Who else would try to convince others that Cheaters never succeed in profiting?

    • PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I don’t think that PD (or any of its variants) is a good proxy for cheating, because cheating involves deception or rule breaking, while “defect” is just a legal move.

      A better proxy might be something like nuptial gifts in some spider species. So in some species, the male will present a female with whom he wishes to mate a nuptial gift - an insect wrapped in webbing. But the “cheat” move is when either the insect has already been sucked dry or when it’s snatched back too quickly for the female to feed.

      We can estimate the degree to which cheaters prosper by looking at how common these and similar behaviors are in their respective populations - let evolution do the calculations. Animal behavior is replete with deceptive and manipulative communication, and because so much of it is genetically determined we can be reasonably confident that we have an objective metric.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    11 months ago

    Anyone who doesn’t want to deal with cheaters. Like a teacher. Do you know how much paperwork is involved in punishing someone for cheating?

    So we make a parabole to discourage it

  • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch
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    11 months ago

    The intent of the proverb isn’t that bad people don’t get good things, it’s that a person who is cheating doesn’t get value out of the activity.

    If you go through life cutting corners, you don’t actually get to learn and build a strong foundation.

    You can still be rewarded with jobs, money, and sycophants, but that’s not what really matters.

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This heavily relies on the premise that there is always something deeper than winning that’s valuable.

      It’s all about knowing when and where to cheat. Cheat as often as you can on meaningless stuff.

      • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Cheat as often as you can on meaningless stuff.

        My ex-wife would probably disagree.

    • sebinspace@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      My favorite response to “why do bad things happen to good people?” is “what makes you think they were good?”

      • neo@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        I don’t understand. I think bad things (e.g. cancer) can happen to everyone (e.g. small childrens/babies, selfless people…). Is your argument that no one is really good?

    • Whelks_chance@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I like this, but having skimmed it I didn’t find a description I connected with.

      For whatever reason, I feel the world isn’t “just”, but I personally will have a better life if I do good things. It’s rooted in selfishness rather than celestial balance.

      • jettrscga@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Sure you can alter circumstances to an extent and that’s probably the best way to live life. But all the good in the world doesn’t stop a freak car crash killing you or being struck by lightning. And while being struck by lightning is used synonymously with an act of god, I don’t think it actually means you deserved it. That’s the issue with the just-cause fallacy. It takes a huge spoonful of selection bias to only notice the people who did deserve it.

        In my opinion the idea of karma is a convenient crowd control mechanism to prevent people from taking action to fix their situation when they have faith that the universe will magically balance itself out.

  • lars@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 months ago

    It strikes me as pure Christian please-slap-the-other-cheek-then-too and you-should-be-grateful-they’re-even-playing-with-you-at-all-even-if-they’re-cheating propaganda to satisfy the worldview of the powerless and disenfranchised

  • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.