Friday, September 23, 2022
Now Dilbert is racist! Popular comic strip is canned by 77 newspapers after artist Scott Adams began incorporating anti-woke plotlines
A popular comic strip has been canned by 77 newspapers after its creator Scott Adams started incorporating anti-woke plotlines, including a black character who identifies as white.
Adams' much-loved 'Dilbert' comics have been in circulation since 1989 and frequently pokes fun at office culture, but he announced he was sensationally dropped by publisher Lee Enterprises.
The media company owns nearly 100 newspapers across the country - including The Buffalo News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Arizona Daily Sun - and has been publishing Adams' jokes about the corporate ladder for years.
One of his most recent controversial comic strips included a black worker, who identifies as white, being asked to also identify as gay to boost his company's environmental, social, and governance ratings.
Dave, his reoccurring character, replies: 'Depends how hard you want me to sell it,' before the boss responds: 'Just wear better shirts.'
Adams, 65, is believed to be worth nearly $70million - a fortune he amassed thanks to the popularity of his characters, as well as his non-Dilbert related works.
Another satire, posted on Monday, showed the same character in charge of the fictional firm wondering how he can open a new factory without contributing negatively to the environment.
As a solution to stop him being bashed by 'woke' commentators, the boss concludes that he'll add a non-binary worker to his board to increase diversity.
Adams' satirical strips feature in newspapers across 57 countries, and in 19 languages - and there are over 20 million Dilbert books and calendars in print.
The character Dave, named after the creator's brother, is a prankster who messes with his boss, Adams said.
He told Fox News that some newspapers voiced concerns after receiving complaints about his comic content.
But he could not say for sure if that had anything to do with the removal of 'Dilbert.'
Adams said: 'It was part of a larger overhaul, I believe, of comics, but why they decided what was in and what was out, that’s not known to anybody except them, I guess.'
The Daily Cartoonist reported that the comic strips 'Baby Blues,' 'Red and Rover,' 'Mutts' and 'Bizarrro' were also cut.
Cartoonist Dan Piraro, who created 'Bizarro,' spoke about getting the axe.
'Lee Enterprises, a newspaper group that is majority-owned by a large investment firm, stopped running ‘Bizarro’ and many other comics in their papers this past week,' Piraro wrote on his webpage.
The removal of the strips has had a 'significant' financial impact on Adams, but it's unclear how much money he was making from the partnership to begin with.
Responding to claims that Lee Enterprises were just making changes to their syndication, the cartoonist added: 'Do you think they flipped coins to decide what to keep and what to delete? It wasn't about popularity or cost. (That I know.)'
'But it could have been a normal business decision of another type that is a huge coincidence. All possible.'
In another of his anti-woke comics, one boss told workers: 'We are replacing traditional performance reviews with a wokeness score assigned by human resources.'
They explain the idea that 'the more woke you are, the more you will get paid.'
But one confused worker buts in, saying: 'That feels too subjective.'
And the boss bites back: 'That'll cost you two points off your wokeness score, bigot.'
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Sorry, trolls. Most viewers SUPPORT the casting of black actors as elves, dwarves and other fantasy characters in The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones spinoffs
Fans of hit fantasy television shows by wide margins support the casting of black actors as elves, dwarves and other characters — rebuffing online racist trolls who kicked up a fuss about such moves, a survey shows.
The poll comes in the wake of controversies over the casting of actors of color in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and black actor Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon in the Game of Thrones prequel, The House of the Dragon.
Morning Consult pollsters found that half of respondents supported casting black and brown actors in Hollywood movie and television roles typically associated with whites, while 28 percent were opposed.
Significantly, those who read works by JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin — the novelist creators of the two fantasy realms — were even more supportive of casting actors of color in traditionally white roles.
Some 55 percent of readers of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga, and 59 percent of readers of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, backed the casting of black and brown actors, even when it ran counter to the source material.
The diverse casting moves in those shows sparked an ugly backlash from online trolls, who said the shows’ creators were deviating from the original texts. They harassed actors on social media and posted negative reviews about the adaptations.
