They Cancelled Dilbert

Conversations That Matter

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Welcome once again to the Conversations That Matter podcast. I'm your host John Harris. I am back from traveling for one day and then

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I go on another trip for another five days. This is actually a vacation though this week and it's a much needed one.

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I haven't gone on a vacation with my wife for I guess it was 2021 when we went before we moved back to New York from Virginia and now we just are at a point where I think it would be helpful.

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So we're going to go away for a week. So for those who prayed for travel mercies last week, I appreciate your continued prayers for travel mercies.

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I'm doing something I don't normally do and going to a beach and sitting on a beach. I don't know if I'll actually sit there for days.

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We'll see. I tend to be, for those who don't know, someone who likes to see everything I can see.

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So before I was married and my brother was before he was married, we went on a road trip for a month and we, it was grueling and my brother will tell you that he probably still has

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PTSD from how many things we saw, national parks, historical places, and then we would just sleep wherever.

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It would be like, well, it's getting dark now. Let's find a Walmart parking lot. Or there was a few times we found a campground and then

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I think it was the last, I don't know why I'm sharing all this, but I think it was the last, maybe the day before we were driving back to, to our home.

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And I told my brother that cause he was so ups, he was just, he needed a hotel.

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He was just like, I can't do, I can't keep doing this. I need a shower. I need like a good bed for a night so I can get some good sleep instead of setting up a tent in a parking lot.

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And I told him cause I wasn't happy about it. I said, well, I'll get you a hotel room, but it'll be for your birthday and his birthday is in October.

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And this was like in June or July that I said that. So, and this was years ago.

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I wouldn't be the, maybe the same way now, but that's just people who know me know that's my reputation. So I'm doing something different.

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I know my wife. I think she likes, well, she likes seeing things, but she would prefer to probably take a little bit of a different pace than what

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I normally take. And hopefully that's what we're going to do. And we're going to, I'm going to try this whole relaxing thing. We'll see how it works.

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I hear it's good. I hear it's good for you. So anyways, probably giving you way more information than you want or need about me.

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But I did get a lot of work done last week. I traveled from Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday, all the way to Monroe, Louisiana, where I flew out on Saturday and interviewed a number of experts on history and music and other things, military history.

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And we, we just talked about what is America? What does America signify, stand for?

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What's fundamental to the United States? We talked about Jamestown and I'm excited about this project.

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I think it's going to be really good. So 1607project .com if you're interested in that. I want to show you a clip though.

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This is one of the interviews I did was with a military historian and I couldn't help myself because we're also, for those who don't know, doing a project on China.

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And I don't know if I've shown the trailer on the podcast yet. I know it's posted on YouTube, but for those who want to see that, you can go to givesendgo .com

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forward slash expose the CCP, which stands for Chinese Communist Party. Givesendgo .com

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forward slash expose the CCP. And we use givesendgo because it's better than GoFundMe.

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In fact, I've communicated with the family. I think I was the first guest on their podcast, on the givesendgo podcast, because I had funded a whole documentary,

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Paint the Wall Black, using givesendgo. And so anyway, they're a great outfit and I would suggest using them instead of using

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GoFundMe if you have to crowdfund something. But we're crowdfunding this documentary about China as well.

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So if you want to support 1607project, I know it's so much. There's too many things out there, right?

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Well, these are two projects we're working on simultaneously. And one of them, the 1607project will come out first, but that is through a 501c3 organization.

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So if you need that tax write off, you can go to 1607project .com.

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And if you donate there, there's a write off with that. The other one, there's not a write off, but we would sure appreciate it.

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So that goes directly to Last Stand Studios. And like I said, that's at givesendgo forward slash expose the

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CCP. I'm going to show you a little clip. It's only one minute long from interview I did with a military historian,

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Sandy Mitchum is his name. And this is what he has to say about the threat of communist

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China. And after I play this, then we'll get into the topic for the day. Later China, all they can talk about is a future war.

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It's on his mind. The Chinese do know how to wait. And they've waited long enough.

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China's always wanted Taiwan could never have it without America being weak.

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You could call it a Cold War. They will eventually get hot. Yes, we are economic war with them.

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They are ahead of us in the technological field. A part of the war will be smashing our computer systems with viruses.

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I think they'll attack our electrical grid. It will be a war like we've never experienced before.

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Because America's respect for human life. China doesn't.

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They won't care about casualties. Well, there you have it.

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That is coming together. And hopefully, I would say by this fall is when we should probably be able to launch that provided we get the funding we need.

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And I've already arranged another interview for late, or I should say early summer, late spring.

