Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Darwin Eats Cake: Douchebert

So, here's a thing
Best URL for sharing: http://www.darwineatscake.com/?id=36
Permanent image URL for hotlinking or embedding: http://www.darwineatscake.com/img/comic/36.jpg
Adams's blog can be found here. His spirited defense of Gwyneth is in this post, and was covered by Gawker. His new post was covered by Jezebel.

Now, to be fair, what I have done here (as has much of the media coverage), is to take part of Adams's post out of context. In my case, it is for (attempted) comic effect. In fact, I intend to take further license in future strips, introducing a new character, "Douchebert," who will embody the idea that we have certain innate (biologically determined) impulses, and that we have no capacity to overcome those impulses.

If all you do is read the stories written about his posts, you'll come away with the impression that Adams is a racist rape apologist. That's actually unfair. In both cases, Adams has some legitimate and interesting points. He has perhaps made the indelicately -- using language that lends itself to being taken out of context. But, come on, he's a comic-strip writer. If he worried about ruffling people's feathers, Dilbert would be boring as hell.

In summary, what I have done here is completely unfair to Scott Adams. I will continue to be unfair to him in the future for as long as it seems useful to do so. Hopefully that can lead to something that is informative and/or entertaining about other topics. However, if you are interested in what Adams actually has to say, avoid the second-hand media coverage, and go check out his original posts.

On the other hand, there is something just sort of sad about defending Gwyneth Paltrow.

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