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One of the many tragedies of Donald Trump’s electoral college victory is that it has given Dilbert creator and Dunning-Kruger poster boy Scott Adams an even more inflated belief in his own personal brilliance.
Adams, you see, was one of the first to predict Trump’s political success, and now he feels the need to share every dumb thought he has about the man with the world.
Adams’ latest Trump brainstorm: Maybe Russia did us all a yuuuge favor by subverting our democracy to boot Trump, did you ever think of that?
“One way to look at the recent election in the United States is that Russia (allegedly) subverted our democratic process to ensure that Trump would win,” Adams wrote on his blog yesterday.
Another way to look at the election is that Russia did a big favor for the American public by preventing Clinton from becoming president.
DID HE JUST BLOW YOUR MIND??!!1
So why would it be so great for Russia to have secretly conspired to knock Hillary out of the race? Because that silly woman actually thought of the country that secretly subverted our democracy to boost the chances of an easily manipulable geopolitical naif as some sort of enemy!
Clinton saw Russia as an adversary. I confess my ignorance on this topic – and maybe you can set me straight in the comments – because I can’t think of any reason Russia and the United States should be considered natural enemies. Both countries want to defeat ISIS. Both countries want peace and prosperity. Neither claims ownership of any of the other’s territory. I see the prospect of good relations with Russia as a way to make some money for both countries and defeat ISIS too. That doesn’t seem so bad.
I mean, sure, I guess I can see that. I mean, Russia is an autocratic kleptocracy run by a guy whose enemies have a strange way of finding themselves dead, and Putin kind of wants to take over neighboring countries and undermine NATO and subvert democracy all over Europe by supporting far-right parties, but, hey, maybe we’ve been too quick to see these things as bad things!
Oh, sure, Adams acknowledges,
If Russia did interfere with our elections in a meaningful way, obviously that is a hole we need to plug. But this is an unusual situation because their alleged actions look more like the work of a sneaky ally than an enemy. The likely outcome of their alleged hacking is that we’ll have better relations with a major superpower and a better chance of defeating ISIS.
THANKS, SNEAKY ALLY!
“One trick of persuasion that I have sometimes used involves treating an adversary like a friend until they turn into a friend,” Adams goes on to note.
I’ve never seen it done on a country-to-country basis, but it works great in person. If you tell someone you are on their side, and you act that way, it is hard for them to keep you on the enemy list. I don’t know if this method of persuasion works for countries, but this is the perfect place to test it.
Huh. I seem to remember a country called Russia doing that with a country called Germany. How did that work out for them?
Oh, right. But hey, when has history ever repeated itself? Never, probably!
Russia and the United States have more interests in common than in conflict. In this particular case, Trump can change the frame from adversary to ally if he chooses to do so. And that would probably have the effect of making all parties act that way.
So, hey, Putin, keep messing with our democracy! Obviously you’ve got our best interests at heart! Some dude who does a comic says so!
This stupid burns my poor historian’s heart. WHAT DID HISTORY DO TO HURT YOU SCOTT? (That you can’t take a few seconds to learn it)
I can’t help myself… I keep thinking “he has to be joking… he can’t be serious… NOBODY is THAT STUPID”
Oh, sure, a political alliance with Russia has a lot to offer the U. S., such as… well, ummm… I’m sure there’s a lot in it for us…
And the alliance has a lot going for Russia, too, such as the U. S. Being OUT OF PUTIN’S WAY….
Winner all around, right Scottie??
Exactly the same kind of patsy as Julian Assange. Not explicitly traitorous, but that particular conviction of I’m smart enough to not be manipulated that’s so deeply entangled with masculinity. That feeling of invincibility and of always being right without actually having to work to ensure that they are right.
You’re a dupe, Adams. You’re a mark waiting for the con.
So he wants to love bomb Russia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_bombing
(Speaking of which, I’ve long thought that love bombing explains the whole thing with Cassie Jaye.)
*BAAAAAARRRRFFFF*!!!
And to think that his comic was once considered clever.
Was he always this way or did he pull a “Dennis Miller”?
Where; There’s some Petitions out there being made demanding that Trump be disqualified for POTUS and that he and his cronies get prosecuted for Treason. Obama has also appointed a bunch of people to make things harder for Trump.
It’s not over! There’s still hope. President or not, we’re gonna work to stump the Trump at every turn!
I am praying that Michael Moore is right (again) and that “…something crazy will happen” before Trump is sworn in.
Haha, I just remembered that long ago, when I was a child bride, this creep was signing books at a Vancouver bookstore. My husband at the time was a fan so I purchased and got in the line up. Scott could not have been more lewd the way he looked my 19 year old figure up and down and then up and down some more. My eyesight seemed to become preternatural and I saw his teeth sharpen like a shark’s when he smiled at me! I could swear his eyeballs changed shape and turned pointy too! EWWW.