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So we're getting there. And your support definitely helps us with this project. We're, we're hoping to tell the story the media is just not telling and they're not.

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And I'm not just talking about the left wing media. I think with the exception of maybe the Epoch Times, and there's maybe a few talk radio hosts, not a lot of people are talking about China.

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And I think that may be changed a bit since the balloon incident, but there's there's a lot and not talking about just China itself and what they're doing, but the corruption in our own government and on both sides of the aisle, in supporting the

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Chinese Communist Party in various ways. And that's what we're also going to shine a big light on. So and that's, that's the more relevant thing you might wonder, why make a documentary about what's the threat of communist

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China? I mean, they're over there. We're here. What can we do about that? Well, you can do something hopefully about the people who represent you, your governor, your congressmen, senators, etc.

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So anyway, that's in the works. I want to get to the main topic though today, give you some stuff to think about.

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I'm recording this assuming that on Monday, this is going to be all over.

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Now, I don't know to what extent. Weekends can sometimes be a barrier to the news cycle, and a needed one.

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We need that. Especially for Christians though, that's definitely the case. If you go on Christian social media platforms, generally on a

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Sunday, and I think this is appropriate, you're not going to find much. Even if there's a controversy raging, generally a

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Sunday is not the day to talk about it. And so I don't have any hot takes from even woke people in evangelical circles on this, because there's just not enough of Monday yet to really see if there's a reaction.

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But I'm thinking there is going to be somewhat of reaction. I don't know. Maybe we'll see.

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But it was worth talking about. Scott Adams, for those who don't know, he's the creator of Dilbert. And some of you probably don't like comics, but I'm one of those who does.

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And Dilbert is, I think, one of the better comics. And so I've read

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Dilbert, or known about Dilbert, read Dilbert, I guess, for a long time. And it's been a while though.

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I haven't had a newspaper in my hand for a while. So I don't know.

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But I was young. I was like eight years old when I started reading Dilbert, and until I was in my late teens, at least.

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And Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, I think he has a podcast or a V cast, something, where it was in a video format, at least.

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He made some comments that have gotten him basically canceled. Dilbert is no longer going to be in the funny section of your newspaper.

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I'm going to read for you a little bit of this story from the Los Angeles Times. And yes, I've seen the video. Here's what the Los Angeles Times says.

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And no, I don't believe in the Los Angeles Times, just for those who wonder, is a reputable news source.

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So I am self -consciously giving you the perspective that would lead to the cancellation of the creator of Dilbert here.

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The creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams is his name, faced a backlash of cancellations

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Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are black as members of a hate group from which white people should get away.

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To me, I don't know why that's hard to read with a straight face.

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I think it's just because we are talking about the guy who invented

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Dilbert. Just think about that moment. I'm not saying he can't be serious, but he did invent

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Dilbert. So I don't think he's wholesale describing people who are black.

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And I did watch the clip and I did see some of his Twitter, a little bit, not much of his Twitter interactions. And he was even pushing back against this.

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I never said black people are members of a hate group. But anyway, Los Angeles Times, that is their leading paragraph here.

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And there's this part of me that just wonders that this is an epic troll by Scott Adams.

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But that's what they're reporting, that people who are black are members of a hate group from which white people should get away.

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Now, the other thing about this is if the, let's say, let me just switch out some words.

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Let's say that the creator of Dilbert faced backlash on Saturday because he was defending remarks describing people who are white as members of a hate group from which black people should get away.

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I literally just switched two words. And suddenly, it's not that far -fetched.

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Of course, that's the 2020 narrative. That's the BLM narrative. So why is that controversial? Well, it's not really controversial.

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That's just what you get when you go and pay for hundreds of or tens of thousands of dollars for university education.

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You'll be able to spout out that opinion. But when you switch black and white around in the sentence, not so much.

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The article goes on, various media publishers across the U .S. denounced the comments by Dilbert, creator

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Scott Adams, as racist, hateful, and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work.

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And I don't know. Well, we'll just keep reading a little bit. I don't know if there's much more to add to this. But Andrew McNeil, a syndication which distributes

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Dilbert, did not immediately respond. Adams defended himself on social media. Dilbert is a long -running comic.

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The backlash began following an episode this week of the YouTube show Real Coffee with Scott Adams. Among other topics,

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Scott referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement, it's

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OK to be white. That's a controversial statement. I think it was Laura Southern was like detained at an airport for wearing a shirt that just said it's

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OK to be white. That was it. It's like what kind of like how is that like super offensive to people when all the other things

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I see on T -shirts out there these days, F -bombs and all the rest. But that that one really offensive.