‘It turns out those fans are part of a noisy, but very clear minority,’ Morning Consult said in a posting about their survey of some 2,200 U.S. adults, which was carried out earlier this month.
‘Majorities of self-identified readers of The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire support diverse casting, even when that source material explicitly states the characters as white.’
Actors connected with the two fantasy shows and other celebrities have in recent weeks spoken out against the racist trolling.
Toussaint, 57, who plays the leader of the House Velayron in the Game of Thrones prequel series, remarked that angered fans were able to handle 'flying dragons' in the HBO Max show but not 'rich black guys.'
Rebuffing his critics, Toussaint said he's taking it all 'in stride' and feels 'sanguine' about the whole thing, adding that 'for every toxic person, there have been so many others who have been so supportive.'
The show was adapted from a portion of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood and takes place 172 years prior to the events in the original show. It dives into the history of the iconic Targaryen House, the then power brokers on the fictional isle of Westeros.
Likewise, the debut of the first two episodes of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power earlier this month brought trolls out of the woodwork, with several cast members of color receiving mean-spirited messages.
The series features actors of color cast in lead roles, including Ismael Cruz Cordova as the elf Arondir, Sophia Nomvete as the dwarf Princess Disa and Nazanin Boniadi as the human Bronwyn.
There has been speculation that racist trolls have also been 'review-bombing' the show and lowering the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a ratings website.
In response, actors from the original movie trilogy Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd took to social media, wearing garb with slogans written in the fictional Elvish language Neo-Sindarin that means 'You Are All Welcome Here.'
The show's official Twitter also sent a message, which began, 'We stand in solidarity with our cast #YouAreAllWelcomeHere.'
'We, the cast of Rings of Power, stand together in absolute solidarity against the relentless racism, threats, harassment and abuse some of our castmates of color are being subjected to on a daily basis. We refuse to ignore it or tolerate it,' the statement read.
'JRR Tolkien created a world which, by definition, is multi-cultural. A world in which free peoples from, different races and cultures join together, in fellowship, to defeat the forces of evil. ‘Rings of Power’ reflects that,' the statement continued.
'Our world has never been all white, fantasy has never been all white, Middle-earth is not all white. BIOPIC belong in Middle-earth and they're hear to stay.'
Those surveyed by Morning Consult were even more supportive of broader efforts to get actors of diverse ‘races, ethnicities, religious beliefs and sexual/gender identities’ appearing in film and television.
Some 66 percent of those surveyed said diverse casting was important, against 20 percent who said it was not so. Black respondents and readers of the Tolkien and Martin books favored diverse casting more strongly still.
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‘My Blood Still Boils’: Father Recalls School’s Secret Attempt to Transition Daughter
At the beginning of this year, Wendell Perez got a call that no father ever wants to receive—his elementary-aged daughter had attempted to hang herself in the school bathroom. Perez and his wife rushed to the school, where their daughter was whisked away by a police car to stay in a mental institution for a week.
Searching for answers, the couple found out from school administrators that their “son” had been struggling with “his” gender identity. On top of that, the school had remained quiet about the issue as the student was concerned that “he” would not be accepted at home because of the family’s faith.
It was only until the child’s second suicide attempt in a matter of two days that Perez and his wife were informed of the situation. The school was secretly transitioning the young girl into a male identity, without the parents’ knowledge or consent.
At the recent Pray Vote Stand Summit in Atlanta, Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon hosted a panel on Perez’s story, featuring the Florida father himself and his lawyer, Vernadette Broyles of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign.
With difficulty and a quivering voice, Perez shared his experience. “I’m going to be honest with you,” he told the room. “My blood still boils up to this day.”
From the outside, the Perezes are a normal family—a devout Catholic home with two parents and a 12-year-old in the Clayton County school system. According to Perez, there was “no indication at home” that the girl was “questioning her biological sex.”
