He’s gone. Honestly, it feels like the end of an era that already ended three years ago. Scott Adams, the man who made us all laugh at our clueless bosses before making us all cringe at our computer screens, died on January 13, 2026. He was 68. If you’ve been following the chaos, you know this wasn't exactly a shock, but the way it played out on social media was pure Scott Adams.
Right up until the end, Scott Adams says Twitter—or X, if you’re being formal—was his primary battlefield. It was where he fought his critics, where he predicted his own "cancellation," and where he ultimately posted a final, eerie message to his followers. It’s kinda wild to think about how one guy could go from being the most successful cartoonist on the planet to a guy self-publishing on Locals and Rumble, all while insisting he was winning the whole time.
The Viral Moment That Broke the Dilbert Empire
Let’s go back to February 2023. That was the real "beginning of the end." Adams hopped on his YouTube show, Real Coffee with Scott Adams, and basically nuked his career in under five minutes. He was talking about a Rasmussen Reports poll that asked if "It’s okay to be white."
When some Black respondents disagreed, Adams didn't just disagree back. He went full scorched-earth. He called Black Americans a "hate group" and told white people to "get the hell away" from them. You’ve probably seen the clip; it was everywhere.
The fallout was instant. Total carnage.
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- The Washington Post? Gone.
- The Los Angeles Times? Dropped.
- The USA Today Network? Deleted him from over 200 papers.
Basically, within a week, Dilbert was homeless. Adams didn't back down, though. He took to X to claim he was just being "hyperbolic" and that he was actually "advising people to avoid hate." Most people weren't buying it. He stayed on the platform, leaning harder into his "persuasion" theories and his support for Donald Trump.
Life on the Edge: Cancer, RFK Jr., and Trump
Fast forward to May 2025. Adams drops a bombshell on his livestream: he has stage IV metastatic prostate cancer. Same as Joe Biden, he noted. But in classic Adams fashion, he claimed he’d had it longer than Biden had "admitted" to having it.
By late 2025, things got desperate. Adams was struggling to get a specific FDA-approved drug called Pluvicto. His insurance was dragging its feet. So, what does he do? He goes to X. He tags Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (the HHS Secretary).
It actually worked. Within 24 hours of his public plea on Twitter, he had an appointment. He called it a win for the "little guy," even though most "little guys" don't have the President of the United States on speed-dial.
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The Pascal’s Wager and the Final "I Told You So"
One of the weirdest turns in his final weeks was his conversion to Christianity. Look, Adams was a hardcore agnostic for decades. He viewed religion through the lens of "persuasion" and "mental filters." But in January 2026, he announced he was taking "Pascal's Wager."
Basically, he looked at the math. If there’s a Heaven and he believes, he wins. If there’s nothing, he loses nothing. He told his followers on X, "The risk-reward calculation... looks attractive." He even joked that if he wakes up in Heaven, he won't need any more convincing.
A Legacy of Satire and Segregation
It’s hard to reconcile the two Scott Adamses. On one hand, you have the guy who gave us the "Dilbert Principle"—the idea that incompetent people are promoted to management so they can do the least amount of damage. It was brilliant. It was universal.
On the other hand, you have the guy who spent his final years on social media defending comments that most people saw as straight-up racist. He claimed he sacrificed everything for his beliefs. Career, reputation, health—all of it. He once tweeted that he’d "never been more popular," even as his income plummeted and he was forced to self-publish Dilbert Reborn.
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What Really Happened with Scott Adams on Twitter?
If you look at his final message, shared posthumously on January 13, 2026, it’s surprisingly calm. He wrote it on New Year's Day, knowing the clock was ticking. He talked about being of "sound mind" and asked people to "pay it forward."
There was no mention of the "woke mob" or the "fake news industry" in those last lines. Just a guy who had "an amazing life" and gave it everything he had.
Honestly, the lesson here isn't just about "cancel culture." It's about how the tools we use to build our influence—like Twitter—can also be the tools that dismantle it. Adams spent thirty years building an empire and three years tweeting it into the ground.
Next Steps for Readers:
If you’re interested in the complex history of Dilbert and the evolution of workplace satire, you can still find the early collections of the strip in most libraries. For a deeper look at the specific 2023 controversy, the original Rasmussen Reports data and the subsequent editorial responses from the Washington Post and USA Today provide the most direct context for why the syndication world turned its back on Adams.