Dilbert's Scott Adams Explains "How To Know You're In A Mass Hysteria Bubble"

You were posting some really thoughtful comments and even apologized for perhaps calling Tallinvor a racist.

I'm assuming you didn't actually mean to say one-third of the country is racist?? We all comment in shorthand so I get it if it is a mistake. Is it?

 

Racism is pervasive. Having racist views is common place. I come across it everywhere - not just in the US either. I hear it from the cab driver talking about the black jogger crossing the street needing to go climb a tree and get some bananas, I hear it from my neighbors growing up in NOLA, I hear it having dinner over at friends houses while living in Houston. Oh people think they are not racist or they are just joking, or they are just stating the truth, or there is a justification in their view. But there isn't. it's just racism and they don't want to be associated with the word because they think the word is a dirty word that doesn't reflect their views - but it does.

When you have posters here saying blacks are more likely to be criminals or kill people because of their "culture", or ask why is it that you always see the black workers at fast food places be so lazy - that's racism. Plain and simple. And you'd be surprised at how pervasive those views are.

 

And you have some posters who's vocabulary is limited to the word 'racist'. For example, there is a difference between culture and race. These same posters often have trouble differentiating between race and ethnicity.

But you're absolutely correct. People fear being called the word racist. This allows small minded people to go around misusing the word. Seriously, how hard is it to use xenophobic, ethnocentrism, xenocentrism or some other 'ism' word in the correct context? Yes, I get it. People generally are not afraid of being called certain words when most others do not know what those words mean in the first place. Racism is just a nice go to word when a person has trouble debating the context of the topic.

 

Or like when you have to actually explain to certain idiots why the nickname of "White Power" is a really bad one and a really bad idea.

 

While culture is different from race, when used in context of "black culture" it is synonymous with race. That is to say, people are trying to rationalize their racist views as being critical of culture when in reality it's race. People try to say that it's black culture for fathers to abandon their children. Or that black music makes blacks more violent. And yet more whites listen to "black" music than blacks, and yet the rate of people abandoning family is about the same across poor socio-economic groups. It's also just code language.

Yes there are those who pull the racist trigger too early. But there are far more who deny racism even exists and feel that anyone who uses the word racist is using it as a weapon as a means to shut their argument up and dismiss it.

You are doing it here - "racism is just a nice go to word when a person has trouble debating the context of the topic" - you dismiss it and thereby can deny all racism with one sweeping statement. To you it doesn't exist then. There is no such thing as racism. Which says a lot about you.

 

Supporting a wall to stop illegal immigration is not a racist is belief.
Noting there is a high number of familys w/out a father figure in black families is not a racist comment.
Stating the violent rap culture that promotes violence, gangs, drugs, abuse towards women, ect is not healthy is not a racist comment.

The statement "a black person is only good for climbing trees to get bananas" is a racist comment.
Stating the black culture is filled with violence or other generalities, while may not be intended to be hateful, is a racist comment.
Singling out race as an identifier for one group but not another, is also racist. For example, saying "That little black boy over there...." as a descriptor when the individual would not otherwise says 'white' if the boy was white. A great example of this is the Fl gov race. Continuing to point out Gillum as a black person in the news headlines is actually racist. Nobody is pointing out his opponent is white. Gillum never ran as a 'black candidate'. Why do we continue to let the media make note the color of his skin when the candidate has explicitly stated the color of his skin is zero relevance?

If someone truly gives a **** about the black community, there is nothing wrong with discussing certain topics, like culture, to identify how we can improve it. Screaming racist at everything and blaming whitey is not the solution.

 

Saying that there is a high rate of dead beat dads in black communities is not racist. Saying it's because of black culture does push the line of it being racist.

Saying rap culture causes people to be violent and abuse women is just bizarre when you consider no one seems to complain about rock or country music songs that do the same thing. There's plenty of anglo culture that glorifies violence - do you think all those westerns and other movies promote shootings by white people? Are you saying movies cause people to kill because they glorify violence? Then why do you say that about rap? See, that's the kind of thing that make people think there is racial bias.

Saying there should be a wall to stop Mexicans from getting in, but nothing should be done to stop unemployed European illegal immigrants does demonstrate a racial bias.

 

seems to me that you are both in agreement that there is a difference between purely descriptive statements (such as "there is a high rate of dead beat dads in black communities") and attributions of causality ("Saying it's because of black culture does push the line of it being racist") that either beg the question in a racist way or are simply impossible to prove.

 

I wonder if he realize he’s inside a mass hysteria bubble?

 

TDS is a great example.

 

Amazing.

The burden lies of course with the accusers, in particular Trump's legal team, to provide evidence.

Oh, but do lecture us further about cognitive bias, Scott.

 

This is extraordinary proof that Scott Adams is a nut case.

 

That's a classic "impossible to disprove a negative" situation.

 

this is what he said a couple of years ago

“If you’re in the mass hysteria, recognizing you have all the symptoms of hysteria won’t help you be aware you are in it. That’s not how hallucinations work. Instead, your hallucination will automatically rewrite itself to expel any new data that conflicts with its illusions.

But if you are not experiencing mass hysteria, you might be totally confused by the actions of the people who are. They appear to be irrational, but in ways that are hard to define. You can’t tell if they are stupid, unscrupulous, ignorant, mentally ill, emotionally unstable or what. It just looks frickin’ crazy.”

 

he’s too smart to not realize that and yet...

 

Adams is a weirdo. He recently married a woman nearly 35 years younger than he is. He claims to be left of Bernie Sanders yet supported Romney and Trump. He has made vailed references to facing discrimination because he is a white male.

 

I dare anyone to prove you wrong.

 

I dare anyone to prove you wrong.

 

Generally if someone doesn't understand the difference between a halucination and a delusion, they probably shouldn't be lecturing people on mental processes.

 

Sometimes I wonder if the people who criticize Scott Adams have read plenty of his work. This is all classic Dilbert banter.