The artist told fans in May last year that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. His cartoon was dropped by hundreds of papers in 2023 after he made racist comments.
The artist told fans in May last year that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
I’m a little sad about it. I liked his writing in the late 90s/early 2000s. Very anti-corporate. Imperfect but fairly progressive. It seemed like he was just a hippie at heart. I wish I understood what happened to him. From the outside looking in my best guess is falling victim to his success, he began to think too highly of himself, and maybe a bit too much paying attention to Fox News. It was a wild turnaround from my perspective.
I was never heavy into Dilbert, but I remember it fondly for pointing out how bullshit capitalism is in so many relatable ways. Then, years later, seeing him in the news for far right nonsense was so jarring.
He was not anti-corporate. He was a racist piece of shit right since the beginning. He is one of those guys for whom MAGA validated his existing beliefs and emboldened him to share them more publicly.
You’re right, but Adams was such a crappy writer that he produced some decent anti-corporate messaging in spite of himself. Like, I’ve heard the “laughing at Dilbert strips when I was a kid was what led to me being an anti-capitalist adult” thing several times now (which goes alongside the “JK Rowling made me anti-fascist” thing and “Kanye West made me anti-rascist” thing in the halls of literary ironies).
Or like all the fascists that really responded to Rage songs and Queen lyrics or guys like Bovino that say Starship Troopers is their favorite movie because they think it is supportive of their fascist ideas instead of openly mocking them.
I’m also a little sad about it. I still think it is a “net positive”, and I try not let let “the perfect be the enemy of the good”. Yes, in a “perfect” world, he reformed, went into remission, and started working to remediate all the suffering and damage he had caused.
I’m a little sad about it. I liked his writing in the late 90s/early 2000s. Very anti-corporate. Imperfect but fairly progressive. It seemed like he was just a hippie at heart. I wish I understood what happened to him. From the outside looking in my best guess is falling victim to his success, he began to think too highly of himself, and maybe a bit too much paying attention to Fox News. It was a wild turnaround from my perspective.
I was never heavy into Dilbert, but I remember it fondly for pointing out how bullshit capitalism is in so many relatable ways. Then, years later, seeing him in the news for far right nonsense was so jarring.
He was not anti-corporate. He was a racist piece of shit right since the beginning. He is one of those guys for whom MAGA validated his existing beliefs and emboldened him to share them more publicly.
You’re right, but Adams was such a crappy writer that he produced some decent anti-corporate messaging in spite of himself. Like, I’ve heard the “laughing at Dilbert strips when I was a kid was what led to me being an anti-capitalist adult” thing several times now (which goes alongside the “JK Rowling made me anti-fascist” thing and “Kanye West made me anti-rascist” thing in the halls of literary ironies).
Or like all the fascists that really responded to Rage songs and Queen lyrics or guys like Bovino that say Starship Troopers is their favorite movie because they think it is supportive of their fascist ideas instead of openly mocking them.
I’m also a little sad about it. I still think it is a “net positive”, and I try not let let “the perfect be the enemy of the good”. Yes, in a “perfect” world, he reformed, went into remission, and started working to remediate all the suffering and damage he had caused.
It was a wild character arc. Paraphrasing heavily…
90s “Corporations are stupid and abusive to employees”
2001 “What if we’re all just fragments of God? Why do we fight each other?”
2009 “Place bets on the people you hate most, they always seem to win.”
2023 “Black Lives Matter is a racist hate group.”
2025 “Trump will fix everything. Also please get me into a medical trial daddy.”
I was really holding out for the redemption arc but alas.