An easy face to dismember.
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.
“I might feel differently in a few years, but at the moment my emotions are a bit raw.”
A long time ago, I heard a good piece of advice about not sending certain letters at one's most volatile: at the very least, one may keep the letter around for at least a day before sending out something that one will later regret.
Writing something online is usually even faster and easier than carrying a letter to the mailbox. This ease makes this advice even more pressing.
Also, my thoughts haven't changed since my last post. "My emotions are a bit raw" is still no excuse for "I would like you to die a slow, horrible death"--a phrase which I have never typed as my own words and never hope to type as my own words. That phrase may reflect, at the very least, a severe lapse in judgment, and I suspect that wishing for millions of people to die slow, horrible deaths reflects something even deeper.
Ugh. Read some old entries to his blog.
I just took some entries at random from 2008 and 2009.
He comes across to me as all over the board from utopian liberal to ill-tempered mentally unhinged libertarian. There is very little that is conservative in him.
Reading his blog makes me realize what I intensely dislike about the Internet, blogs and things like Twitter and Facebook (both of which I refuse to use)
Disclaimer: I love the Internet. It is an amazing tool for getting information, and can only be really useful as an information source when you factor in the instability, unreliability and weaknesses of some of the data. But things like blogs, Facebook and even Free Republic that form a stream of consciousness vomit where people bare their thoughts as they form, is a form of collective narcissism that I feel is extremely unhealthy.
When I post on FR, I understand my written opinions are things that may well follow me forever, so I try not to use it as a “stream of consciousness” outlet. I try to carry out dialogue with other online inhabitants here as if I were personally having a conversation with my mother, my boss, my wife or a friend. I don’t always succeed in remaining civil or even rational, but...I try.
Reading the past blogs of Scott Adams is enough to make me swear off ever having admitted to liking his professional work, which I have.
And it is certain (to me) from reading his past blogs, that this particular blog entry is no exceptional mindset due to stress or grief. It fits with the nature of his previous blog postings, in my opinion. I would be interested to hear what others think of his previous body of work (apart from his cartoons)
I'm like you here: "I don't know squat about him, so I don't know anything other than his satire and sarcasm in his professional work." I'm also wondering about an answer to your question.
Whatever is the case with him, I agree with this post by lee martell in another very recent thread:
The artist should stay away from twitter or social media for a couple of months before he inspires someone to break the law.
The probability of such an "inspiration" doesn't strike me as extremely high, but such a disturbing possibility (that didn't occur at all to my mind before reading that post) is good reason for people, especially the famous and well-liked, to avoid posting certain things online.
What did just occur to my mind is another possibility that disturbs me even more: the idea that a celebrity would post something violent like this with the intention of provoking a follower into what we could call taking action.
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
Well, I just noticed that not everyone in the world will fear the consequences.
Sleep tight, me!
Hop Gary Larson doesn’t come out as a kook, The Far Side was the funniest ever!
Well, if he’s pro-abortion, at least he’s consistent.
Sigh. I found much to appreciate in Dilbert’s (Scott Adams’s) skewering of the corporate world. But like so many entertainers, I fear I will not be able to overlook my awareness of his viewpoints on things, as it now colors my perceptions of all of his work.
This has been happening with so many public figures that I begin to wonder how to reconcile these things. I find, with increasing regularity, I cannot.
Spielberg, Hanks, Roger Waters, Jim Carrey, Stephen Hawking, amongst what seems like dozens of others in the public limelight, have expressed themselves in ways I can not stomach to even listen to or view their work.
Scott Adams is now one of them.
Reading this excerpt from his blog entry, it is impossible to ignore the fact that he is in a mentally disturbed state.
We all know people (often including ourselves) who have said things under extreme duress, and everyone politely “forgets” it was ever said.
Pity this man missed an opportunity to develop strength, to love better, and to try to understand the plan of The Almighty, just a little bit.
Instead, he chose anger, cowardice, and borders on the insane raving about wanting to commit homicide and wishing pain and suffering on others for allegedly inflicting it on his father (who gave his father no disease, no inflicted any pain, but he would do this to them for holding a belief...).
