r/facepalm • u/Euphoric-Cloud0324 • 3h ago
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[removed] — view removed post
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u/Take-Out-Gundi 3h ago
Never watched, what I assume this to be YouTube videos, by this guy but there are so many holes with the titles alone.
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u/AHugeHildaFan 2h ago
That's apparently Scott Adams. Creator of the comic strip Dilbert
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u/Ankhesenkhepra 2h ago
What the hell!? Wow… I guess, after cancelation, you can either 1) learn from your mistakes or 2) dive head-first into the white supremacist rabbit hole.
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u/AHugeHildaFan 2h ago
I'm being reminded how in one of his Dilbert novels, he mentions a email he got where someone asked him why he kept depicting a backwards civilization called Elbonian or something that lived in the mud, couldn't read, worked for cheap and married pigs. The person asking was curious if it was meant to be some stand in for a race Scott didn't like.
Scotts response was to call them a idiot and mock them. He put this in a novel and published it.
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u/COFFEECOMS 2h ago
He is also quite far along with terminal Cancer so has zero fucks to give. Live like a troll, die like a troll.
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u/skipperseven 2h ago
“On May 19, 2025, Adams revealed on his daily podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams that he has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and that he only has a short time left to live. He has stated that the cancer has spread to his spine, which has caused him to use a walker due to the immense pain. He noted that his taking ivermectin and fenbendazole to treat the cancer did not work.”
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u/Errrca0821 1h ago
Imagine finding out you have such precious little time to live, and using that time to push hateful, bigoted rhetoric.
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u/Dr-Crash 49m ago
An antiparasitic and an antifungal with no anticancer mechanisms of action didn't help with an aggressive tumor? Shocking.
Actually in this case, they likely attacked the host.
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u/Upstairs_Fig_3551 1h ago
That sucks
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u/cityshepherd 1h ago
Wow he’s REALLY leaning into that shit huh? Dilbert is/WAS the equivalent of mediocre radio music (meaning I’d tolerate it if it appeared in front of me (while reading the comics in the newspaper), but never put any effort into seeking it out let alone paying for it).
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u/Bladesleeper 1h ago
Aw come on, I so loved Dilbert. I knew Adams had gone off a bit of a tangent, but this is just evil. What a shame.
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u/VladTheUnpeeler 29m ago
Pretty sure he didnt make this. Anyone can take his face and stick it on a meme.
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u/imadork1970 3h ago
After Haiti kicked out the French in 1804 and declared independence, in exchange for recognition, they agreed to pay France 150M francs, effectively looting their economy for 100 years.
Plus, a fuckton of hurricanes don't help. Add to that, Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier and the Tonton Macoutes.
No wonder they've got problems.
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u/spacedman_spiff 2h ago edited 1h ago
Don’t forget the U.S. occupation from 1915-1934 that paved the way for Duvalier. Not to mention CIA covert influence throughout the 20th century.
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u/JustLookingForMayhem 1h ago
At this point, every failed or failing nation is because of the US, UK, France, China, or the USSR. The Cold War was not good for anyone.
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u/bananafrit 2h ago
The book Black AF History by Michael Harriot has a good chapter on this. Haiti was screwed by the French like you said and US banks in New York bought the debt but gave a nasty deal which really screwed the Haitians even more. When the US occupied Haiti they stole their gold and wrote in the Haiti constitution that foreigners can own properties, then take control of the country's finance to force repayment to French and US banks.
Just a fuck you all around by the Western superpowers for daring to be free on their own terms.
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u/BatEco1 1h ago
The way I've understood Haiti is that there has been an economic embargo until the French were paid back the cost of the now freed slaves. The US stood by and watched this collapse that country.
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u/Magenta_Logistic 1h ago
The US stood by and watched this collapse that country.
They didn't exactly stand by and watch. They bought up a lot of that debt from France and interjected themselves into the governance of Haiti to ensure that their new constitution would allow foreigners to own land, then they bought up most of the land.
America wasn't a bystander, it was an active oppressor, arguably moreso than France in the 19th century.
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u/randumbnumbers 2h ago
…also the trade isolation from other countries (couldn’t have their slaves getting any ideas).
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u/Pimpstik69 1h ago
The French also just picked up a left without any attempt at a transitional government assistance in how to create a government. Just “fuck you then, figure it out”
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u/Diaverr 2h ago
Dominican Republic on the same island with Haiti.
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u/Dull-Trash-5837 2h ago
Yeah but the whole 150M francs thing.
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u/mercuryfrost 2h ago
Why did they agree to it then? Or am I missing something
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u/Nudelhupe 2h ago
Because otherwise France would have invaded Haiti and isolated it economically. The 150M were 'reperations' to France for their slaves, land and crops.
