensuing crime wave perpetrated mostly by blacks ignited a massive exodus from NYC, as everybody who could got themselves and their kids out."
False.
To the degree there has been an uptick of people leaving New York, (and there was in 2020), was due to COVID-19. That always seemed stupid to me, as COVID-19 was not just a NYC-centric phenomenon, and it was inevitably going to wane, and...wouldn't many who left regret it later?
Also, there was never a "BLM reign of terror" in NYC.
In any case, there are always new people flowing into NYC.
So, it is because he's African-American, a Person of Color, a baby... "burden" on the handmade tale.
That said, Critical Racists' Theory (CRT) presumes diversity [dogma]. DIEversity policy normalizes class-disordered ideologies under ethical religions. #HateLovesAbortion
“Colorblindness” is code for not redressing past and ongoing wrongs.
You know who threw their bodies on the gears and tried to make it stop, but got ground up?
The Jan 6th Capital protestors.
You gotta serve somebody
It may be the devil
Or it may be the Lord
We know the latter is not on the media agenda
Believe what you feel like, Cookie. The sane (i.e., Republicans) among us choose to be reality-based.
With Scott Adams being “canceled” by Gannett and others, I can see that freeing Adams from the old and dying print media and just posting “Dilbert” on his digital platforms. Berkeley Breathed had dropped out of the daily grind of doing “Bloom County” in 1989 to only producing a Sunday comic called “Outland” (a spin-off of “Bloom County”) and later just a Sunday version of “Bloom County”. Eventually he got tired of being at the mercy of newspapers, cartoon sydicates, and deadlines, and stopped creating new “Bloom County” strips. Breathed started new “Bloom County” strips on his digital platforms several years ago. He makes them when he feels like being creative. He is in charge of his production and not newspapers or comic strip syndicates. I see Adams being freed to do what he wants to do with “Dilbert”, maybe even allowing him to be more controversial and biting about office politics that can be used against the DIE dictators.
Cancel cancel cancel.
the authoritarian left are all about the anti-free speech cancel.
Mao would be proud.
More Scott Adams genuflecting, better to listen to the words of Jesus, He's got a book about all this. Better mix.
Too hot in the kitchen, move out :)
The status quo's propaganda regarding matters of race and ethnicity (colorblindness is evil), as well as matters of gender and sexuality (tolerance is not enough, we must celebrate misery), is unsustainable. Boring truths like colorblindness and tolerance are the ways out.
Bob Boyd said...
You know who threw their bodies on the gears and tried to make it stop, but got ground up?
The Jan 6th Capital protestors.
2/27/23, 8:52 AM
THIS...and they are STILL rotting away in their DC gulag without a trial.
Blogger Shouting Thomas said...
“Here’s the deal, prof.
You get rid of your identity politics bitch”
Yes, yes you have the freedom to say whatever you want but how is this helpful in making your point?
This is my issue with Scott Adams as well. If he’s such an expert in communication and persuasion why did he choose to make his point using the language he used. He’s already acknowledged he could have been more clear in his monologue. Of course his cartoon strip should not have been cancelled. Of course he has the freedom to say whatever he wants. But why not use his skills to be more clear in making his point? My suspicion is that he wanted the attention and also wanted Dilbert go out with a bang (figuratively speaking). Which is a shame. Dilbert, before it became political, was a wonderful comic strip.
“Colorblindness” is code for not redressing past and ongoing wrongs.
Left Bank lets it slip there is never going to be a Progressive colorblind society because we can always find unrepressed past wrongs and ongoing "inequalities".
Progressives should ask themselves, "Where does this end?"
If you think the answer is "fully redressing past injustices" and "a society that is fully and justly equal" then you are the sucker at the table.
Hey Dinky - Are you for or against freedom of speech.
Where is your supporting documentation that six million illegal aliens have entered the US in the past two years?
They're called "undocumented" for a reason Comrade Marvin.
"Here’s the deal, prof. You get rid of your identity politics bitch, feminism, and then we can talk about chucking the racism blabbing."
What the hell kind of "deal" is that? You're offering to shut up unless I change how I write? Okay, I accept it. I'll stay the same and you agree to shut up.
"“Colorblindness” is code for not redressing past and ongoing wrongs."
