‘What Are They Complaining About?’ Elon Musk Deletes Reply to Scott Adams Tweet About Newspapers Dumping ‘Dilbert’
Cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the hugely successful Dilbert comic strip, has been embroiled in controversy again this week after a disturbing video in which he said White people should “get the hell away from Black people” — a consequence of which was his comic being dumped by dozens of newspapers across the country.
Adams has been tweeting through it, defending his comments and premise. As that was ongoing, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has previously interacted with Adams on the social platform, popped in with a couple of replies, one of which has since been deleted.
Adams’ comments were ostensibly predicated on the results of a Rasmussen poll that asked respondents whether they’d agree with the statement “it’s okay to be White.” After arguing that “47% of Black respondents were not willing to say it’s okay to be White,” he advised White Americans to “get the fuck away from Black people.”
The video went viral on social media and on news websites. In subsequent tweets Adams defended the unbelievable commentary and somehow suggested that no one had disagreed with his underlying premises.
On Saturday morning, Adams tweeted a rhetorical question that reiterated the rationalization he has offered in several different ways, writing: “Is it racist to avoid racists who are the same race as each other? Or is it only racist if the racists you are avoiding are white?”
Musk often offers one-off responses to things on his timeline, and sent a quip in reply.
About ten minutes later it was in multiple screenshot tweets, including one from Ron Filipkowski.
“Scott Adams goes on blatantly racist rants for three days, including a video where to tells white people to stay away from black people, his comic strip gets canceled by multiple publications, so…” he tweeted, “perfect time for Elon to engage to give him a boost.”
A few hours later, Adams quote retweeted Washington Post writer Josh Rogin, who had shared an article on newspapers including WaPo dropping Dilbert with the comment “good.”
In the tweet, the reason for cutting the strip was specifically given as a “racist rant.”
“He’s a day behind this story,” Adams wrote. “Awkward.”
Musk later replied to that and asked, “What exactly are they complaining about?”
And finally, Adams replied to Musk’s reply to Adams’s retweet of Rogin’s sharing of the Washington Post‘s announcement of Dilbert‘s cancellation over Adams’s rant, the particulars of which he has been defending in tweets and on a Saturday podcast.
“Beats me. I don’t read that paper,” he said.
Musk’s reply was soon deleted, however.
It may have been removed when Musk discovered the answer to the question, or after realizing the question could have been construed by some as commentary in support of the cartoonist’s horrid premise.
