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.)
No, we agree. These are different scenarios (the “politely forgetting” is something we may do with people we know and love, because we know their “body of work” to a degree) but...we can try to do the online version of “politely forgetting” when we can.
However, that said, once I saw his Scott Adams’s past body of work, the cat is out of the bag for me, and I can’t put it back in.