No it's not. It's the only logically possible non-racist stance. Literally any other stance is, by definition, racist. Maybe you want to argue that a little bit of temporary carefully calibrated racism is needed to get to a non-racist future. People have. The track record of that approach is not filled with unqualified successes. But just screaming "you're a racist" at the people you disagree with, as you are doing here, is just hate speech. You're literally calling people hateful names and accusing them of evil thoughts because it makes you feel better; it's certainly not advancing the goal of a better world.
Cookie still hanging on with a mere 14 people have illegally entered country since Slo' Joe became president. I suspect he's also on board with "the border is secure".
Cook: "Where is your supporting documentation that six million illegal aliens have entered the US in the past two years?"
Customs/Border Patrol put the number at 2.8 million for 2022 alone. Begley's 6 million doesn't seem out of the ball park, but let's say it's only 3 million, Cook. What difference does it make?
Better question: In your view, how many is too many?
So Adams threw himself on the levers, but not the gears.
“Colorblindness” is code for not redressing past and ongoing wrongs.
Is your position then one of belief that this redressing will take generations, perhaps centuries? After 400 years of slavery, racism and violence, will true justice require 400 years of the same to be meted out to the generations of descendants of the perpetrators of the initial injustice? What of those who descend from both the victims AND the perpetrators? Oh, let's just extract it all from the racist capitalist system they built? Hmmm. I see what they mean by systemic racism now. Deep pockets.
For some, it appears that no less than this will be seen to be a just outcome. Read Kendi, if you are a reader of limited skill. Read Bell, Crenshaw or Delgado if you read at a college level.
Equity must be addressed, and temporal questions of direct individual guilt do not enter into this equation. That's the justice I see these folks thirsting for. Time to pay up!
Ann Althouse said...@ 9:56
I don't know if you meant that to be, but I laughed out loud. She got you, Thomas.
Blogger William said...
The country is 70% white. The 47% of Blacks who consider them not okay will have trouble negotiating with them. This will be more a problem for them than for the whites..
I can remember when racism was declining. That was before Obama. Derbyshire was fired by National Review for writing a true piece in another magazine about race.
From an essay by a public defender:
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. Television news intentionally leaves out unflattering facts about the accused, and sometimes omits names that are obviously black.
BART will not release photos of crimes committed on their trains because of "bias."
If race is not mentioned in a newspaper article about crime, we all know the race of the perp.
If a significant percentage of blacks say "It is not OK to be white," I will avoid them.
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist who owns one of the largest and most influential social media companies on the planet still doesn't understand either the First Amendment..."
If a person thinks that Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment are one and the same that person doesn't really understand Freedom of Speech.
Lucien said...
Adams is a student of persuasion and knows better than to rely on the results of any poll. He also knows that if you ask a question like “is there anything wrong with being born white?”, later ask the same sample of people “do you agree with the statement ‘it’s okay to be white’?” you will probably get different responses, since the second question contains a politically charged assertion.
So Adams was having a bit of fun with his “IF this is true, then . . .” assertion.
It’s a bad idea for Musk or anyone else to wander to far into the cornfield in support of such a conditional statement.
Challenging racism is a bad idea?
"Somehow Elon Musk is slowly becoming Sherman McCoy."
Elon Musk is from South Africa. I expect he knows, or rather knew, white people who have been killed by the black racists running that country. He knows what they're like.
Here's the Adams' summation:
He reacted to a poll that showed almost half of American blacks didn't agree with the statement 'Is it OK to be white?.'
He then, said something along the line of: Why would white people want to live around people who didn't like them?
Watch it for yourself before you comment...it really is a tempest in a teapot...
https://www.youtube.com/live/K6TnAn7qV1s?feature=share
Adams isn't a victim, he's an example.
"Literal racism is just that you think different races have different characteristics, not necessarily genetic."
Is that why you keep saying it's a matter of "character"? You think it's not genetic? You think black teen-agers hijack cars 'cuz their Daddy didn't whup 'em enough when they was little? Europeans spent the last five centuries hanging or exiling those members of their gene pool who were especially prone to criminality. This has not entirely eliminated the criminal impulse from the genes, far from it. But it has had an effect. One it is having no longer.
Left Bank of the Charles said...
“Colorblindness” is code for not redressing past and ongoing wrongs.
Opposing race neutral policies, to expand on Kevin's point above, aggregates power to the people who make it their speciality to identify past and especially ongoing wrongs.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (just a different color).
Slightly OT:
In a previous thread Althouse told commentators not to feign ignorance about the meaning of the meme "It's OK to be white."