So wait, if you spend time being nice and friendly to someone who doesn’t like you, they might start to like you? What a master persuader! I would have never guessed at such a masterful technique of persuasion! I wonder how long it took Adams to unlock the secret of people liking people who are nice to them.
Seriously though, does anyone now feel like it’d be super easy to get Adams to do favours for you? Just position yourself as his enemy and he’ll either “persuade” you through niceness or, I guess, leave you alone? Which would be in itself a pretty big favour, so, win either way!
China is probably a bigger superpower than Russia and Trump has already antagonized them before even taking office. Who knows what diplomatic nightmare he’ll cause when he’s actually in office? What if China, as revenge against Trump intervened in a similar way to give whoever the Democratic nominee is the win?
Dirty tricks can be wielded against anyone. That’s why they shouldn’t be considered an acceptable means to an end. Even setting aside ethical concerns, it can bite you in the ass.
This is only the second-stupidest defense of Putin’s dictatorial coup I’ve seen today. Sorry, Adams, you’ll have to do better than that.
To quote one Russian reporter from several years ago (I forget her name), who asked Putin a serious question at a public event and got a very informal, condescending non-answer:
“Thanks, Vova!”
(using a very informal name form back at him)
Wow that is weapons grade dumb – not only does he completely misunderstand the nature of the relations between the US and Russia – but he just doesn’t have a clue about how folks relate to each other and a serious misunderstanding about the whole nature of what national sovereignty even is, why it’s important and why this is really bad.
Putin is EX-KGB and wants the glory of the old USSR back. As one who spent half a lifetime fighting that side of the Iron Curtain, I know what he’s trying to do.
I never thought I’d live to see The Wall come down. But it did. Now it looks like TPTB are doing everything they can to make sure we lost now that it has..
A group called Utterly Appalled and The Resistance have put out a demo of a song called “Not My President” in the hope that others will cover the song and the land will fill with people chanting the chorus
Not my President,
Not my President,
Not my President….
@scentedFHC
don’t tease like that! What was the first stupidest?
I’ve been told – we’ve worked with USSR well in the past – remember WWII? I responded – yeah, remember what happened to Poland and Czechoslovakia … Eisenhower and Churchill might have been grateful for the 2nd front, but they sure weren’t taken in by Stalin.
Hey Adams – does Russian vodka improve the taste of the Kool-Aid?
As European I feel I have much more in common with Russia than with the USA. So, I am quite OK about Trump-Putin´s friendship.
In any case I am very careful to describe myself as a “fascist” (I am) when I talk to Russian people. To them “fascist” equals “nazi” which is not accurate. Nothing to do Eurolatin fascism with the nazis. Eurolatin fascism is nice, is sweet, it has charming Catholic touch, it is democratic, and it is feminist (Marine Le Pen, Alessandra Mussolini…)
Wow, we’re going to be witnessing a geopolitical revolution here. Apparently, so long as two countries profess to be interested in peace and prosperity, regardless of their actual actions, and so long as they have no overlapping claims on territory, regardless of their international stance, they can be allies. Why isn’t every country the ally of every other country? Well, they can be now!
Scott Adams is such a disaster. Not only is he obviously ignorant of the last hundred years of history, but he seems to think that his silly rules of interpersonal persuasion map perfectly to interactions between sovereign nations. It gives me a headache.
Wait, I thought Adams said Trump was going to win because of his masterful persuasiveness and everyone’d get in the voting booth and end up voting for him even if they hadn’t originally intended to because he subliminally implanted us or something. Now it’s because Russia did us a favor by keeping Clinton from being elected. You need to make up your mind, Scott.
Also, slightly OT but related to Trumpishness, I learned the other day that kids here were building “Trump’s wall” out of snow at recess. Living in a deep red state sucks.
@chesselwitt
Consistent ideas aren’t important when you can consistently feel good about believing you’re right. Being wrong about stuff feels bad, so why would Adams ever do that?
Yeah! Maybe democracy is only good if it’s kept in proper check by autocrats. Maybe the people can’t be trusted to make their own decisions without the guidance of a ruling class. Maybe Scott Adams should make all of the decisions on behalf of all of the little people.
Has Scott Adams never read a history book? Or a newspaper?
@ Scildfreja:
Too late, the con is already played. And the con man is gonna be president (note, lower case “p”)
CW: sarcasm ahead
@ Viscaria:
Possibly… we learn new truths all the time. I, for example, didn’t know until recently that women were only proper people if they were controlled by a man….
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/rckstr.gif
http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Michael-Scott-angry-stare-at-toby.gif
(I’m testing something I am very tired.)
This is kind of like having someone break into your house, take a shit on the carpet, and set fire to the garage but also steal that tacky wedding present you don’t like. So it’s all okay, right?