Sick, that.
Sad that he let his experience enhance his desire to kill someone like a rabid dog, a downer cow, or a horse with a broken leg--or worse, because he would revel in their suffering.
I will pray that he can get over his anger that his father suffered, and realize what he espouses is a thousand times worse, simply because he would willingly inflict it on people he doesn't even know.
Thank God. “The Far Side” has been my all-time favorite from the time I began reading them.
"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."
Well, Scott, thanks for letting us know. Next time, please be a little more direct. In actuality, I AM beginning to learn something from you folks. If one has enough money, one can say just about anything. If one has enough guns and has managed to get control, one can say anything at all. Ultimately, ALL have to answer to God.
My own father took an entire year to die. No one in our family thought or said anything like you have and neither did my father. He gave good Biblical advice to everyone around him before he went and he died with grace and dignity even while suffering, not wishing any harm to anyone. He only wanted to make sure his soul was right with God before he went.
I forgive you for what you've said even though you obviously have hatred for me or anyone who thinks like me. Bitterness is a terrible thing. No God, no peace. Know God, know peace, Scott.
“The amount needed to ease the pain spikes sharply at a certain point and that is the end.”
In the case of my mom she had very high breathing and heart rate at the end. Pretty much just worn out and at the end - but her body fighting to keep everything going. The morphine also was used to slow down things - she was just working so hard.
But of course when the body knows it is at the end and is working hard, and then we slow it down.... But I’m at peace with that. And I know my mom was too.
I would get a bit emotional talking with her the week before, and she would say things like “since when did you get so sentimental?”. And “Well, it’s not like it is the End. Just the beginning!”
Maybe the people around me are a bit weird in this regard, but when someone does say something a bit extreme, it doesn't really seem to go away, even if I allow for a little wiggle room in what "politely 'forgets'" may mean.
In any case, the two situations strike ms as a bit different.
I didn't it as I was typing, but I when I wrote "a bit extreme," I also realized that hardly anyone in my experience writes about enjoying the deaths of large groups of people because they have horrible opposing views. "I wish you were dead," which I have overheard, doesn't rise to the same level. Maybe I've just been lucky.
I also notice the difference between speech, especially on the spur of the moment, and writing. Now, the ease with which someone with the right resources can post something incredibly stupid online does make writing on the spur of the moment easier than it used to be. Even so, I notice that what I've read quoted (I don't want to be unfair, but I also really don't want to visit his site) is more deliberate and composed than someone screaming "I wish you were dead."
In any case, as you could probably guess from what I just wrote, I still insist that Scott Adams crossed a line.
I haven't mentioned my reaction to him personally yet, but this point in the discussion is a good place to put it:
Reading this excerpt from his blog entry, it is impossible to ignore the fact that he is in a mentally disturbed state.
I also find it impossible, though, to ignore his words and their implications.
If he is actually insane and in this sort of sense he is not responsible for his words, then, as I could put it, I can find what he wrote a little easier to "forget," especially if he, to the extent of his ability, seeks competent help and follows through with it.
The more "sane" he was when he wrote that, the more relieved I'd be that I don't have Dilbert items lying around. (If I were more of a Dilbert fan than the average person seems to be, I wouldn't exactly be horrified that I was a fan of a person who eventually wrote such things, but at the least I'd be disappointed. I'm also the kind of person who, whatever you think of this kind of person, would find it harder to stay a fan.)
Commie ‘toons.
““to die a long and horrible death.”
Vultures eat liberals too!
‘The Fusco Brothers’ and ‘Terminal Lance’ are pretty much the only cartoons I read anymore.
An easy face to dismember.
Why are death or a tax always the answer to the commie libs? They sure are a bunch of sicko humanoids.
If I felt my father, being kept artificially alive on life support, was in terrible pain and wanted to die, I’d unplug the machine myself. The state only runs your life as far as you let them.
Looks like I read my last Dilbert this morning.
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