But even though I follow "the news" pretty closely and know a bunch of lefties who could have clued me in, I can honestly say I did not know the meme as meme, and I would have taken a question about it at face value.
I have been doing exactly what Scott adams suggested for my safety. Statistically it is a no brainer.
tim in vermont said...Somehow Elon Musk is slowly becoming Sherman McCoy.
Sherman McCoy thought of himself as a "master of the universe" but he was a mediocrity. The firm put him in bonds because it was a backwater division they didn't care about. It's where they put their legacy hires to keep them out of trouble.
Then, out of the blue, the government changed the regulations to make bonds desirable and suddenly he was at the center of a trading empire. None of it was due to his abilities. He remained, as always, a mediocrity.
It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread
Too many monkeys throwing (moderator approved) poo here to keep any interesting dissenting opinions.
Is that why you keep saying it's a matter of "character"? You think it's not genetic?
It is a matter of character, and a culture that doesn't value it, and promotes thug life instead.
You think black teen-agers hijack cars 'cuz their Daddy didn't whup 'em enough when they was little?
No. Black teenagers hijack cars because they don't have a daddy at all.
Black kids raised in stable families do not share the pathologies of the 75% who aren't.
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist who owns one of the largest and most influential social media companies on the planet still doesn't understand either the First Amendment..."
I bet the person who wrote this doesn't understand either the First or Second Amendments. The First Amendment freedom of the press for instance doesn't protect a self-selected media elite, it protects everyone's ability to use a printing press. The Second Amendment protects an individual's absolute right to own any weapon they wish.
Here's what I think is the problem. It used to be, that if a content creator (cartoons, essays, opinions, etc) stepped far out of line with his audience, they would leave hi audience -- a vote of people to view/read the content. Now, we have a situation where the media determines who is cancelled or blacked-out. I'm totally not okay with the situation now. And you shouldn't be as well.
While the lions need their fresh meat daily, they must not feed upon their keeper and provider, too.
@gahie
And that "printing press" today includes the ePress in all of it's manifestations. Right!?
I guess my basic question is: Why do the publishers of Scott Adam's Dilbert think they have the right to decide to reproduce his daily work? Look, if the cartoon becomes unpopular, cancel buying the cartoon. Otherwise, don't censor it and let the rocks fall where they may.
Ann, I don't think you've ever wielded a gavel, but your comments are often like a hammer hitting the the anvil. Thank you.
Temujin, On point. Profoundly in agreement.
My point being that if it's racism they want, then deal with it. If, as a white male, I'm treated racially, then deal with my response and may God help you see the error of your way.
Gahrie, do I lose the protection of the First Amendment if I use a computer to compose and distribute a political piece to other computers over the Internet without using a printing press?
Gahrie, can I keep a 10-megaton nuke next to the Porsche in my garage?
Asking for Lawrence Tribe...
Recall The Most Reverend* Jesse Jackson stating he was walking the streets late at night and two men were walking towards him.
Jesse doesn't want to be the Zulu to Mandela's Xhosa, the Tutsi to Hutu, the Egyptian in Spring, the deplorable to Kenyan elite, the Afghan inn Biden's woke state, the baby in a womb full of fetuses.
rhhardin said...
Traditionally "racist" is not about literal racism but about a kind of malevolence, a malevolence based on race.
Literal racism is just that you think different races have different characteristics, not necessarily genetic. That's pretty much the scientific position and the sociological one. A literal racist on that score winds up just anybody who has looked into it.
**************
Please distinguish "literal racism" from "identity politics."
rhhardin said...
Traditionally "racist" is not about literal racism but about a kind of malevolence, a malevolence based on race.
Literal racism is just that you think different races have different characteristics, not necessarily genetic. That's pretty much the scientific position and the sociological one. A literal racist on that score winds up just anybody who has looked into it.
**************
Please distinguish "literal racism" from "identity politics."
In any case, there are always new people flowing into NYC"
RC I live in South Florida and I was the recently arrived New Yorkers would flow back to NYC. Thing is RC, those that are leaving the city are the ones with money and those flowing in are the ones who cost the city money. Come to the city for the restaurants, theater and the cultural activities and stay for the crime, high taxes and exorbitant cost of living.
“I assert that Scott Adams' strip should have been dumped by the newspapers because it is badly drawn and has never been funny.”