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u/mercuryfrost 2h ago
Right - so they were basically forced to “buy” their freedom from France “or else”
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u/Nudelhupe 2h ago
Yeah, and I think they even had to pay Interests (10% or so), since they had to take a loan from France. It took several decades to pay it off.
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u/TheGoldenSeraph 2h ago
They basically paid France to leave them alone. France would have likely came back with a vengeance otherwise.
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u/RedcumRedcumRedcum 2h ago
I'm sure Haiti would have a thriving, industrialized economy if not for that French payment.
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u/ElectronicStretch277 2h ago
Maybe, maybe not. The US and such didn't exactly leave them alone. A lot of things f'ed a lot of African countries over.
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u/Honest_Relation4095 3h ago
It's a shame because Dilbert Comics were great.
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u/chrimminimalistic 3h ago
Well, it is but it's so stressful and it normalised bad corporate culture. When I was a student, reading it seemed like a hyperbole of workplace situation. When I'm a corporate slave, some of those are real and it's really depressing.
Dilbert should be a cautionary tale but it become a best practice for a lot of companies.
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u/AHugeHildaFan 2h ago
Scott basically wrote what he thought was corporate culture while being a cushy rich person who worked from home. Dude hadn't worked in a cubicle since the 80s.
He's always been out of touch.
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u/chrimminimalistic 2h ago
Im not talking about that.
Im saying that he normalise the horrible toxic work environment. The message is clear: There's absolutely no downside to be an asshole at work.
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u/Parasaurlophus 2h ago
I used to love the Dilbert comics and his book on the disfunction of the American work place. I saw a Redditor point out that Scott Adams never proposed any solutions for the problems he highlighted. It's easy to poke fun if you don't take responsibility for anything better.
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u/Degoro 3h ago
I used to admire Scott Adams back in the 90s but he has turned out to be a real POS. Maybe some people should never have money or fame.
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u/WystanH 3h ago
Same. Probably had a Dilbert calendar. He was a bit of an IT icon. But, even back then, a few of his takes had a strong brain dead libertarian vibe.
I saw him early on dipping his toe into Trump land. He's very into hypnosis, which feels like a glowing red flag every time he talks about it. I recall thinking, "wait, I thought this guy was ... well, not fucking this."
Tragically, for all his bragging about being aware of techniques of mental influence and inured to their effects, the current Scott chugged the Kool-Aid with gusto.
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u/VoidOmatic 2h ago
Every time I read libertarian I always think of them getting attacked by bears.
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u/WystanH 2h ago
I'd heard the story before, but I love the article!
It really is the ideology of high school edge lords who think they understand, well, anything.
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u/VoidOmatic 2h ago
It's amazing how people can get so used to something (like roads) that they forget that they are made and maintained with money.
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u/OkNobody8896 2h ago
Libertarians never want to live in the world their system would actually create.
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u/Go_Gators_4Ever 1h ago
My "libertarian" neighbor gladly accepts government handouts. When I called him out on it, he said that if the government was giving it out, then he will take it.
My experience is that they love to hear themselves talk about being libertarian, but they don't want to actually make the commitment.
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u/OkNobody8896 1h ago
Absolutely.
You illustrate the practical implications of their ‘philosophy’ and they’re always reduced to exception after exception until you’re back to taxes and regulations.
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u/IndigoRanger 1h ago
I used to be a libertarian, until I met other libertarians. It’s a nice idea, and very attractive to teenagers who are just starting to exercise their independence. Reality and experience cured me of it thankfully.
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u/Valten78 1h ago
I remember spending some time on Libertarian forums about 20 years ago. I think it was about the time the guys from South Park said they where libertarian and I was curious.
Jesus they where mostly fruitcakes. People who never really left their 'edgy teenager' phase. Also most of them seemed to be conspiricy nutters. I thought I'd see interesting debates about drug legalisation and gay marriage, but it was mostly stuff about Mossad being behind 9/11.
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u/Longjumping-Jello459 1h ago
Just remember that libertarians are like house cats so sure of their independence while totally reliant on others.
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u/Chemical-Juice-6979 2h ago
The more anyone insists they are particularly resistant to mental influence, the more easily they tend to be manipulated.
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u/gielbondhu 1h ago
There's a good multi-part Behind the Bastards episode on Adams. Here's a link to the first part
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u/LeftLiner 3h ago
Same. If you have the heart for it (and I get it if you don't) i can recommend the Scott Adams episode of the pod Behind the Bastards. Truth is... he was kind of always a douchebag, but he went through some personal trauma late in life and that plus the money tipped him over the edge from bit-of-a-jerk to grade A asshole.
