Tuesday, February 28, 2023
A Public Service Announcement re Scott Adams
Bonehead cartoonist Scott Adams, who draws the "Dilbert" comic strip, has seen his work removed from hundreds of newspapers in the last few days. The issue is that he has taken to posting videos where he makes straight-up racist arguments. For example, he has said that White people should "get the hell away from" Black people, and that referring to Black people as a "hate group."
Even though Adams had been trending this way for a while, coming out for segregation seems to have been the last straw.
Here's the thing: newspapers no longer carrying "Dilbert" is not a deprivation of free speech. The right to free speech is a freedom from government action. No one has the right to force a paper to run anything you create-- and in fact, if the government did force papers to run Dilbert or someone's op-ed, that government action itself would be a legitimate violation of free speech!
People have a right to voice their opinions. They don't have a right to have people like that opinion, pay for it, or amplify it.
