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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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Looks like Dilbert is being pulled from newspapers following controversial remarks by its creator, Scott Adams https://www.foxnews.com/us/laid-off-newspapers-drop-office-cartoon-dilbert-over-creators-racial-remarks

Multiple newspapers have pulled the popular office comedy comic strip "Dilbert" after its creator Scott Adams made racist comments in his podcast, and then doubled down on them.

"If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with White people – according to this poll, not to me – that’s a hate group," Adams said during his "Coffee with Scott Adams" vlog, referring to a Rasmussen poll published this week. "That’s a hate group, and I don’t want anything to do with them."

"And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I can give to White people is to get the hell away from Black people," he continued, adding, "There is no fixing this … you just have to escape," which he said was why he moved to his current neighborhood that has "a very low Black population."

I don't think this is quite that big of deal personally. He has FU money and his brand/career at punditry keeps growing. I think his bigger risk would is being de-platformed from Youtube/Twitter. He don't need Dilbert anymore but he does need his Youtube and Twitter accounts.

"Adams’ views are his choice; our choice is not to associate our company with him..."

I'm curious about this. To what extent are his views actually his choice? The concept of anyone's views being anyone's actual choice is kind of silly to me. Your views are the result of all of your life experiences, are they not? Maybe this is crossing into free will territory. I never sit down and think, "What am I going to choose to believe today?"... I just believe things. If data comes about that demonstrates I'm wrong, then that's a learning experience, not a choice to change my view.

You are overly philosophizing a one-line throwaway rationalization but;

I do wonder if one could make a convincing woke case that beliefs are actually not one's own choice just like their race, gender, and sexual orientation; how much would that short circuit the wokes hostility towards nonbelievers? Something along the lines of..

" Muslims and most Black people despite being minorities don't hold welcoming views towards LGBTQ people. This is not a good thing because in our fight against the patriarchal white supremacy we all live in all minorites need to combine their strengths to stand even a fighting chance. Nonetheless, we don't consider it a moral failure on the part of Black people or Muslims because we all know that black people can do no wrong ever even minority cultures historically have not been safe from the influence of pervasive systems of bigotry. Often, all the disenfranchised have are their culture. Therefore we should tolerate bigotry from black people consider cultural beliefs and traditions to be a protected form of expression."

Saying "black people can be racist" already short circuits them. Look at the thread on the old place's news board and see them flip out at people questioning the narrative.