My view is just the opposite. For years, whenever reading papers with comic strips, one of the only wines I would bother reading was Delbert. I also liked Bloom County. I would suggest my like of Dilbert is because I spent a number of years in a tech environment. I was a (data communications) software designer for 15 years, before I became a patent attorney. Turns out, having been in the trenches (cubicles) was a big advantage in my later career, when working with engineers who still worked there, or had in the past. The reality is that cubicles have always been stupid. They very much stifle creativity. Real creativity very often requires concentration, and that is sacrificed to the false claim of profitability with cubicles. In Dilbert, there is a class war between those living in cubicles, and the idiots who have physical offices, led by the clueless Pointy Headed Boss. One of my favorites was when his staff gave him an Etch-A-Sketch, told him that it was a computer, and showed him how to reboot it by shaking it above his head.
Adam’s is fundamentally libertarian, skeptical of those with power. Which, I suspect, is why you never found him funny. FJB, and now Fetterman, should be objects of mirth, and nor awe, or even respect. With power comes corruption. To this day, I don’t see you seeing that very often. I have long thought that leftist humor consisted of gloating when they pulled wings off of flies,and the like. So the appeal of underlings getting revenge on their boss likely flies right over your head, and offends your sensibilities.
I also note that Musk is still enough of a libertarian techie, that he probably very much has enjoyed Adams over the decades. Which is probably one reason that despite billions on his platform, he appears to follow Adams enough to jump in and support him.
"Black" people? There are Indians who are naturally the blackest of them all.
Or "People of Color", a product of diversity [dogma], an indivisible bloc, a relic of a progressive age, a liberal license to indulge diversity, inequity, exclusion? #HateLovesAbortion
I think Scott Adams just wants to retire. What better way to end dozens of contracts that having the other party work to cancel them.
Blogger Robert Cook said...
I assert that Scott Adams' strip should have been dumped by the newspapers because it is badly drawn and has never been funny.
I conclude, Cook, that you never found it funny for two reasons. One, leftists are humor deficient, and two, you have never been an engineer or worked with engineers. Lefties tend to HR jobs and other non-STEM activities, like school teachers.
Dumb Lefty Mark: "It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread."
LOL
Crack was not "driven off" this blog. He left because he couldn't quite come to grips with the fact that his typical race-driven drivel and lies and utter ignorance of history were not as acceptable here as they are amongst his acquaintances in San Francisco where he resides.
Did Crack have an interesting point to offer now and again? Of course he did.
However, his insistence that every poster on Althouse blog was personally responsible for every atrocity known to mankind for centuries were generally rejected based on a normal human sanity basis.
Crack would routinely link to pictures of circa 1900-ish photos of grisly lynchings and other horrific events and tell Althousians this is who they were. Crack pronounced white children born today equally guilty.
My favorite Crack-ism of all time, and one I'm sure Dumb Lefty Mark probably agreed with, was white people were solely responsible for inventing slavery, murder and lying and that no other peoples on earth had anything to do with any of that.
Yes, after recalling that, I can see why Dumb Lefty Mark was so taken with the "historical" and "philosophical" "stylings" of one Crack Emcee.
"Somehow Elon Musk is slowly becoming Sherman McCoy."
Jupiter: "Elon Musk is from South Africa. I expect he knows, or rather knew, white people who have been killed by the black racists running that country. He knows what they're like."
I expect Elon also knew quite well what some whites in South Africa were like and he did not want anything to do with the 2 years of mandatory military service under an apartheid government (usually followed up with additional annual service requirements of 30 days or so until about 28 or 30).
He himself has said that was one of the important reasons for his emigration from SA.
When will it end?
Who knows.
But a good indicator will be when payment for preaching racial division starts to be less lucrative.
You may recall the moment the Dixie Chicks chose to diversify their brand by throwing in some political commentary as bonus content for their country music shows. Scott Adams is a smart guy and surely was making a conscious decision when he chose to diversify his brand by throwing in some racial musings to complement his Dilbert cartoons.
"Black kids raised in stable families do not share the pathologies of the 75% who aren't."
You sure about that?
Mark said...
"It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread
Too many monkeys throwing (moderator approved) poo here to keep any interesting dissenting opinions."
Oh. You mean like you just did. Why don't you share your opinion instead of relying on a black person to have an opinion for you.
I'm sure if Crack is interested he'll chime in. He isn't shy.
Lucian said: Adams is a student of persuasion and knows better than to rely on the results of any poll. He also knows that if you ask a question like “is there anything wrong with being born white?”, later ask the same sample of people “do you agree with the statement ‘it’s okay to be white’?” you will probably get different responses, since the second question contains a politically charged assertion.
