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1. jchall+(OP)[view] [source] 2026-01-13 16:53:32
Scott Adams died today. I want to acknowledge something complicated.

He always felt culturally like family to me. His peaks—the biting humor about corporate absurdity, the writing on systems thinking and compounding habits, the clarity about the gap between what organizations say and what they do—unquestionably made me healthier, happier, and wealthier. If you worked in tech in the 90s and 2000s, Dilbert was a shared language for everything broken about corporate life.

His views, always unapologetic, became more strident over time and pushed everyone away. That also felt like family.

You don’t choose family, and you don’t get to edit out the parts that shaped you before you understood what was happening. The racism and the provocations were always there, maybe, just quieter. The 2023 comments that ended Dilbert’s newspaper run were unambiguous.

For Scott, like family, I’m a better person for the contribution. I hope I can represent the good things: the humor, the clarity of thought, the compounding good habits with health and money. I can avoid the ugliness—the racism, the grievance, the need to be right at any cost.

Taking inventory is harder than eulogizing or denouncing. But it’s more honest.

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2. throw4+Z4[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:07:44
>>jchall+(OP)
This comment reminds me of when I talked to a few Chinese friends about their thoughts on Mao. They all acknowledged the failed policies which led to famine, yet they also admired that he basically gave Chinese people their pride back.

They related him to an uncle figure who became a mean drunk.

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3. k__+ub[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:28:55
>>throw4+Z4
Pride made it worth it?!
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4. godzil+7c[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:30:55
>>k__+ub
Having married a Chinese person. Yes. Despite the massive issues with the cultural revolution and communism in general, they are taught to be aware that it was Mao who threw off imperialism. Chinese are self governing because of him. Right or wrong, that is how they feel.
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5. aaronb+Gd[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:36:28
>>godzil+7c
I think it's possible to throw off the yoke of imperialism without then promptly dipping right into totalitarianism.
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6. chitha+Wj[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:56:38
>>aaronb+Gd
Far more Chinese think that their country is a democracy and the government serves the people than in the US.

Whether this is objectively true is another question, but from their perspective, that's what it is.

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7. dennis+sH[view] [source] 2026-01-13 19:22:43
>>chitha+Wj
>Far more Chinese think that their country is a democracy and the government serves the people than in the US.

>Whether this is objectively true is another question, but from their perspective, that's what it is.

Correct, as a general rule, slaves think more highly of their slave owners, compared to people about their politicians/leaders who were elected by them.

( what happens behind the scenes is this: the slaves/dissidents who are rebellious are killed off by the dictator - only the most ardent supporters survive)

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