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Most agreed. But Adams noted that 26 percent of black respondents disagreed and others weren't sure.

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I thought it was 40. I thought he said 46. Oh, well, whatever. The Anti -Defamation League says that the phrase was popularized in 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the discussion forum 4chan and was adopted by some white supremacists.

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Sorry, it's white supremacists are the only ones who think it's OK to be white. That's not a normal thing.

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Apparently, you have to be pretty crazy to think that. I mean, normal people, good, decent

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American citizens, we all know, I guess, that it's that's not OK. Like what's how is that even the least bit controversial?

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Of course, it's OK to be white. It's OK to be black. It's OK. That's the way God created you.

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There's that's not like a component of there's not an original sin attached to the melanin count of your skin tone or your genetics.

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Adams, who is white, he's white, yes, repeatedly referred to people who are black as members of a hate group or a racist hate group and said he would no longer help black

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Americans. Now, here's the interesting thing about this, too. The way this sentence is Adams, who is white, it's not just Scott Adams, right?

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It's Adams who is white. Categorizing him is important here. And I'm going to point out in a second why that's important.

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Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get away from black people,

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Adams said on his Wednesday show. I just keep thinking of Adams being a comic who's doing an epic troll here, because that seems to be

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I that's my gut feeling is that's what this is to some extent. He's he's trying to use their logic against them.

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He's saying, look, if these numbers were and that's the thing, he didn't qualify it this way.

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But that's why I think it's a troll. But if I think what he meant and if he were to qualify it, he would have said, look, if these numbers if the statement, let's say it's

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OK to be black or it's OK to be Asian or something, let's say white people were surveyed and whatever the number was, 46, 26 percent said, no, that's not

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OK. It's not OK to be black. It's not OK to be Asian. That's that's bad. Then I mean, what would happen?

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I mean, you know it would happen. You would have every major publication in the

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United States and a list of celebrities that would go on forever condemning white people in general for what a minority or what half of them or a significant portion of them believe or think.

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In fact, you're seeing it right now with the Christian nationalist thing, the constant attempt to link it to white nationalism and to try to show through polls that look how many white people as opposed to other groups support quote unquote

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Christian nationalism or look how many Republicans as opposed to other groups support Christian nationalism. And it's not even necessarily a majority or at least it's not it's not everyone, but it's used to broad brush and then say, well, that we can just discount that whole.

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They're tainted. That whole group is tainted. White people are tainted. And and so I think what

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Scott Adams is doing here is actually possibly brilliant. I think what he's doing is he's leaving out that qualification.

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This is just my theory. And he is saying something that if different labels were used, if you just switch the terms around, it's

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OK to be black and white people disagreed, he would be fully justified in making the argument, well, if that's the case, then

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I guess, you know, black people should get away from white people. But but instead, the poll said something different.

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The poll said, actually, black people, a significant portion have a problem with the statement. It's OK to be white.

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And so he's saying, well, I guess it's that if that logic holds, then maybe white people should be careful.

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Maybe they shouldn't be around black people if black people don't like them. That's that's what he's saying. And I think that's the reason he's saying it is because this kind of thing is said frequently against weaponized against white people.

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But you can't do the same thing in the other direction. And so the article goes on in another episode of his online show

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Saturday. Adam said he had been making a point that everyone should be treated as an individual without discrimination.

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Yeah. And that I think supports that that this is a troll of some kind. But you should also avoid any group that doesn't respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine.

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Adam said the Los Angeles Times cited Adams racist comments while announcing Saturday that Dilbert will be discontinued

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Monday. So the Los Angeles Times is saying we're not going to we're going to cancel this guy. So and yes, it is

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USA Today and the San Antonio Express. And I mean, this is like within 24 hours you have the plane dealer in Cleveland and other publications that are of advanced local media are announced that they are dropping

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Dilbert. This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve, wrote

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Chris Quinn, editor of The Plane Dealer. We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.

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Yeah, so this is the funny thing to me, I I would wager and I haven't I don't read

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The Plane Dealer, but if you went to The Plane Dealer, I would just wonder, have they run articles that suggest that white people are have a problem in any way,

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I don't know, supporting Donald Trump and his offensiveness or with white supremacy or white privilege or I just wonder if any of those things have made their way to the pages of The Plane Dealer.

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Because if that's the case, if any of that in the least, they're hypocrites of the rank of sort because Scott Adams isn't even saying he's not making an argument for superiority of white people or anything there.