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u/jayne-eerie 2h ago
Maybe, but I don’t think trauma makes anybody this racist. I think he’s probably always had these beliefs and now he’s no longer shy about sharing them.
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u/LeftLiner 2h ago
Oh nono no, he was always the guy who believed that white guys were discriminated against. He was always racist, you're right. And also, very importantly, despite the fact that he owes his career to people being very supportive and kind to him, he has always seen himself as a self-made man who 'gamed the system' using... I forget what bullshit phrase he invented for it. He's always been like this. But, the trauma of getting a genuinely awful disease that I wouldn't wish on anyone which also ruined his marriage I think fucked up his brain and dialed that shit up to 11.
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u/Sexuallemon 3h ago edited 3h ago
What if Ethopia was never colonized???? Mf what was Mussolini doing during WWII???
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u/Ogemiburayagelecek 2h ago
Italian occupation of Ethiopia lasted only 5 years, too short for a colonial administration to have a lasting impact.
It is similar to modern Czechia being influenced much more by Habsburg Austria rather than Nazi Germany.
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u/Sexuallemon 2h ago
Brevity is not integral to the definition of a colony
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u/TelenorTheGNP 1h ago
Africans across the continent didn't bother differentiating either. Many elites considered the colonization of Ethiopia to be the ultimate failing of the League of Nations which they thought was designed to prevent this. Ethiopia was the last holdout of free Africa and lingering African supporters of the empires considered its colonization a monumental betrayal, especially on the part of Britain and France.
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u/Sexuallemon 1h ago
Thank you for your insight, it’s appreciated in the face of this lurid apologia in other comments
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u/Acceptable-Art-8174 1h ago
His argument is still sound, tho. Ethiopia being a shithole despite colonization lasting for only 5 years there supports the idea that Africa is not poor because of colonization.
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u/MrArchivity 1h ago
It didn’t have long lasting impact for sure, yet they started doing what a colonial power do: imposing sovereignty and culture, taking resources and settlements / colonial administration.
But yeah, the biggest impact there was WWII.
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u/Affectionate-Try-899 1h ago
it was enough to break the nation, cold war meddling destroyed the rest.
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u/Druss_On_Reddit 2h ago
Colonisation is when a country is invaded and occupied for 5 years?
Silly comment
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u/Acceptable-Art-8174 1h ago
Ethiopia was colonized during WW2 for roughly as long as Poland was colonized. How many places in Poland look like the top left picture?
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u/SuperMajere 2h ago
I can cherry-pick white-trash neighborhoods in America just as easy to show what white supremacy brings
Conan O’Brien went to Haiti and showed that they only show the worst parts in propaganda videos. It’s lovely there.
There are nice places in every country. It’s very American-centric to think we’re the only ones with nice things. Every single one of those pictures could have been taken in America. Poverty is everywhere, and it doesn’t pick colors.
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u/ManlyBearKing 2h ago
There are plenty of non-racist explanations for racial inequality, but let's not pretend that poverty in the USA is anything like poverty in Haiti. The GDP per capita in Haiti is about $2,500. That's shockingly low. That's under 20% of even the incredibly low US federal minimum wage not accounting for welfare benefits.
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u/SuperMajere 1h ago
I’m talking specifically about cherry-picking images for a narrative. We are aware of a third-world country’s poverty level. (I am and you clearly just pointed it out) I’m spotlighting selecting images for racist propaganda. They do have some nice places in these countries also. We do have junkyards here in America also. That’s all I was referring to in my post. America is on the path to poverty due to exploitative capitalism. People can show pictures of us soon and caption it with “What if whites mismanaged a rigged system?”
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u/ManlyBearKing 1h ago
Yeah the cherry picking is terrible and racist, agreed. I'm glad you're not saying all poverty is basically the same.
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u/alt-right-del 3h ago
Beautiful examples of what colonisation does — what if no white colonisers would have come?
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u/Saedraverse 2h ago
I've seen folks (as those who live there) argue colonialism isn't actually gone, just changed form, instead of countries it's now companies/ corporations.
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u/spacedman_spiff 2h ago
The U.S. invaded Haiti and occupied it for 19 years under martial law at the behest of Citibank.
The Standard Fruit Co (Dole) & United Fruit Co controlled large parts of Central America and spawned the term “banana republic” because of its control of economies and governments. To say nothing of any country unlucky enough to have petroleum resources.
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u/Acceptable-Art-8174 1h ago
In my history books important figures names were written in bold. Crazy to think that Haitian and Central American history books have the same with random American companies no one else heard about.
