this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Classic twisting of the thumb screws. The prisoners dilemma is functional of how trustworthy your co-conspirator is.

And its safe to say when it comes to people who seriously would consider trying to overthrow an election for personal gain, you cant trust any of em, so of course everyone is gonna crack. 10/10 this will be fun to watch

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Except they've been achieving the optimal prisoner's dilemma outcome until now by protecting each other. Idk, I won't believe he'll flip until he does. For all I know, this is just a way to plead for Trump's help for funding legal fees out in the open.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think there are any funds.

Wouldn't that be marvelous if it turned out the RNC funding was one gigantic ponzi scheme and all the money was going to pay-off Trumps debts?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Not really that far from the truth relatively speaking

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's easy to stay in line while it's working. The moment you are actually in court looking at years in prison, that's when the dilemma really becomes tough to stick to.

Also, in this scenario, there is no guarantee that everyone staying in line will mean they get away. Which makes the calculus much much more complicated as opposed to when it's just trying to avoid an indictment all together

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Also, there's an increased pressure to not be the first one to flip, but once someone flips, it'll be a race to flip ASAP.

If you're the first one to flip, you'll get attacked by MAGA folks. However, they're less likely to attack the second or third flipper.

Prosecutors will only take so many flips, though. What can the 10th person tell them that the first 9 haven't? So if you're waiting and someone flips, you want to flip early while prosecutors are still willing to make a deal.

I think we'll see one person flip and then a mad dash for others to flip. They night even wait for the expedited cases. If those go badly, the rest of the bunch will be flipping as fast as they can shout "give us a deal please!"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not really a Prisoner's Dilemma when one prisoner doesn't have the opportunity to flip, though - it's not like if Trump agrees to testify against Meadows they're going to reduce his sentence.