Posted on 11/26/2013 10:58:47 PM PST by Morgana
The Dilbert cartoon brilliantly satirizes our dysfunctional work environments in which bosses are stupid and workers are demoralized or just plain nuts. The strip is one of my favorites. Imagine my dismay to learn that Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator, says he literally “hates my [f-word] guts” and that he wishes me “to die a long and horrible death.”
Not only that, Adams wants 49% of my fellow citizens to die horrible deaths. Ditto members of the American Medical Association, disability rights activists from Not Dead Yet, and Ted Kennedy’s widow, Victoria. Also Ralph Nader, Bill Clinton, Pope Francis. Oh, and add in my wife, the San Francisco Chronicle political columnist, Debra J. Saunders.
Considering his words, he must be happy that my last hospice patient, Robert Salamenca, died slowly of ALS. He must revel in the slow death of John Paul II, who went into a long period of pronounced decline before expiring.
Adams doesn’t know me, nor I presume, any of the other people I mentioned. But he hates us. Why? We are on record (or, in the case of the 49%, have been polled by Pew) as opposing doctor-assisted suicide, and that means nothing is too bad or painful to befall us.
You see his father was extremely ill, and Adams wanted to kill him–but can’t under the law. So, he hates us or “torturing” his father. From his blog, “I Hope My Father Dies Soon:”
Let me say this next part as clearly as I can. If you’re a politician who has ever voted against doctor-assisted suicide, or you would vote against it in the future, I hate your [f-word] guts and I would like you to die a long, horrible death. I would be happy to kill you personally and watch you bleed out. I won’t do that, because I fear the consequences. But I’d enjoy it, because you mother[f-word] are responsible for torturing my father…
I’m okay with any citizen who opposes doctor-assisted suicide on moral or practical grounds. But if you have acted on that thought, such as basing a vote on it, I would like you to die a slow, horrible death too. You and the government are accomplices in the torturing of my father, and there’s a good chance you’ll someday be accomplices in torturing me to death too.
Imagine, if a pro-life public figure ever said he hoped pro-choice politicians and activists died an agonizing death. Or one opposed to same sex marriage said something similar about marriage equality proponents…
Adams slips in a matter, which I have noticed in much advocacy for euthanasia and assisted suicide, that rarely gets much attention:
I know that many of my fellow citizens have legitimate concerns about doctor-assisted suicide. One can certainly imagine greedy heirs speeding up the demise of grandma to get the inheritance. That would be a strong argument if doctor-assisted suicide wasn’t already working elsewhere with little problems, or if good things in general (such as hospitals and the police) never came with their own risks.
In other words, Adams wants what he wants for his father, and doesn’t care who else gets hurt. By the way, there is no indication from Adams’ piece that his father, who has since died, asked to be made dead.
And anyone who has read my work over the last twenty years knows that euthanasia and assisted suicide laws are hardly “working elsewhere with little problems.” Adams either doesn’t care about the horrors that have been abundantly documented, or he is utterly ignorant but feels free to hate those with whom he disagrees anyway. Take your pick.
Adams concludes with this reaffirmation of his view:
I’m okay with any citizen who opposes doctor-assisted suicide on moral or practical grounds. But if you have acted on that thought, such as basing a vote on it, I would like you to die a slow, horrible death too. You and the government are accomplices in the torturing of my father, and there’s a good chance you’ll someday be accomplices in torturing me to death too.
My wife interviewed Adams for a piece she wrote about his diatribe. He kept his word, telling her he hoped she died painfully. So too, Victoria Kennedy, as both women are “part of the bad buys.” Apparently, Adams believes that everything would be okay in the world if people who disagree with him would just die!
One final thought: Adams’ grief is no excuse for such vile and quasi-threatening advocacy. I have seen parents of murdered children with more grace than that. Our character expresses itself in times of extremis. Good grief.
He added a note that his father passed a few hours after posting his diatribe. A tortured soul in need of Jesus’ grace, God’s love, and the Holy Spirit’s fellowship. I pray he receives healing.
Amen.
We are dying a long, horrible death. It’s called living life among the baby murderers.
I read Adam’s post. He is grieving for his dad and feeling anger about it. I lost my Mom a couple of months ago. Losing a parent is TOUGH.
I thoroughly disagree with him, but we shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down.
Let’s give him some space.
