Just How Nutty is Scott Adams?
Scott Adams is the creator of the popular comic strip, Dilbert. Personally, I'm a big fan. Dilbert is funny in all the right ways and does a terrific job satirizing what life as a mid-level employee is like in a dog-eat-dog corporate world. Reading the strip one might get the impression its creator is a brilliant, eccentric and cynical man. Most of that is apparently true, although which characteristics are dominant seems to be up in the air.
Those who have seen interviews with Adams or read his blog are probably aware of his propensity for discussing evolution in a combative manner. He often qualifies himself by stating that he's not saying evolution isn't a well-proven fact, but then proceeds to attack it anyway.
Well, just a few days ago he seemed to go off the deep end in another department. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to be in New York to speak at the UN and also to debate at Columbia University. Ahmadinejad also requested to lat a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center but was told this wasn't possible due to security concerns.
The Iranian President's visit to New York, as well as all three proposed stops, have caused some outrage among Americans and this in turn apparently sparked outrage in Adams, who railed sarcastically against those who would deny the Iranian President the same freedom of speech they enjoy.
I'm all-for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak freely, but Adams didn't stop there. He suggested that the Iranian President's comment that "Israel should be wiped off the face of the map" was mistranslated and really just means he wants Israel's government to change some of their policies. Although he is correct that the exact translation can't really be nailed down in English, no one seems to share Mr. Adams' drastically different interpretation of what Mr. Ahmadinejad said.
But Adams didn't stop there. He continued on about one of the Iranian President's other famous comments: That the holocaust is a myth. Adams seems to think that Ahmadinejad meant "Myth" like a parable by which we can learn a valuable life-lesson. It is unclear why Scott would think this since Ahmadinejad has been quite clear in his beliefs and even hosted a International Holocaust Denier's Seminar last year.
Not content to leave a badly misinformed opinion alone, Adams added a number of further comments which make his opinion of Israel seem to be, well… a bit negative — and that's perfectly fine but coupled with his (woefully false) character un-assassination piece on the Iranian President and his sketchy views on evolution I have to wonder if the guy who has been sitting in the cartoon cubicle next to me all these years is a religious nutbag and I just never noticed.
In the end, Mr. Ahmadinejad did speak at Columbia and he was publicly criticized by University President Lee Bollinger. The Iranian President was hard-pressed to hide his true colors as he hinted at popular (among stupid people) 9/11 conspiracy theories and when asked directly how he could deny the holocaust when it is so well documented he avoided the question entirely and only said that whether or not it happened has nothing to do with the plight of Palestinians.
It's reassuring to know that we, as Americans, weren't seeing only some distorted version of Ahmadinejad handed to us by the media and the government, but disturbing that some otherwise educated public figures refuse to believe the facts and would rather distribute false information to their fans and the world community at-large.
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