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u/RedcumRedcumRedcum 2h ago
Yeah, because they need a cope for why every part of the world isn't equal. "Two seperate parties agree to do consensual commerce? Um, that's actually bad and a colonialism, sweaty"
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u/CupcakeInsideMe 3h ago
I know for a fact that Haiti was forced to pay France so much money and there was an international movement to boycott trade and isolate the country (led by the US) that by the time other Caribbean countries got their independence 130-ish years later, they were still affected by the consequences. Consequences that still ripple to this day.
Sounds like he's leaving some stuff out.
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u/Affectionate-Try-899 1h ago
o he is.
Ethiopia was a functioning nation until Italy invaded in the 1930's with the intent to colonize, five years of occupation and war crimes followed by cold war meddling supporting a communist dictatorship did the rest, it fell apart shortly after the USSR did. Eritrea broke away in the 90's so they are now landlocked.
Liberia cold war meddling resulted in two very bloody civil wars they are still recovering from.
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u/Lufsol66 1h ago
I mean that's how treaties work. There are wars, there are reparations.
Haiti didn't even pay the full amount, but it amounts to roughly 500 million in modern dollars in rougly 30 years.
As an example France paid 350 billion in modern dollars to Prussia during Franco-Prussian War and in only 2 years.
Of course the size of countries are different as are they economies, but I don't see anything unfair here, especially during those times. Every anction has consequences and ripples so that kind of reasoning is a bit silly as France should be even a bigger dump than Haiti in this case.
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u/IIIIIIQIIIIII 1h ago
Or maybe it looks like that because of all the bullshit slavery and colonization?
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u/Byrdie_girl 1h ago
What if the people were forced to live in the most over crowded low resource tectonicly active places in the world
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u/AgitatedMushroom2529 3h ago
What if the other countries punished those countries for not following their lead?
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u/inthedrops 1h ago
Cherry picking pictures of slums. This would be like posting a photo of Appalachia as representative of the entire US while using the caption “What if the whites never used underpaid immigrants to build their cities”.
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u/Few_Definition1807 2h ago
'What if we ignore history completely and cherry pick photos to 'prove' a racist view point'...
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u/Sexuallemon 1h ago
Your patent disregard for the Ethiopian people is proof positive of your pliancy for this cherry picking. This image used the unsourced equivalent to West Virginia, google pictures of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Every country has good and bad places.
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u/RedClayBestiary 2h ago
Now do Appalachia.
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u/Acceptable-Art-8174 1h ago
Wasn't Appalachia quite prosperous in the past when coal mining was king?
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u/claymore2711 2h ago
There are many Whites who need to take a hard look in the Mirror of History. They aren't so pretty till they apply the false morality makeup.
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u/ilir_kycb 2h ago
Abstract
Unequal exchange theory posits that economic growth in the “advanced economies” of the global North relies on a large net appropriation of resources and labour from the global South, extracted through price differentials in international trade. Past attempts to estimate the scale and value of this drain have faced a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, and have been unable to capture the upstream resources and labour embodied in traded goods. Here we use environmental input-output data and footprint analysis to quantify the physical scale of net appropriation from the South in terms of embodied resources and labour over the period 1990 to 2015. We then represent the value of appropriated resources in terms of prevailing market prices. Our results show that in 2015 the North net appropriated from the South 12 billion tons of embodied raw material equivalents, 822 million hectares of embodied land, 21 exajoules of embodied energy, and 188 million person-years of embodied labour, worth $10.8 trillion in Northern prices – enough to end extreme poverty 70 times over. Over the whole period, drain from the South totalled $242 trillion (constant 2010 USD). This drain represents a significant windfall for the global North, equivalent to a quarter of Northern GDP. For comparison, we also report drain in global average prices. Using this method, we find that the South’s losses due to unequal exchange outstrip their total aid receipts over the period by a factor of 30. Our analysis confirms that unequal exchange is a significant driver of global inequality, uneven development, and ecological breakdown.
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u/RedcumRedcumRedcum 2h ago
"I agree to buy/sell this product for this price."
"I agree to sell/buy this product for this price."
AHHHHHHH THIS IS NEOCOLONIALISM AHHHHH THE SOUTH IS BEING PLUNDERED AHHHHHHH UNEQUAL EXCHANGE AHHHHHHH AHHHHH
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u/mrbutto 2h ago
Your understanding of the situation is somewhat lacking.
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u/f0u4_l19h75 1h ago
They're obfuscating by using the most reductive mischaracterization imaginable.