I very much agree. The phrasing of the question immediately suggests it's not "okay" to "be white." I think the only way most people would respond would be to think, "Oh, "BEING white" is a thing, a thing different from just the fact that white people exist.
So a slim majority of black respondents went along with the phrasing and the continual shouts from the "progressive" side about "white supremacists" and structural racism.
In real life, how do most of these respondents react when they pass a neighbor on the street or in a store, or ride with people they don't know at all on a bus? It's peaceful.
To correct Scott Adams a bit, the BLM riots in many cities were integrated, or even majority white. The gang crime in many cities is mostly black--the product of years of miseducation by teachers union members and woke professors of Education.
Ignoring race, being "colorblind," which now actually requires a special effort to erase the color the popular media keep splashing about, relating to other people as people, is the only way out of our troubles. Too bad so many people oppose it, and so many other people, as a result, are severely hindered from doing it.
News Note: Martin Luther King has been canceled due to wrong think. Now it's skin color not character.
Mark said...
It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread
--
He's busy trying to fudge his SF residency in case that reparations scam gets enacted...and doing yoga.
Blogger Lucien said...
Adams is a student of persuasion and knows better than to rely on the results of any poll.
--
His escape valve regarding covid interventions has been all data is worthless.
False premise. Musk attacked the media, that is not the same as defending Adams.
mezzrow said...
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!"
AAAAGH! This reminds me of Kafka's nightmarish "Penal Colony". (See comments a few posts back.)
Robert Cook said, "To the degree there has been an uptick of people leaving New York, (and there was in 2020), was due to COVID-19. That always seemed stupid to me, as COVID-19 was not just a NYC-centric phenomenon, and it was inevitably going to wane, and...wouldn't many who left regret it later?"
Robert, is that your actual sentiment? A few notes:
- NYC lockdowns were draconian compared to most other parts of the country
- Despite the restrictions, NYC had some of the worst early outbreaks - likely due to cramped conditions, mass transit, and poor ventilation. And remember this was during OG Covid, when fear was far higher too.
- People in NYC with mobility tend to be higher income (compared to all other parts of the country) and were there for work. Suddenly they didn't need to be there for work and staying there stunk. Wouldn't leaving - temporarily or temp to permanently - be very attractive?
I could go on, but while COVID-19 was "everywhere" as you said, COVID related personal impingement was far different in NYC vs. - say - the beaches, some suburbs, rural areas, and more.
"Black kids raised in stable families do not share the pathologies of the 75% who aren't."
You sure about that?
Yes. It's about culture and trying to be "authentic". Upper class Black kids adopt thug culture in an attempt to be authentic, but don't have the street smarts of authentic thugs.
Gahrie, do I lose the protection of the First Amendment if I use a computer to compose and distribute a political piece to other computers over the Internet without using a printing press?
Nope. In fact I make the argument that Facebook and Twitter should be nationalized and run as public utilities because they have replaced the press as a means to publish your ideas.
Gahrie, can I keep a 10-megaton nuke next to the Porsche in my garage?
Theoretically, yes. You can definitely buy and operate a fully armed and crewed Ford class nuclear aircraft carrier.
'News Note: Martin Luther King has been canceled due to wrong think. Now it's skin color not character.'
Wait until they unseal the tape recordings of MLK.
Of course, they never will...
Eva Marie said...
"My suspicion is that he wanted the attention and also wanted Dilbert go out with a bang (figuratively speaking)."
Yes, he has often mentioned "planning his retirement", etc. in that way.
Comments here and elsewhere about Adams having no worries due to F.U. money.
When the left sics the law on him,ala Trump his life will be miserable.
@gahie
And that "printing press" today includes the ePress in all of it's manifestations. Right!?
I've repeatedly pushed the idea that Facebook and Twitter should be nationalized and run as public utilities.
Robert Cook, Here are the latest U.S census numbers for New York:
Population, percent change - April 1, 2020 (estimates base) to July 1, 2022, (V2022) -2.6%
Population, percent change - April 1, 2020 (estimates base) to July 1, 2021, (V2021) -1.7%
While it's true the exodus has slowed from 1.7 in 2020 to .9 in 2021, that's still a pretty solid decline. Is it your contention that all the people leaving came from upstate and the city is doing fine or that losing 1% of your population every year is no big deal. The census already had to cheat (I'm sorry 'err') to keep NY from losing even more congressional representation this last time around, so there's already reason to distrust the figures. Maybe you're right and everything is hunky-dory in NY.
