Scott Adams has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Scott Adams has died

#81

Post by cthalupa » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

negzero7 wrote: post #58

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

[flagged]

Scott Adams said that Republicans would be hunted down and that there would be a good chance they would all be dead if Biden was elected and that the police would do nothing to stop it.

Dilbert was brilliant. Adams' political discourse after that became his primary schtick was quite frequently insane.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#82

Post by deadbabe » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

negzero7 wrote: post #58

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

[flagged]

Wow, what a scathing retort. I hope the original poster realizes he was staring into the abyss for so long it started staring back into him.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#83

Post by dyauspitr » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

andrewclunn wrote: post #67

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

Good to know that "Don't speak ill of the dead," is now truly dead. Ironic that an online post trying to push a political point is attempting to frame itself as rising above. There is no middle ground. There is no common decency.

You can’t have a middle ground when your tenets offer up personal harm to a significant portion of the population.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#84

Post by Kudos » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #62

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

[flagged]

There's "becoming more conservative," and then there's what happened to Scott Adams.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#85

Post by andrewmutz » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

Cuuugi wrote: post #48

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

The online world breeds extremism. It wasn't too long ago criticizing someone on their obituary was considered classless. This is the world we have made.

Completely agree. If you're motivated enough about a topic to post about it online, you're probably emotional about it and unable to see it in a clear-headed manner.

The people I know who have the most reasonable political opinions never post about it online. The people who have developed unhealthy and biased obsessions are the ones who post constantly.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#86

Post by MrBuddyCasino » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

negzero7 wrote: post #58

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

[flagged]

His body isn’t even cold yet and the character assassinations are already pouring in. The „empathy havers“, allegedly.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#87

Post by rdl » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

I hate cancer.

What a long and unpredictable path his life took. Too bad he isn't still with us.

I really loved Dilbert (the Gen X defining comic), and especially his first couple books.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#88

Post by deflator » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

I think that a lot of us on here can give credit to Scott Adams for helping develop their cynicism, for better or worse.

He was a role model to me for helping me to make sense of the corporate world and its denizens. This might not sound like a compliment, but it is. He was my Mr. Miyagi for mental resilience by providing good arguments for most people not being evil, despite how it might seem.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#89

Post by kemiller2002 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

negzero7 wrote: post #58

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

[flagged]

No, his comments about race and supporting political groups that advertise oppression and hate have not and will not be simply categorized as a political view. There are universal truths and morals that do not change and simply saying we have different views does not excuse violating those.

Re: Scott Adams has died

#90

Post by jquery » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

ryandvm wrote: post #33

The entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale. To go from a brilliant satirist to becoming terminally online and just completely falling off the far right cliffs of insanity is incredibly sad. And unfortunately, this is plight is not uncommon. It is incredibly dangerous to make politics part of your identity and then just absolutely bathe yourself in a political media echo chamber.

Actually it’s more accurate to say Scott was always a far right troll and provocateur, but at some point he fell down a racist rabbit-hole. The book “The Trouble with Dilbert: How Corporate Culture Gets the Last Laugh” shows how Scott Adams never cared about the plight of workers in the first place, using his own words. It was way ahead of its time, as the angry reviews from 1998 and 2000, back in Dilbert’s heyday, demonstrate.

I say this as someone who used to really enjoy Dilbert, but looking back with a critical eye, it’s easy to see an artist who deliberately avoids bringing up topics that might actually do something to improve corporate culture.