Yes, this is free speech and capitalism working as designed.

Free speech means that the government didn't prevent Adams from going progressively more public¹ with his racism, even though he clearly understood what the consequences might be. Capitalism means that companies can reconsider their association with him, especially in the face of rapidly diminishing returns.

When Ben Garrison says your bigotry has gone too far, maybe it's time to take a break: https://i.redd.it/vuetv5ohcska1.jpg

¹ Adams' racism is not new. In the early 2000s, several people discovered that the email address featured in every Dilbert comic was associated with the AIM nicknames "••••••ape" (rhymes with "chigger"), "ura_••••••" (ditto), and "die_u_•••••" (rhymes with "drink"): https://i.imgur.com/FfH7WHn.jpg

That last part was likely nothing to do with Adams, just a prankster using an easily visible public email address. Those accounts likely dated from the early or mid 90's, when email verification wasn't a thing yet and you could sign up accounts to anyone else's email address pretty much everywhere.

While plausible, given Adams' bouts with racism as circumstantial evidence, would it not be likely that it was him and not some 'prankster'?

I'd doubt it. Racial slurs aren't his style at all. At most he would do a mocking deconstruction of why you can't say it.

Maybe I'm old, but I don't take salacious anecdotal reports on forums to be be worth considering, whether or not they're plausible. You might not believe this, but people on the Internet used to just make things up -- and the good ones would even try to make their apocrypha believable!

Here is the racist rant if you are implying the accusation is 'made up' . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXp6ArvXcT8

Yes, we all know his persona and ongoing public drama. It's obnoxious. But I'm not sure why that would make a random story in some forum worth taking seriously.

From the video, he is advocating for an ethno-state based off a single poll regarding the feelings people have about the phrase 'all-lives matter' answered by only 112 black people. I wouldn't say this is just 'part of a persona'.