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Scott Adams: Sometimes dumber than Dilbert’s boss. |
So Scott Adams — the Dilbert guy — has a blog. About a week and a half ago he made the mistake of asking his readers to give him a topic to write about. Well, some MRAs heard about this, and, being MRAs, decided that they would flood his site with comments urging him to write about Men’s Rights. And so he did.
What they got from him wasn’t quite what they hoped. Really, though, it wasn’t what anyone would have hoped. So much so that Adams decided to take his post down, saying that it had gotten “a bit too much attention from outside my normal reading circle.”
Luckily, through the voodoo of Google, we can still see the original post. Adams started out, depressingly enough, by more-or-less agreeing with MRAs on a wide assortment of their pet issues big and small — from men paying more for car insurance to the alleged anti-male bias of the legal system. Much of what he wrote made as little sense as many real MRA rants; even his little jokey asides fell completely flat.
We take for granted that men should hold doors for women, and women should be served first in restaurants. Can you even imagine that situation in reverse?
Generally speaking, society discourages male behavior whereas female behavior is celebrated. Exceptions are the fields of sports, humor, and war. Men are allowed to do what they want in those areas.
Add to our list of inequities the fact that women have overtaken men in college attendance. If the situation were reversed it would be considered a national emergency.
After more or less agreeing that men are getting a raw deal, Adams dismissed the complaints of women upset that women earn less than men; to Adams, this is because they are naturally timid souls who don’t know how to ask for raises.
So far, so not-so-good. But then Adams pulled the old switcheroo on his MRA readers, who up until this point were presumably giddy with excitement.
Now I would like to speak directly to my male readers who feel unjustly treated by the widespread suppression of men’s rights:
Get over it, you bunch of pussies.
Uh oh! Shaming tactic! MRAs love directing vagina-based insults at others — mangina anyone? — but they hate hate hate it when anyone directs a vagina-based insult at them. To be fair, calling someone a pussy is not much of an argument.
But here’s where Adams pulled a sort of double switcheroo. After insulting Men’s Rights activists, he did them one better with a bizarre, brazen misogynistic argument that seemed to have been cribbed from some of the more idiotic comments on the various MGTOW message boards. It turned out that the reason Adams thinks men should “get over it” is that … well, read it for yourself.
The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone. You don’t argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn’t eat candy for dinner. You don’t punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don’t argue when a women tells you she’s only making 80 cents to your dollar. It’s the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.
What what what?? This is the sort of shit you expect from some low-grade misogynist loser on The Spearhead. But no, this is Scott Adams, internationally famous cartoonist and bestselling author. Instead of trying to explain just what the fuck he means by all this, Adams continued on with a very strange, and strangely sexual, chess metaphor:
How many times do we men suppress our natural instincts for sex and aggression just to get something better in the long run? It’s called a strategy. Sometimes you sacrifice a pawn to nail the queen. If you’re still crying about your pawn when you’re having your way with the queen, there’s something wrong with you and it isn’t men’s rights.
Apparently In Scott Adams’ world, chess players don’t get all their kicks above the waistline, Sunshine.
After a few more paragraphs that, frankly, don’t make any more sense than what I’ve quoted so far, Adams seemed to realize that maybe he shouldn’t have really suggested that women were a bunch of retarded children. But instead of going back and removing that from his post, he dug himself further in with a weird and completely unconvincing denial:
I realize I might take some heat for lumping women, children and the mentally handicapped in the same group. So I want to be perfectly clear. I’m not saying women are similar to either group. I’m saying that a man’s best strategy for dealing with each group is disturbingly similar. If he’s smart, he takes the path of least resistance most of the time, which involves considering the emotional realities of other people.
As far as I can figure out his weird and convoluted argument, it is this: The world really is unfair to men. But you’ll never win this argument with a women — you know how they are. So keep quiet and maybe … you’ll get to fuck the queen?
No wonder he deleted the post.
Completely off-topic observation: Every time I hear the name Dilbert, the song Dilbar Dil Se Pyare, from the 1971 Bollywood hit Caravan, gets stuck in my head. So let’s see if I can get it stuck in your head:
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>Nicko's surpassed the rage threshold and has gone straight to sublime hilarity.
>Nicko said: "You totally hate our guts as you just whine about us all day every day. "I don't hate you, in fact I wish the best for you and I'm sorry for you that you are in so much pain. I would give you a man on man hug if given the chance Nick.I will however continue to mock your posts on the internet when it is deserving. I have a rather wonderful wife who is neither a gold digger nor subservient. Something that you will never have, but you will have a sex robot and that is o.k. To each their own. Now stop whining about not being grieved as a potential mate and get on with your life! I’ve spent that last month literally backpacking around Central America, with my wife! Imagine the possibilities that could be open to you as a traveler but instead you’ll sit on the internet and complain about your life or how other people are living their lives or how people should be living their lives if only they lived in Nicko’s world. Other people are not living in Nicko’s world. Are they the problem or are you?I will however continue to mock your posts on the internet when it is deserving. I have a rather wonderful wife who is neither a gold digger or subserviant. Something that you will never have, but you will have a sex robot and that is o.k.
>I take the trip was super awesome Kave? Glad to hear it.
>It was quite wonderful Elisabeth, and it got us out of the norm of European vacations. Central America is pretty well amazing, not many times in your life you can wake up to two active volcanoes on each side of you! And thank you for asking
>Kewl…I am trying to decide on my Birthday trip…I usually take a week off but this year I am not going to do that because I have a conference right before and the month prior I am going on a work related cruise.I have a free voucher for two at a place in Mexico but not sure if I want to go there.