Read Adams’ original blog. There is nothing fun there.
Al Capp did. His cartoons in the late sixties and early seventies were loaded political satire of the conservative persuasion.
Take the time to read the articles. Scott Adams was dead serious.
The man was (and I'm sure still is) in a world of hurt, but what he said was pretty bad.
I hope he realizes this soon and makes amends.
“He is grieving for his dad and feeling anger about it.”
I can feel for him. My mom just passed away but at a very old age and in good spirits, mind and body up until the last few days. And even then she was okay with all the morphine. I can’t imagine watching a loved one suffer for so long like so many others I have known, including myself with my father-in-law.
On the other hand - why must he blame the pro-lifers? If he so wants his loved one out of their misery he could smother them with a pillow while they sleep. Why does he need someone else to kill his father?
Speaking of the morphine for my mom, a bit of wondering there if hospice, when managing the pain and the other symptoms, doesn’t do it in such a way that you are in fact killing them with it? I don’t think so, and they assured us that wasn’t the case, but.....
Well, Scott Adams, we pro-lifers hope that you will come to Christ and escape an even worse fate of suffering forever in the Lake of Fire.
Get a grip folks. I’m sure he doesn’t literally mean what he said. People say and do odd things when they are under stress.
As long as the morphine is being used for the pain, and not purposely to kill the patient, it is now considered acceptable practice. They used to try to ration it, in the older days, a few decades ago, in order to keep people from needing more and more of it, and it resulted in tremendous suffering. The amount needed to ease the pain spikes sharply at a certain point and that is the end. Thank God we are not back in the older days anymore.
no,’i believe him.
often stress brings out the real feelings of people. takes the thin veneer of civility down and shows you what’s really’underneath, inside the person.
Scott Adams
"I don't want anyone to misconstrue this post as satire or exaggeration. So I'll reiterate. If you have acted, or plan to act, in a way that keeps doctor-assisted suicide illegal, I see you as an accomplice in torturing my father, and perhaps me as well someday. I want you to die a painful death, and soon. And I'd be happy to tell you the same thing to your face."
I didn’t realize that this cartoonist was such a dbag.
I thoroughly disagree with him, but we shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down.
Let’s give him some space.
On the other hand, I agree with Wesley J. Smith:
One final thought: Adams’ grief is no excuse for such vile and quasi-threatening advocacy. I have seen parents of murdered children with more grace than that. Our character expresses itself in times of extremis. Good grief.
My agreement aligns with Smith's reasoning: this sort of post is simply at least a bit abnormal, even for the grieving in their most acute grief. If it's normal enough for people who've just lost their parents to write something so depraved, where do I find such writing?
Maybe we need to pay more attention to this line...
“I might feel differently in a few years, but at the moment my emotions are a bit raw.”
Scott Adams only sees that life is short, that the only heaven you will see is on earth and the hell with everyone else—even if it is an innocent baby.
Scott Adams has the sickness of narcissism that infects so many without God in their lives.
In it he specifically said this: "...I don't want anyone to misconstrue this post as satire or exaggeration. So I'll reiterate. If you have acted, or plan to act, in a way that keeps doctor-assisted suicide illegal, I see you as an accomplice in torturing my father, and perhaps me as well someday. I want you to die a painful death, and soon. And I'd be happy to tell you the same thing to your face..."
He is unhinged, in my opinion. It may be grief, it may be rage, it may be anything, but I believe some part of his mind has crossed a line. I don't know squat about him, so I don't know anything other than his satire and sarcasm in his professional work. If this is his normal viewpoint (maybe verified from looking at his non-cartoon opinions he may have expressed in his blog or in interviews) I would say he needs professional help. If it is not, he is overcome with grief.
In either case, he is not in a healthy state of mind...it sounds extremely corrosive to me. Is this the kind of viewpoint he has advocated his entire life, or is it something he may look back months from now and regret writing?
My father, who I loved very much, had a terrible completely disabling stroke, and took five months to die.
He always told me that, of all the ways to die, he thought having a disabling stroke, leaving him unable to functionally even move one arm but leaving his mind intact was the one way he never wanted to die. But that was what God dealt him.
But, as grief stricken as I was, I would never have had the thoughts that Scott Adams did. But I agree with you. Unless this has been something he has been saying all along, I think the kind thing to do would be to assume he is mentally compromised by his grief.
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