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I don't I mean I'm not seeing that at least I'm open to the idea that I don't know Scott Adams intimately so I'm open to the idea that maybe maybe there is some problem with Scott Adams but it's not in the evidence that's been brought forth in this article and what

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I've seen trending online that that he would that would suggest that he's some kind of a white supremacist or white nationalist or any of that he's just a guy who makes comics and I think he's trolling and let's say it's legit though let's say like this is truly he does feel this way let's say

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Scott Adams he he seems to suggest he has a life of philanthropy help trying to help the black community out and he's not really given any thanks for it that he's just called a racist that's one of the things he says in this video clip and so he's not going to help him anymore and so let's say that's the case let's say that's true and he's just not going to give his money to that anymore and he's gonna stay away and if that's true there's a problem with it but it's not necessarily maybe the problem that you think or not not you but you know people in general would think the problem with it is this giving with the expectation of gratitude so the exchange is giving and then you are getting something in return you're getting some kind of respect or uh you're you think that your charity work deserves some kind of um acknowledgement and praise and and that is

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I think how most people feel about giving and you're disappointed if there's no gratitude there I mean people even have this with their children if their children aren't well maybe when they get older you expect it when they're younger but if you give money and they're just they're not grateful they take it for granted then it makes you not want to give and I can see a point in that but I think in general giving the motivation should be for truly

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Christian pure giving giving without the expectation of anything in return because you love someone because you want to help in some way and and that's where I think if there's any lesson here anything negative that I have to say about Scott Adams it's that if that's really what he is thinking again

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I think it's a troll I don't know that that's necessarily what's going on now why do you bring all this up John um it seems like it's not that important as some of the things that you talk about and that would be true it perhaps isn't it's

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I'm getting into celebrity minutiae here but I I was curious today to see if there's any reactions from quote -unquote woke evangelicals right and so I went to probably like three different profiles and there wasn't much and I'm like well you know

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Sunday is a day when you're not going to see a lot of that anyway but something caught my eye and this is what

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I wanted to show you if I can pull it up something caught my eye um I went to Jamar Tisby's uh page uh

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Jamar Tisby for those who don't know has written a few books uh most notably The Color of Compromise and that book it's a

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CRT inspired narrative racism doesn't go away it just changes forms and see if I can pull it up here so this caught my eye this is the these are the tweets and they're all from uh well one's from I guess the 11th here it's a tweet thread but they were all like within two minutes

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I'm seeing all these on Tisby's page and I thought to myself this is why

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Scott Adams if he really truly feels the way he is talking about in his video on Saturday this is why he feels this way it's this kind of stuff let me just read this for you so Jamar Tisby uh this is during the

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Super Bowl I guess or after he says organizers behind the He Gets Us campaign are set to spend 20 billion in Super Bowl ads alone and 1 billion over the next three years let's talk about the misuses of a

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Christian evangelical money so he's he doesn't like the way that this money was spent and I would agree with him but for different reasons that he gets us campaigns a mess uh but he says the the problem is um that they should have basically given to more social justice causes he says better yet uh he says of course these multi -million dollar funds could go to support individuals and organizations already doing good work on a local or national scale we started the witness fellows program to fund black social entrepreneurs at a hundred thousand each over two years better yet instead of spending 1 billion over three years for the

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He Gets Us marketing campaign starter fund incubator programs for creative uh creatives and production studios that offer blacks and other historically marginalized groups funding for literature film and digital content this is it's the we need money thing right and the

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He Gets Us campaign let's just put the best construction on it let's say they really want souls to be saved and that's why He Gets Us is uh the campaign exists if that's true if if that's the motivation then what could be more important than that now

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I'm not defending He Gets Us because I don't think that's really what's going on He Gets Us is is it's also got the social gospel stuff intertwined and it's not it's not a legitimate outfit

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I did a whole video on this already but Jamar Tisby's got a problem and he even in one of the tweets in this thread is calling out

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Hobby Lobby because they I guess gave a lot of money to this and it's they could have given to uh help uh marginalized groups and they didn't do it so you have that going on and then you have this you have uh and again the same day

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I'm looking at this within a minute of each other whenever you say one of my best friends is black are you sure that's what your alleged black friend would say about you sometimes these friends are utilitarian acquaintanceships white people overemphasize in an attempt to appear non -racist yeah that's great so so just that that really helps uh build bridges look look with skepticism when someone says they have a best friend who's of another ethnicity be skeptical of that because uh you know the black people might not think that about you and you're just using them by saying

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I'm not saying you can't people don't use other people but um this this