>ElizabethThe tourist trap vacations that are all inclusive are a bit like being in Miami but prefectly safe. Regardless who wants to be safe 100% of the time.I'd be more worried about having to sit through a 24 hour sales pitch on time shares then I would getting involved with drug lords.
>Yay, more raven idiots! BRAWK
>Earlier in the thread there were raven loons, too. We might just have to do some sort of raven t-shirt.
>And this is exactly why so many women don't want men to open the door for them. Because it's never about "gentlemanly manners," it comes with a huge price tag of all the other things you have to do to pay for his "Chivalry."
>@Visp – Girls hold doors for me all the time, and I don't squack about them degrading me with their doors and holding and politeness. Maybe you weren't brought up right, or are just irrational.
>"Projection and stupidity."—She Wolf of the SSThe hallmark of feminists, coupled with hypocrisy, scapegoating men, and female supremacy. Hatemonger.
>Oh Wytche. Yes, projection. Like you just did, right there. Which is also pretty stupid, demonstrating the exact phenomenon that you (collective MRA you) were just criticized for. You don't possess enough intelligence and self-consciousness to realize that it's pretty embarrassing to answer a charge of projection with, "Nuh uh, you project. Neener neener." If I hate you, it's because you yourself are rather hateful. Don't denigrate men by thinking they're all like you. I don't.
>Elizabeth, I cannot recommend Oaxaca highly enough for a less "touristy" Mexican destination.My god, Nick. Have you thought about reading a book? Not even necessarily a book about feminism. Really, anything. Because you're kind of showing your butt here.
>Oaxaca to me is a Mexican food restaurant on Van Buren. Preferably without prostitutes.
>Things I learned from Nicko: if there's anyone who knows about the prevalence of sexism and racism in society, it's white dudes.
>"e4919700-4d45-11e0-bbf3-000bcdcb8a73 said… @Visp – Girls hold doors for me all the time, and I don't squack about them degrading me with their doors and holding and politeness. Maybe you weren't brought up right, or are just irrational."Probably because they don't go out of their way to show off how chivalrous they are about holding the door for you, then expect you to be all grateful and smiley and simpery and stuff, and then be angry if you don't want to go out with them because of it.Chivalry == Extortion. Most women don't want to be in that exchange, but it's chosen for them by the men who participate in it.
>Probably because they don't go out of their way to show off how chivalrous they are about holding the door for you, then expect you to be all grateful and smiley and simpery and stuff, and then be angry if you don't want to go out with them because of it.If men were this distrustful towards women, we all know what the feminist double standard is.heh the movement that's supposed to be about equality are a total fail as they have a million sexist double standards
>Hey, Nicko, your argument still consists of denying reality and the lived experiences of millions of women. Let us know when you stop living in a fantasy world, eh?
>Hi DavidI think critiquing the MRAs is an interesting project, not least because there are a lot of them and they have a voice in gender politics that is worth listening to. And criticising. But when it comes to language, believe you me, feminists are just as capable as MRAs of using ‘shaming’ language against people who challenge their dogma. On this site itself I have been accused of ‘owning an honorary penis’ of being an ‘Uncle Tom’ and a ‘colluder’ and an ‘asshole’ and a ‘troll’ etc etc.If you want to critique gendered/racialised language you are in the right place!p.s. I put this comment on your post at Feministe and guess what? They did not publish it!
>Oh, Christ, Elly, you can't whine about how you're being oppressed when you're on top of the fucking pyramid. David, you know the author of Slut?! I have that book. I love that book. That was absolutely crucial to the formation of what I always call blue-collar feminism, in sharp contrast to whatever's going on at Feministe. I see they're still having a slapfest over the use of genuinely satirical language to, well, satirize the antics of MRAs, who are ever more determined to keep pushing the bar lower and lower. At a certain point, their insistence that oppressing women is exhausting and so why won't those ungrateful bitchez tend their wounds gets to be gobsmacking. "OMG, she hurt me when I shoved her down to her proper position! I'm oppressed!"
>ginmar, yeah, I haven't talked to Leora in a long while, but she and I were good friends while she was working on that book, and talked with her a lot about it while she was writing it. You should send her a note! It was a very personal book for her, and I know she'd appreciate it.As for the rest of your comment, yeah, more thoughts on that later.
>I am not whining ginmar I am pointing out how feminists use language in a similar way to MRAs. I am also interested to hear you assume I am 'on top of the fucking pyramid' when you have no idea if that is true or not.
>So I read a bunch of Niko's 'points'. A lot of them make sense to a man and some of them are even worth arguing, but frankly, I don't think these arguments could have come from a worse source or in a less intelligent form. I'm a minority, Indian lived in Australia, victim of racism etc and I can relate, to some degree, to both sides of the argument, but really? If you want to be heard, Niko, you need to be logical and fair. Otherwise you're just a troll. At some point I might even try to write up the parts of your arguments that make sense from a male perspective in a fashion that might even be accessible to the non-bigoted portion of feminists. Yes, I did just say that. SOME feminists I have met are very bigoted and wish that all men should live in cages. I have gathered that for the most part they are not here.
Someone has to hold the door. It’s easier for 1 sex to do it. It’s a bit like driving on the right or left. You need rules, otherwise it gets confusing and you waste loads of time. So, men hold the door, its chivalrous and appreciated. Thank you gentlemen, I know what to do when you hold the door – say thanks, smile, we have both moved forward in the direction that we intented and feel good.
Hm, it’s almost as if Scott Adams, a professional comic writer, whose blog has never featured any serious opinion, was being somewhat less than serious. I wonder if this could be a joke? No, of course not. This is obviously just the one time where he was being serious.
I mean, come on.