New American | Sept. 22, 2022
This week, according to “Dilbert” comic-strip cartoonist Scott Adams, Lee Enterprises — which has nearly 100 newspapers in the United States — has decided to suspend the use of his comic strip in their papers. The cancellation, Adams said, has had a “substantial” negative impact on his finances.
Why did Lee Enterprises ditch “Dilbert”? Because, in a September 20 comic strip, Adams dared to poke fun at the “woke” culture that has became so pervasive in American society.
ESG — environmental, social, and corporate governance — is a framework designed to be integrated into an organization’s strategy to create enterprise value by expanding the organizational objectives to include the identification, assessment, and management of sustainability related risks and opportunities in respect to all organizational stakeholders (including but not limited to customers, suppliers, and employees) and the environment.
To get a good ESG “score,” companies are expected to promote the view that climate change is real, that it is being caused by human activity, and it is a threat to the planet, needing a massive increase in the power and scope of government to combat it. They are also expected to abide by the progressive principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Finally, membership on corporate boards should have a certain ethnic diversity.
Really? — I find that surprising — not sure why Adams is still running his business like he would have back in the 1980s … ? — although if media outlets approach him and offer money to license his content, it’s understandable that he would take it.
In the internet age, things are radically different — obviously when Dilbert appeared in print newspapers, which I assume paid a license fee to carry it, this would have been damaging — but with sales of print editions WAY DOWN (I have not bought a print newspaper in probably 10 years), and access to the internet practically universal, the licensing model seems less important — Adams could publish the cartoons on his own website and deny media websites the views — I’m sure there are many millions of people who would visit his site every day to read the latest Dilbert cartoon.
The poor hapless thing has to be fabulously wealthy. As as with any successful comic strip Dilbert has morphed into an animated TV series and numerous commercial products . The strip is carried by 2000 newspapers worldwide and umpteen languages.
He is well off, yes — I believe he lives in a wealthy enclave in the SFBA, and even had (they divorced this year) a hot young wife — link
ESG is not grounded in science. To quote a meteorologist on climate the idea of controlling the climate is stupid. Why, the climate as with the environment is ever changing. Us humans are not going to change the climate, that is a fact. So the premise that we can judge others on how they treat or deal with climate change is completely flawed.
A black cartoon character identifying as a white man- that is THE condition that will not exist under tyrannical tolerance.