[andrewclunn]

Good to know that "Don't speak ill of the dead," is now truly dead. Ironic that an online post trying to push a political point is attempting to frame itself as rising above. There is no middle ground. There is no common decency.

[afavour]

The reaction to Adams death is simply a reflection of how he lived his life.

There’s this curious demand (often though not exclusively from right leaning folks) for freedom of speech and freedom from consequences of that speech. It doesn’t work that way.

You have the freedom to say reactionary things that upset people as much as you want. But if you do, then you die, people are going to say “he was a person who said reactionary things that upset people”.

[petesergeant]

Why shouldn’t you speak ill of the dead?

[pizzafeelsright]

Good question.

The dead man, whomever is in question, can no longer harm you. He was a man, maybe a husband and father, and speaking ill of them is of no tangible benefit. To those that respected or loved them, the relationship is gone, and it is not wise to add to their pain.

I have been to the funeral of bad men. His earthly power is gone and if there is an afterlife his judgment is sealed.

This goes for all enemies and tyrants and criminals. We use the term "I am sorry for your loss" because most times the loss is not ours.

[bena]

It's mostly because the dead cannot defend themselves. You are attacking someone who you have no fear of reprisal from.

[card_zero]

I suppose you shouldn't jeer at them for being dead, for a start, and you should make allowances for their being dead when judging their actions. Treat them fairly.

[ubertaco]

I've never entirely understood "don't speak ill of the dead"; it seems like a vastly-scoped rule with far too many exceptions (and that can prevent learning any lessons from the life of the deceased). Forgive the Godwin's law, but: did that rule apply to Hitler? If not, then there's a line somewhere where it stops being a good rule (if it ever was one to begin with) – and I'd feel confident saying that there's no real consensus about where that "cutover" occurs.

To me, comments like "the entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale" rings less of vitriol and more of a kind of mourning for who the man became, and the loss of his life (and thus the loss of any chance to grow beyond who he became).

That rings empathetic and sorrowful to me, which seems pretty decent in my book.

[negzero7]

Because the dead can't respond or defend themselves. That's why you don't do it.

And it's the framing of the statement that is the problem. They didn't say "I disagreed with Scott" or "I didn't like Scott"; they framed it in a way that made it seem like truth. "the entire arc of Scott Adams is a cautionary tale" makes it seem like he did something wrong and there is some universal truth to be had, when it's really just this person disagreed with Scott's political views. It's persuasion, which ironically I think Scott would have liked.

[Noaidi]

> I've never entirely understood "don't speak ill of the dead"

Agree. Much more hurtful to speak ill of the living. I can even see both R's and D's as people suffering in the duality of the world and have compassion for them. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

[Hamuko]

You don't even really need to invoke Godwin's law, since you can just ask the same question about financier to the billionaires Jeffrey Epstein or beloved British presenter Sir Jimmy Savile (presented without speaking ill of the dead).

[dyauspitr]

You can’t have a middle ground when your tenets offer up personal harm to a significant portion of the population.