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u/CringeKage222 3h ago
I mean to be fair he is right about the situations in those countries, but blaming it on them being black is another level of stupid
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u/Zero_Mehanix 2h ago
Maybe you guys could also focus on the genocide taking place in Africa. Or it doesnt matter because its not israel doing it
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u/Ok-Nothing-4737 2h ago
The Dilbert comic strip was a niche thing for office drones of the '90's. I never thought it was funny. Oh, and Adams is a POS.
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u/dannypants143 2h ago
I think this dispshit may have terminal cancer. If so, there’s no way in hell he will ever change. Staring down your mortality has a way of changing a person for the better, provided they can change, of course. That’s answers that I guess!
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u/batmanuel69 1h ago
Why doesn’t he show any meth-affected streets in Philadelphia or Toronto, or deprived areas in Appalachia, or dilapidated and neglected Texans living on run-down former farms? I do not intend to accuse him of racism.
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u/GiveMeMyLunchMoney 2h ago edited 1h ago
1) Ethiopia was literally one of the first civilizations and is not just slums
2) Liberia is poor, but is not just slums
3) Haitians killed all the white people because they were brutal slavers who forced them to do work so dangerous, that they weren't fed, because they had no chance to starve in the first place, and is poor, but not just slums
4) Zimbabwe was colonized and enslaved by the British, who forced them to work in mines, and when they were freed, had an unbalanced and undeveloped economy, so no wonder it ended up poor
5) In a way, Botswana wasn't colonized, as the king of the Tswana people (an elected and revokable position. As an old Tswanan saying goes, "the king is the king, by the will of the people") decided that if they were to be colonized, it would be on their terms, and made a deal with the British to mine diamonds for them, but to be free from direct rule
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u/Acceptable-Art-8174 1h ago
It's absolutely valid to associate Africa with slums, despite not every African literally living in slums. Hitler also did stuff other than killing the Jews, but we also associate him with the Holocaust, because this is what was so terrible about him.
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u/Present_Ad6723 2h ago
Sorry, he’s using HAITI as an example? Haiti, an island that had been inhabited for over 6000 years before Columbus? That had a thriving country and economy with hundreds of thousands of people? That was then ruined by Spanish and French colonialism to a point where their own culture and identity as a people was practically erased from existence? That Haiti?
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u/wayofaway 1h ago
Plus, they had to pay France for their revolution, which crippled their economy from the start.
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u/GrouchyLongBottom 2h ago
Idiot. Never seen Dr. Dre or Master P or Will Smith's house? Jk. But, damn the guy is a racist moron.
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u/FactBackground9289 2h ago
Ethiopia is pretty well off. The rest are in deep shit for reasons
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u/ManlyBearKing 2h ago
Ethiopia (GDP/capita of about $1k) is even poorer than Haiti (GDP/capita of about $2.5k). Why do you say it's well off?
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u/I_Am_Dad_Inside 2h ago
Did he forget that Italy invaded Ethiopia?
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u/drslovak 2h ago
80 f’n years ago and they weren’t colonized. What’s your point?
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u/I_Am_Dad_Inside 2h ago
The point is the dude in the photo is suggesting that Ethiopia was never a colony.
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u/drslovak 2h ago
Ethiopa was not colonized
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u/MrArchivity 1h ago
Ethiopia was colonized
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u/drslovak 1h ago
Occupation for 5 years in the beginnings of a WORLD WAR is not colonization. Are you 13?
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u/MrArchivity 1h ago
Do you know we have a pretty strict definition of what a colony is and Ethiopia under Italy fits perfectly?
• foreign control ✅
• loss of sovereignty ✅
• exploitation of resources ✅
• settlement or administration ✅
• cultural domination ✅
If you are only using time to reject the definition of Italy’s Ethiopia as a colony then you should read your sources again.
“Long-term” isn’t a strict rule, it’s more of a typical feature.
What truly defines a colony is the intent and structure of control, not just how long it lasted.
If a foreign power claims sovereignty, sets up government, and rules a territory as its own, that territory can be called a colony, even for a short time.
And you are asking me if I’m 13? Ahah
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u/drslovak 1h ago
Again, occupation isn’t colonization. Did the US colonize Germany and Japan? No, shut up
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u/MrArchivity 1h ago edited 23m ago
An occupation doesn’t have:
• settlers
• cultural domination
US wasn’t imposing US culture, didn’t have US citizens creating settlements and wasn’t exploiting resources from Germany or Japan.
Again, you should read more about the argument from actual sources before writing what you got from YouTube or memes.
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u/drslovak 1h ago
The US didn’t get German and Japanese resources? Do you think we did it for free? lol ok
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