Adams reminds us that racist rants are not ‘open debate’

Once upon a time, I was a fan of Scott Adams’ comic strip, “Dilbert.” His sardonic portrayal of white-collar office culture was pointed but still humorous. It became extremely popular during the 1990s as companies underwent a wave of downsizing.

But as Adams’ personal political views became increasingly bizarre and bled into “Dilbert,” I could no longer find humor in it. After endorsing Donald Trump in 2016, for example, Adams became an all-out conspiracy theorist when the coronavirus pandemic hit, insisting that the unvaccinated were healthier than the vaccinated.

Then, last year, his comic strip introduced a Black character who “identifies as white,” a ludicrous and unfunny portrayal of the hard reality of race. “Wokeness,” as the far right refers to efforts to increase diversity and acknowledge racism, became a target of the comic strip.

Given his political and cultural journey, it comes as no great surprise that Adams finally went around the bend in his YouTube podcast last week, responding to a silly Rasmussen poll by denouncing Black Americans as a “hate group.” In response, he was dropped by most newspapers and by Andrews McMeel Syndication, the company that distributed his comic strip.

It should go without saying that neither the syndication company nor the newspapers violated Scott’s First Amendment rights. Sales groups have every right to decide which books, cartoons and opinion essays they want to represent to buyers. News publishers, too, have every right to determine which content should appear in their newspapers and websites. Scott can still issue his racist screeds anywhere he can find a platform, without fear of government intervention. That’s what the Bill of Rights guarantees.

But as one of the 153 signatories of “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” published in Harper’s Magazine in July 2020, I think it’s important to make more subtle distinctions about support for opposing points of view, tolerance for “even caustic counterspeech” and aversion to dogma of right or left. The spirit of the Harper’s letter endorses legitimate attempts to wrestle with big issues, even if some of the opinions offered run counter to popular views.

The letter, in fact, mentions “art,” which might well include comic strips such as “Dilbert.” Adams was pushing the boundaries of popular thought in his cartoon with his attacks on diversity; some editors found the trend mean-spirited and dropped the strip, but he maintained most of his subscribers. The cartoonist came in for widespread approbation only after a diatribe that would be difficult to defend as legitimate debate.

Sadly, Adams has traveled so far down the rabbit hole that he fell for a right-wing trope used by Rasmussen, a conservative polling firm, when asking respondents if they agreed that “It’s OK to be white.” Noting that the poll showed that 26% of Black people disagreed with the statement and 21% were not sure, Adams asserted, “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people … that’s a hate group.” The AntiDefamation League has pointed out that the phrase at the center of the question was popularized on a right-wing message board as a trolling campaign.

Denouncing Black Americans as a hate group is well outside the bounds, as would be a similar denunciation of white Americans or Latinos or Native Americans or any other racial or ethnic group. That’s not caustic counterspeech. It’s nonsense. Moreover, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has pointed out, even if Rasmussen’s poll of 1,000 people includes a representative number of Blacks, that’s only 136 Black adults.

Adams retains fans and defenders, of course, including Elon Musk, whose political views are increasingly on the hard right. Musk, who now owns Twitter, used the social media platform to claim, “For a *very* long time, US media was racist against nonwhite people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.” The idea that white Americans are now the victims of racism has become quite popular among ultraconservatives.

Adams has joined that outlandish club, it seems, and he deserved to be canceled.