The cartoonist behind Dilbert, a long-running comic strip commentary on American office culture, was once a relatively anonymous figure.
But recently, he's made headlines with his eccentric commentary on the 2016 presidential candidates. And that, of course, has devolved into commentary on the state of sexism in America. Adams believes U.S. men are under the yokes of women, as evidenced by v-neck sweaters which are a "uniform" they are forced to wear, according to the Daily Dot.
The website cited a June 23 post on Adam's blog, "The Humiliation of the American Male in 2016."
"Perhaps the biggest unreported story of this presidential election is the humiliation of the American male. Unless I’m blinded by confirmation bias – which is entirely possible – it seems to me that the humiliation of American men is now institutionalized in the media," Adams writes. "Check out this commercial for dishwasher detergent. And take careful note of the American man’s v-neck sweater. That’s the uniform of a man who is owned by a woman."
Don't worry about Adams, he's on to the ploy.
"You’re laughing because you know it’s true," he writes. "How many of the married men reading this blog have received those same sweaters as “gifts” from women? Personally, I’ve received about 25 over the years. None from men. I received three of those sweaters so far this year. I throw them away. Nice try."
However if the Daily Dot's Cale Weissman is successful, Adams may soon have a lot more offending v-neck sweaters to throw away.
Yes, Adams truly believes these v-neck sweaters are cozy symbols of Male Oppression. Through this we may have figured out a way to remedy his constant humiliation: Get men to buy Scott Adams v-neck sweaters. Lots of them.You may be asking, “Cale, what would that accomplish?” Well, maybe if Adams had a real male—that is, a manly man who does manly things like not being controlled by women and obsessively drawing nerdy cubicle workers’ mundane hellscape—buy him some v-neck sweaters, maybe he would form a new association with the knitted garment. Perhaps he would see v-neck sweater-wearers in a whole new light. They are not “men” owned by women but “people” leased by J. Crew.
To that end, Weissman has launched a GoFundMe account where he is raising funds to buy Adams male-sanctioned v-neck sweaters. As of Wednesday morning he's donated $350 -- enough to buy about four or five sweaters from J. Crew.
Adams flew under the radar for a while but last month made headlines when he appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. As a guest he billed himself as an expert on persuasion and a trained hypnotist, and told Maher that GOP candidate Donald Trump's success is due to Trump's expertise with the art of mass persuasion.
As of Tuesday, in the face of a floundering Trump campaign, Adams seems to have backed off that and now attributes Clinton's recent success to persuasion tactics by her team and Trump's racist comments.
Earlier this month, Adams again made headlines by writing that he believes crazed Hillary supporters would kill him if he doesn't support her. So it's convenient his support for her is genuine, if convoluted.
"In my opinion, Hillary Clinton has already done a great service to the country because – win or lose – she already effectively broke the glass ceiling on the most visible and important job in the nation," he wrote. "If she falls short of the presidency, few people will think it was because of gender discrimination against women. Clinton has been a strong role model for women and deserves massive credit for that."
Then with sudden fury, Adams writes. "STOP TELLING ME IN YOUR MIND THAT WOMEN HAVE IT WORSE IN THIS COUNTRY THAN MEN!"
