[dstroot]

I will probably be downvoted for posting something that “doesn’t add value” but I have to say that is a beautiful post about a difficult topic. I could never put into words my feelings as well as you just did. I loved his art. I did not love the man.

[rbanffy]

I find it really sad that I lost respect for him because of his political views. When someone you admire dies, it happens once. When you lose respect for someone, that person you admired dies over and over again, on every new disappointment.

To me, he died many times in the past few years. Dilbert of the 1990s is dear to me and I really enjoyed the animated series. My sons tell me it prepared them for corporate life. I'm sad he left us this way. I wish I could admire him again.

[LargeWu]

It's not just political views, though.

Politics is "How much should we tax people?" and "Where should we set limits on carbon emissions?" or "Which candidate do I support"

Politics is not "Black Americans are a terrorist group" and "Actually, maybe the Holocaust was not as bad as people say it was".

The latter are core moral views, and we should not be so quick to dismiss them as merely political.

[AlexandrB]

Who gets to decide what are core moral views and what's mere politics? Is it the same folks who claim that "everything is political"?

[rbanffy]

I say everything is political and that there are political views that are just plain wrong and aren't compatible with life in society.

[tbrownaw]

> The latter are core moral views, and we should not be so quick to dismiss them as merely political.

Morality and politics and religion all have significant overlap.

[Amezarak]

Yes, placing your political views into the realm of moral views places them beyond contestation. For many people, most of their political views boil down to core moral views, including ideas about taxation and carbon.

That’s why it’s not productive to just point at people and say they’re bad because they have bad ideas.

[rbanffy]

I don't think political views are beyond contestation. People become bad for believing in bad ideas.

And, boy, his ideas were bad.

[FireBeyond]

Or "if you take away my ability to hug women I will become a suicide bomber and I won't apologize for it. I like hugging more than I like killing, but I will kill." especially coupled with "Learning hypnotism has been my Jedi mind trick into sleeping with women".

[alterom]

I knew he was a loonie, but thought that you're exaggerating.

Nope.

Quote [1]:

While I’m being politically incorrect, let me describe to you the mind of a teenage boy. Our frontal lobes aren’t complete. We don’t imagine the future. Our bodies want sex more than we want to stay alive. Literally. Lonely boys tend to be suicidal when the odds of future female companionship are low.

So if you are wondering how men become cold-blooded killers, it isn’t religion that is doing it. If you put me in that situation, I can say with confidence I would sign up for suicide bomb duty. And I’m not even a believer. Men like hugging better than they like killing. But if you take away my access to hugging, I will probably start killing, just to feel something. I’m designed that way. I’m a normal boy. And I make no apology for it.

There's a lot to unpack here, starting with equating female companionship to sex, and ending with the dichotomy between having sex and murdering people.

I started looking for a source of his hypnosis quote, and stumbled into [2].

Umm. Not going to quote it.

[3] is a higher level overview of Scott Adams' hypnotism. It didn't make me any happier.

Ugh. I used to like Dilbert in the 90s as a kid. Wish I knew about Scott Adams now as much as I knew then.

That's to say, wish he wasn't such a horrible person.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20160116140056/http://blog.dilbe...

[2] https://www.tumblr.com/manlethotline/616428804059086848/hey-...

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelschein/2018/06/20/dilber...

[embedding-shape]

> I could never put into words my feelings as well as you just did. I loved his art. I did not love the man.

There is a lot of this in the modern era, and probably will only get "worse". People need to sooner than later be able to reconcile this whole idea of "not liking the person yet can't help but like their art". Back in the day it was easy to ignore, and probably most of the bad stuff was easily hidden, not so much these days.

[bentcorner]

Love the art, not the artist.

I loved reading the Belgariad as a young teen and was shocked upon learning more about the author as an adult.

[pjbk]

Yet he did a lot of good leaving his money to academia and medical research.

I think the Egyptians had it right. Ultimately your heart will be weighted against the feather of Ma'at, and it is up to the goddess to decide. We mere mortals don't know the true intentions and circumstances of other people and their lives to judge, nor to throw the first stone.

[basseq]

This reads like a Speaker for the Dead moment (from Ender’s Game): neither eulogy nor denunciation, but an honest accounting. Acknowledging the real impact without excusing the real harm.