Hmm, wouldn't it be great if thousands complained, or canceled subscriptions?
Would take very little effort, and could always re-up later.
All news is available online if actually interested.
"Customs/Border Patrol put the number at 2.8 million for 2022 alone. Begley's 6 million doesn't seem out of the ball park, but let's say it's only 3 million, Cook. What difference does it make?"
I'd say it makes a big difference if someone claims 6 million illegal immigrants entered the country in the past two years and the figure is significantly lower, don't you?
As for the figure you cite above, in your understanding, is 2.8 million for 2022 the number of illegal immigrants who have actually successfully entered our country and are living somewhere in hiding, or merely the number of all contacts, (which includes those who are turned away at the border and those who are apprehended and detained)?
This news item quotes a figure of 2.76 million illegal crossings in 2022, which aligns with your figure, but then clarifies: "For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, CBP stopped migrants more than 2,766,582 times, compared to 1.72 million times for fiscal 2021...."
Thus, to state simply that xxx million illegal immigrants came into the US in a specific period of time does not actually tell us how many successfully crossed over and evaded being apprehended. Even if the figures above referred to the number who had crossed over and evaded apprehension, it does not add up to the 6 million figure Begley provides. But...these figures refer to those who were unable to get into the country, evade apprehension, and hide out in border towns or other areas. This actually shows how successful we are in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into our country. This debunks the dishonest claims by propagandists, liars, and the ignorant that we have an "open border."
(We have no means to prevent people from trying to cross over, but we seem very successful in stopping the majority of them from getting in.)
effinayright said...
rhhardin said...
Traditionally "racist" is not about literal racism but about a kind of malevolence, a malevolence based on race.
Literal racism is just that you think different races have different characteristics, not necessarily genetic. That's pretty much the scientific position and the sociological one. A literal racist on that score winds up just anybody who has looked into it.
**************
Please distinguish "literal racism" from "identity politics."
When I read that comment I took it as something about as far from 'identity politics' as you can get, save for the obligatory non-reference to genetics (not sure why people think genes stop working at your jawbone). The root of 'identity politics', at least in my definition, is the belief any aggregate difference between identifiable groups of human beings is only attributable to innate prejudice (i.e. racism) and doesn't reflect any real difference in characteristics between the groups (again, in aggregate), even if you can't identify 100% of the causation or if there are instances where members of the group exceed the norm.
The PowerLine guys posted a link to a book review of The Great Experiment by Yascha Mounk from Charles Murray which I think bears on this whole topic.
Murray writes (but read the whole thing)
If it were merely a matter of terminology, Mounk’s preference for using “groupish” wouldn’t be a problem. But one of the Left’s most crippling errors for a century now has been to discount the importance of innate and intractable human nature, insisting instead that human tendencies are malleable and that the behavior of large numbers of humans can be changed by design given the right social policies. This mindset persists despite Steven Pinker’s devastating critique of it in his bestselling The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (2002), and despite 20 years’ worth of subsequent genetic findings that reinforce Pinker’s case. The Great Experiment needed a short section in which Mounk, who writes so persuasively, openly allied himself with Pinker. Mounk could have pointed out to his audience the many ways in which human nature, shaped by evolution, constrains the options for solutions to the problem of diverse democracy.
The problem with the racism narrative as we have come to accept and stand for even, is that it lacks all the subtlety and nuance of real life. It's either you are a Racist Nazi going to hell, or you are Not, in which case you are going to race heaven like most people.
No discussion is possible. Real life is more complicated.
It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread.
No. He would've been what he's always been. Boring. A one-trick pony.
The greatest race hustle of all is this one: every black person must give and we can’t give what was taken back because that would be racist.
"Mark said...
It is a shame Crack Emcee was driven off as he would have been great in this thread"
Whet ev. Anyway, I enjoy the several intelligent, articulate, occasionally seemingly off their meds long time commenters here.
Not so much the hopeless one- trick pony people, with same ol', same' ol'.
Crack be out there but he able to maintain, and he will spar with you all night long.
"The census already had to cheat (I'm sorry 'err') to keep NY from losing even more congressional representation this last time around, so there's already reason to distrust the figures. Maybe you're right and everything is hunky-dory in NY."