He cites the religious discrimination of the school as a reason that the parents were kept in the dark. “Our faith was used against us. They decided [for us] that our faith—because we have a Christian faith—that was not safe for our daughter.”
“After that, we had to pick up the pieces and start a very painful healing process as a family,” Perez continued. “And part of that process was that we file a lawsuit against them for the violation of our parental rights and other constitutional rights. And that lawsuit is still active in federal court.”
Child and Parental Rights Campaign’s Broyles is representing them in their lawsuit, despite Clay County School District dismissing the allegations and requesting that the judge drop the case. She maintains that both the United States and Florida constitutions protect parents’ rights.
According to Broyles, Perez’s case is one of many instances of schools breaching parental rights and transgender ideology being forced upon children. Many parents across the country have found themselves as plaintiffs fighting school administrations that have helped their children begin quietly transitioning, such as a mother in California and a couple in Tallahassee, Florida, with similar situations. Other instances across the country have included the emergence of “gender transition closets” in communities and schools.
Kilgannon, who is senior fellow for education studies at Family Research Council, commented to The Washington Stand, “It takes special grace to be able to function beyond a crisis in your family. The Perez family’s faith blesses us all by their example and by their lawsuit, which will protect other families from activist school policies. We need to pray for them, for our schools, and all other families struggling through a gender crisis.”
While the Biden administration attempts to redefine Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity, several elected officials are siding with parents through bold advocacy and legislation. This past week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, released the state’s 2022 model guidelines upholding a parent’s right to their child’s education above all else. Virginia’s Loudoun County has notably made headlines with sexual orientation indoctrination scandals and school boards usurping parents’ agendas.
Additionally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has made friends among many parents and enemies among other citizens with his Parental Rights in Education bill.
“This is a spiritual battle that knows no geographic bounds … it’s coming everywhere,” Kilgannon told The Washington Stand. She maintains that if something like this can happen to the Perez family, no one is safe from transgender ideology targeting their kids.
As the power struggle persists across the country between parents and their local school boards, Perez is using his voice to speak out on behalf of parents who have daughters like his own.
“As a parent, I am so grateful to Wendell and his family for taking legal action,” Kilgannon concluded. “This happened in Florida, after the Parental Rights Law went into effect. Wendell is a practicing attorney, who is active in his church. His family practices their faith. So if this can happen to Wendell’s daughter, it can happen to anyone.”
Editor’s note: The Daily Signal reached out to Clay County District Schools for comment and received this comment by email from Terri Dennis:
“The district has performed a thorough and complete investigation into this matter as it was presented to us and has determined that the allegations made by this out-of-state organization are completely false, fabricated, and appear to be intended solely for the purpose of inciting the public. All employees of the district consistently work to ensure that the best interests of all students are served. The district will have no further comment on this matter.”
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"Truth" and Australian Aborigines
There are certain expressions which, although ridiculous, serve a useful purpose in alerting readers that what follows is fallacious gibberish. Phrases such as “hate speech”, “white privilege” and the insufferably smug “wrong side of history” are just a few examples.
Now a new word has emerged in the vernacular of the virtuous. It is time, they will say, that this country undergoes the process of ‘truth-telling’.
The aim of this, we are told, is for the good of the nation and to bring us together. “When we think about the effect that a national truth-telling process would have on Australia, it’s remarkable,” said Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney in July at the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land. “I see this as, you know, a thousand flowers blooming.”
As to what is supposedly stopping Indigenous Australians from telling their stories about the effects of colonisation in the absence of the proposed Makarrata commission, Burney did not elaborate. Nevertheless, a mostly compliant media has adopted the term, referring to it with respect and even reverence. So much for journalists avoiding loaded terms.
It was a subject that featured last week on ABC’s Q+A. “When it comes to truth-telling, these are going to be really difficult conversations,” said Wiradjuri and Wailwan lawyer Teela Reid. Perhaps so. But if you serenely proclaim the transgressions of others warrant your truth-telling, be ready for a few unpleasant facts yourself.
