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[scriver]

Finally - politics will have the perfectly rational, self-interested actor the scientists have been assuming all these years.

*Economists

Oh, no, political scientists are exactly the same. We have this thing called the paradox of voting where it's irrational to vote because your vote is so unlikely to change the outcome that the effort required to vote isn't worth it, but people still clearly vote anyway. As far as I can tell, this was never considered a joke, although it's no longer considered a real problem evidently.

I'm not sure if you're saying that is a thing or that politicientists say that is a thing, so this response is written with that uncertainty.

Because that isn't rational at all! It's like saying it's irrational to build a flood wall because each single drop of rain is too small to raise the river a single centimetre. Purposefully disregarding the bigger picture does not make the argument/theory more rational, it makes it irrational.

Also I wouldn't call a "political scientist" any more of a scientist than I would an economist, which was the original joke

[Helgoland]

Well, that's why you don't bother with catching single raindrops, but instead build a dam to prevent the flood...

[Bauglir]

Political scientists have actually treated that as a serious problem, is what I meant to indicate. The idea is that voter attendance, if everyone were rational, would be so low that each individual vote stood a reasonable chance of swinging the election, in light of the costs of voting. It's a very silly idea, and everyone recognizes that it's wrong, but exactly why it is seems to have been the subject of some debate. And, yeah, political scientists are scientists to exactly the same extent as economists, and the two "disciplines" are highly incestuous anyway.

[Morrigi]

Finally - politics will have the perfectly rational, self-interested actor the scientists have been assuming all these years.

Precisely. He is a man without principles and conscience, the most rational being in existence, and a real boon to objectivists and neoliberal economists everywhere. And the general public is also thrilled because they have finally found their ideal politician, because every cartoon villain-politician and TV-drama adversary-politician during the last century or so has been conforming to that ideal of rationality -- an ideal which has only now been realized when the Trump suddenly acquired sentience and discovered his inner politician.

It's only a matter of time before the transhumanists discover Trump's perfect rationality and start endorsing his ascendancy as an immortal, cybernetically enhanced God Trumperor.

I found this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

My god, his....his Hair....

* MetalSlimeHunt falls to his knees and weeps in veneration.

[Loud Whispers]

If the Trump Emperor of mankind did not want to be venerated as God why does he run around with a golden halo above his head wearing radiant armour and wielding a flaming sword?

[Morrigi]

If the Trump Emperor of mankind did not want to be venerated as God why does he run around with a golden halo above his head wearing radiant armour and wielding a flaming sword?

it's 2sexy4u

[Bauglir]

Why do you think he doesn't?

[Tomasque]

*Wakes up from political debate drinking game

What did I miss? What's happening? Wait... is that Trump in a suit of golden armor?

*Faints

[mainiac]

Goodnight sweet prince.

[misko27]

If the Donald "A lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive" Trump Emperor of mankind did not want to be venerated as God why does he run around with a golden halo above his head wearing radiant armour and wielding a flaming sword?

Look, just because he wants to wear ornate gold armour, wield a fiery sword, emit a glow pretty much all the time, and other things of that nature doesn't mean he wants to be looked upon as a god. He's not the one who needs to be taught not to dress like a god, you lot are the ones who need to be taught that considering people, to be gods dependent on how they look is wrong. Besides, his head designer thought that all the flashy golden bits really brought out the color of his eyes.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

If the Donald "A lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive" Trump Emperor of mankind did not want to be venerated as God why does he run around with a golden halo above his head wearing radiant armour and wielding a flaming sword?

Look, just because he wants to wear ornate gold armour, wield a fiery sword, emit a glow pretty much all the time, and other things of that nature doesn't mean he wants to be looked upon as a god. He's not the one who needs to be taught not to dress like a god, you lot are the ones who need to be taught that considering people, to be gods dependent on how they look is wrong. Besides, his head designer thought that all the flashy golden bits really brought out the color of his eyes.

But what if the very act of being a thinking, conscious being is associated with its own form of energy, something we can't understand or detect with our mortal senses but is very real, creating emotional depressions in the fabric of reality just as gravity does for matter, feeding in through the concentrated vessel of our collective devotions to assemble beings of gestalt thought devoted to a singular concept in the absolute extreme to the exclusion of all else, and that these beings have taken on their own will by feeding from our own freely given animus to further their own concept of existence no matter what horrors that would unleash upon the realm of math and physicality?

...nah, praise the Emperor!

[FearfulJesuit]

Done and done.

[Frumple]

... y'know, this discussion has lead me to realize that there's probably Trump lookalike/body doubles out there. That has to be a hell of an existence.

I could see Trump having a hidden man harem of clones, honestly. Either literal or just surgically altered to be identical.

To be fair, if you gave me like... ten million. To undergo surgery to look identical to trump and stay that way for, say, a decade. I'd take that deal. Doubt I'd go any lower, but that'd buy me.

[Bauglir]

I just want to take this opportunity to thank everybody for almost always using Donald Trump's full name. This plugin wouldn't work nearly as well otherwise.