I didn't suggest "everything is hunky-dory in NY." It never is anywhere, for the most part. I merely refuted the idea of a "massive exodus" driven by rising crime and a non-existent "Black Lives Matter reign of terror," as was claimed.
Yes, crime is rising in NYC, which is not good. But, as I pointed out, crime rates in NYC are still far lower and the streets are safer than they were from the 70s and well into the 90s, (the era when NYC most suffered high crime rates) and even into the 21st century. I moved to NYC in 1981, when the crack epidemic was raging and crime stats were high, yet I very rarely felt in peril walking the streets or traveling on the subways, even at night. (I worked at a hotel in Queens, across from LaGuardia Airport, and I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I worked all shifts--day-time, evening, midnight to dawn--and I was traveling at night most of the time, either heading to work or leaving work.)
In a city as large as NYC, with so many people, even high crime stats doesn't mean the vast majority of residents are victims of crimes. There were and are areas one learns to avoid, either always or during certain hours of the day, and one must learn to be conscious of one's surroundings, but I felt safe most of the time. Given the high volume of people working at night or going out to clubs and other late-night places of entertainment, one can assume most of those out at night also did not feel in danger. Also, per capita, NY's crime rates are lower than many smaller cities and towns all over the USA.
Now that crime is rising, it is certainly important that the proper steps are taken to curb the rise, and hopefully bring it back down. However, the "crime catastrophe" is largely the figment of the media. The sensational and ugly and inflammatory is the life blood of the media, and this truism explains the reporting that purports NYC is becoming a bloody battleground where no one is safe.
(Full disclosure: after nearly 41 years in NYC, I moved out last year. However, it was my wife's preference that we move for a different kind of life--not fear of crime on her part, or mine. I'm happy where I am, but I would never have chosen to leave on my own, and if I had the money--I don't--I'd happily keep an apartment in NYC for regular visits.)
Maybe Adams made the statement in order to challenge AA's to deny they hate white people.
Will Al Sharpton vocally dispute the numbers? How about the Obama's?
If they do, will many AA's go out of their way to be respectful to white and Asian>
Not expecting it of the young minority who have been beating elderly Chinese on S.F. Muni for decades. Mainly thinking of the normals who have been bombarded with anti white propaganda since 2009.
Page 60-61 of the Big Book:
Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great. Everybody, including himself, would be pleased. Life would be wonderful. In trying to make these arrangements our actor may sometimes be quite virtuous. He may be kind, considerate, patient, generous; even modest and self-sacrificing. On the other hand, he may be mean, egotistical, selfish and dishonest. But, as with most humans, he is more likely to have varied traits.
Does a racist lack a variety of traits?
Is a racist like a pregnant person, in that they are either pregnant or not pregnant. There is no little bit pregnant... at least not that I've heard nor read, from what has so far come down from the Woke Oracles on high.
If we are going to cast people off, shouldn't we be clear about the reasons?
"Derbyshire was fired by National Review for writing a true piece in another magazine about race."
I'm as bugged by woke ideology and progressive politics as the next guy, but Derbyshire's piece was patently racist and I just don't see any other way to interpret it.
I have to say, I thought Adams's comments were pretty stupid and unfocused. I don't really understand the assertions here that he's a great communicator. This particular segment meanders and starts off with a weird assertion that he identified as black--is he being clever? He cranks out an hour or more a day, and a lot of it seems pretty scattershot to me. The chances you're gonna step in something and get yourself in trouble increase when you just sit in front of a camera and riff.
"This particular segment meanders and starts off with a weird assertion that he identified as black--is he being clever?"
He's said that for a long time, based on his stories of being told to his face he was either losing or not getting a job because he's white.
I'm as bugged by woke ideology and progressive politics as the next guy, but Derbyshire's piece was patently racist and I just don't see any other way to interpret it.
But was what he wrote true ? Everything is racist today.
Blogger Left Bank of the Charles said...
The greatest race hustle of all is this one: every black person must give and we can’t give what was taken back because that would be racist.<
What do you think Johnson's "War of Poverty and "Great Society" were about ?
Trillions of real money has been spent on mostly blacks. Much of it was destructive but that is what Democrats want for blacks. If blacks all suddenly became middle class, do you think they would still vote for Democrats ? Look what is happening to Hispanics.
Left Bank of the Charles: "The greatest race hustle of all is this one: every black person must give and we can’t give what was taken back because that would be racist."
Lets start with a couple easy ones.