We can start with Reid’s comments about the one match suspension of NRLW Indigenous player Caitlin Moran for gleefully referring to Queen Elizabeth II as a “dumb dog” on the day of her death. “Free speech isn’t free in this country, particularly for First Nations people,” said Reid. “I think we really need to make sure that when First Nations women are speaking out, we’re not being overpoliced. I mean, this is, you know, just shocking to me.”
She has a point. Just ask Country Liberal Party senator and Warlpiri/Celtic woman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price about the abuse and threats she cops from Indigenous activists when she calls out violence in Aboriginal communities. It is a truth that Indigenous women and girls are 31 more times likely to be hospitalised due to domestic and family violence related assaults compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Last month Northern Territory Supreme Court judge Judith Kelly lashed out at terms such as “systemic racism” and “institutional racism,” telling a group of female lawyers there was a “cultural component” to Indigenous violence.
“There is the culture in some communities that tolerates violence against women and others that blames the victim and prioritises the interest of the male perpetrators over the female victims,” she said. “That, in my view, can only be changed from within those communities.”
But these domestic killings would receive virtually no publicity if not for a prominent judge deciding to do a little truth-telling about Indigenous culture. To quote Bundjalung, Yuin and Gumbaynggirr man Nyunggai Warren Mundine: “Don’t these Black Lives Matter?” Or are he and Price in the category Reid referred to last week when she sneeringly observed that “colonisers will always cherry-pick a black voice that suits their agenda”?
If Reid and other activists want truth-telling, bring it on. It is true to say the homicide rate in some NT towns is nearly twice that of the United States. It is also a truth that Indigenous youth suffers disproportionately from parental neglect. And is true that only 41 per cent of Indigenous children attend school 90 per cent or more of the time compared to the national rate of 70 per cent.
This is not to distract from the reality that colonisation had a devastating effect on the Indigenous population. Nor do I deny the massacres that took place or the attitude that the original inhabitants were a doomed people, the colonial administrators believing their obligation was simply to “smooth the dying pillow”. Those shameful aspects are already part of our history curricula, as they should be.
But if we to have truth-telling, then enough of the exaggerations and outright falsehoods. Eighteenth century explorer Captain James Cook was not a conquistador. Rather, he was a decent and enlightened man as well as one of history’s greatest navigators. It is also true he is fundamental to this country’s history, and that his vilification and obliteration have nothing to do with tolerance and everything to do with imposing a revisionist ideology.
It is an unfortunate truth that Australian students are taught the claims of Bruce Pascoe, an author who is to Indigenous history what John Pilger is to journalism. It is also a truth that a gullible media not only failed to scrutinise his ludicrous conclusions, but also treated them as an article of faith.
And it is a truth that governments devote enormous resources to addressing Indigenous disadvantage. As a federal parliamentary report noted in 2019: “Over the last decade, the Productivity Commission’s Indigenous Expenditure Reports … have consistently shown that total Commonwealth, state and territory government per capita expenditure on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is approximately double the per capita expenditure on non-Indigenous Australians”.
It is also true to say that many of the so-called progressive commentariat and Indigenous activists loudly decry governments for the state of these communities but refuse to acknowledge the root causes other than blaming racism and colonialism.
And it is true there is such a thing as an Indigenous bandwagon. The 2021 census recorded that 812,728 people identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, an increase of 25 per cent from 2016. And it is a truth that many of these arrivistes are motivated by a rent-seeking industry that mandates everything from holding so-called welcome to country ceremonies to employing ‘cultural safety’ officers.
It is also a truth that the mere act of elaborating these truths can see you hauled before a human rights commission or anti-discrimination tribunal. It is also true that the truth of one’s assertions is not an absolute defence to such action.
It is a truth that no matter how many treaties are signed, or how many truth commissions are held, the intention is not to reconcile but rather to reinforce a permanent sense of guilt in mainstream Australians. And it is a truth that in the wretched Indigenous settlements little will change as a result.
But you know what isn’t the truth? Claiming whitey is the source of all Indigenous misery.
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