What is owed to:
Descendant of Mayflower passenger and slaveowners Angela Davis?
Descendant of slaveowners Kamala Harris?
Be very sure to share your work.
Exit observation: there is nothing stopping you from leading by example and giving your home to any under-privileged black family.
If giving your home away seems overly burdensome to a virtue signaller such as yourself, make it a vehicle to a hardworking black family that is without transportation.
Please alert us when you do so.
https://notthebee.com/article/a-35-year-old-man-and-a-15-year-old-were-arrested-for-shooting-9-children
"...based on his stories of being told to his face he was either losing or not getting a job because he's white." Apocryphal, sorry. I hear people making this claim, but I just don't think the percentages add up. The idea that loads of white guys are losing their jobs to minorities is just not plausible, and I don't think you can find any reliable information to back that claim up. The numbers aren't there. To white women? Sure. That I buy.
I can tell you that you are far more likely, in government work, anyway, to lose out to a veteran than to a minority.
"But was what he wrote true ?" No, I don't think so, not everything. Lots of mean spirited stereotypes.
"I hear people making this claim, but I just don't think the percentages add up. The idea that loads of white guys are losing their jobs to minorities is just not plausible, and I don't think you can find any reliable information to back that claim up."
Boy..I'm not a big fan of Adams, but he did not claim it was widespread or whatever percentage you are imagining.
Protesting a bit too much.
Christopher B writes:
“But one of the Left’s most crippling errors for a century now has been to discount the importance of innate and intractable human nature, insisting instead that human tendencies are malleable and that the behavior of large numbers of humans can be changed by design given the right social policies. This mindset persists despite Steven Pinker’s devastating critique of it.”
The problem is that we have human beings studying themselves. The last 3 years have shown us that even comparatively simple medical studies are fraught with difficulties and contradictory results. Complicating things further is the placebo effect. If the power of suggestion is so strong that it can affect how our bodies react to medication, how do we know how much it affects “innate and intractable human nature”? My personal observation has been that passion and single minded pursuit of a goal trumps IQ and formal education.
guitar joe,
What do you think of the current state of hiring of, say, orchestra conductors? Are you seeing vast preferences for straight white men there? Or is it rather the reverse? I will concede that there are still SWM in the conductor profession, but in the US they are generally European imports; an American SWM has next to no chance at a major or even minor conducting gig here.
Sure, you say, but isn't that fair and just? Well, no. No it isn't. People who have had no hand at all in the past racial history of the US are shut off from careers b/c other, unrelated people have harmed yet other unrelated people in decades or centuries past. You may see this as just; I don't.
Derbyshire was 66 when he crossed a bridge too far and got fired by woke National Review in
pre-MAGA 2012. Adams did not quite make it that far; he's 65. Seems headed to the same relative oblivion, although he does not need to take a job at VDARE or some such for the money.
“If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"he did not claim it was widespread or whatever percentage you are imagining." Why mention it, then?
"an American SWM has next to no chance at a major or even minor conducting gig here." Since your post makes it clear American conductors are losing out to Europeans, I am at a total loss to understand your point.
White people, approximately two-thirds of the US population, are clearly discriminated against, especially by elite universities.
For example, the most recent entering class at Stanford is about 22% white -- and most of those are probably white WOMEN.
The hated Pale Penis People are the most discriminated against of any Americans.
White people, approximately two-thirds of the US population, are clearly discriminated against, especially by elite universities.
For example, the most recent entering class at Stanford is about 22% white -- and most of those are probably white WOMEN.
The hated Pale Penis People are the most discriminated against of any Americans.
"he did not claim it was widespread or whatever percentage you are imagining." Why mention it, then?"
(Deep breath) As I said in initial response, it references a story/dry joke he's told many times.
Regular viewers get it.
Ann Althouse said...
From the comments over there:
"An obscenely rich, well educated, lily white South African racist...
If Elon Musk had stayed in South Africa- he wouldn't be a billionaire. Might not even be alive by now. South Africa has followed the route of most disasters- happening very slowly at first, then quickly. There's still a country called South Africa, with a government that rules the area called South Africa, but nothing works anymore.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1630436052723720193.html
South Africa had at one time the best infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa. It's no longer functioning smoothly. I wonder what's changed... I mean, they had all the best socialist ideas and wealth redistibution out the yin-yang. They should, if liberals are correct, be a superpower now, not a nation sinking faster and faster into squalor. Evil whites haven't been in charge of anything for decades now.
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