197

Deviate
Posted on September 29, 2020 by David M Willis
September's first Patreon bonus strip is about Sierra!  There's some neat symmetry here, as the first voted-on bonus strip of Dumbing of Age's first decade was about Sierra, and so is the first voted-on bonus strip of its second decade!  You guys better vote heavily for Sierra in another ten years. All patrons can go check out the strip on Patreon, and remember you can pledge up if you want to always see tomorrow's strip today!

197 thoughts on “Deviate”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    hooray scholarship requirements

    /had to get a job for one, which required sitting in a lab on Saturdays and not understanding whoever it was who called for *mumble* and waving down the one person in the lab and asking if it was for him

  2. REEchard

    Political scientist she says? I wonder how often they open conversations with “not to get political but…”

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Everything we do is political, even shitting. The sewers need better water systems to avoid polluting the rivers.

      1. Undrave

        People who don’t talk about politics are those who are priviledged enough to not need the status quo to change.

        1. Lumino

          Or stupid enough to not realize that it is the common thread of literally every issue.

          You want to change literally anything beyond yourself? It’s Politics.

        2. Ana Chronistic

          I explained it once that politics is just getting along with others… not in the “everyone play nice, that’s etiquette” sense, but in terms of dealing with people. Heard of office politics? Or have to deal with an HOA or PTA? POLITICS. Even friend groups have politics! The only way to avoid politics is to avoid people, like 100% live on a deserted island or terraformed planet absolutely alone.

        3. Punaparta

          >Or have to deal with an HOA or PTA?
          Am Finnish, can’t relate.

        4. Makkabee

          HOA stands for Home Owners’ Association. They set rules for residential neighborhoods beyond what appears in government regulation.

          PTA stands for Parent Teacher Association — a community group intended to help the local schools.

        5. Michael L

          This is the most Liberal definition of politics I’ve ever read. Politics is as much about deciding who is an enemy as how you interact with your friends.
          – The Authoritative Allocation of Values
          – Who gets what, when and how.

          At its most basic: politics is Who Decides?

        6. Deanatay

          In Amber’s case, there’s politics involved in changing herself, too.

        7. Cabbage

          This. “I’m not really interested in politics” is another way of saying “the system works fine for me”.

        8. Chris Phoenix

          Or “I’ve given up on the system.”

          To the tune of The Entertainer by Billy Joel:

          I am a burned-out warrior
          And I know just where I stand
          Another dumb crusader
          In a blasted burned-out land
          I tried to be a paladin
          And I may have won some fights
          But I know the score, there are always more
          And you try to shout but your tears run out
          And it’s time to say goodnight.

          (I did the whole song, the day after RBG died.)

        9. Regalli

          Impressive filking.

          Yeah, I’m still politically motivated, but I basically cannot possibly stay functional if I keep up with things before the election beyond a very bare ‘time to donate to the bail funds again’ and figuring out whether I’d feel safe protesting during a pandemic. (The protesters have generally speaking been fine, judging off statistics, because the ones I’d be joining believe in COVID and taking basic precautions. Going into the city still requires Being Around People in general, and I’m very probably high-risk.)

          The thing is, for all that overload and burnout, I still CARE about politics, because they can fuck me over very easily. I just can’t stay apprised of them right now, because they are currently fucking me over to a degree where it’s either ‘massive depressive/anxiety episode’ or ‘finally develop rage pyrokinesis’ staying up to date, and the superpowers aren’t coming. Tuning back as much as possible is maintaining me at only ‘significant depressive/anxiety episode.’

          … I fucking hate this year. I hate how preventable it was. I hate how the end still isn’t in sight. I just fucking hate.

        10. TachyonCode

          Long as you’re voting, and talking politics with other members of your society on the internet, you’re still participating.

          The social contract may be dysfunctional and have a weakness to violence and corruption, and there’s some it currently doesn’t benefit and instead actively harms – but there’s no shame in having too small a role in the system to change it by yourself.

          We just need those with larger roles to work together to fix it, and those of us with more limited power to still keep using it themselves. That’s all we’ve ever needed.

        11. Ana Chronistic

          You should care as far as you can enact actionable change, beyond that maybe occasionally get a news digest. The problem is (besides that bad things happen) we get more news, especially bad news, than we can individually do anything about. Like, if a friend’s parent dies, we can go to the funeral (or not, at current) or send a card/flowers/donation, run errands for the grieving family… all those are actions we can take about the situation. The government being openly fascist? Kiiiiiiinda hard to do anything about (as a single person). Completely fair to disconnect as needed.

        12. Needfuldoer

          Or they don’t want it to change out of spite because someone they don’t like would benefit, even if it would help themselves more.

        13. Juanoku

          Nah, i just think that there’s people way more capable than me, and i don’t really care about the subject

    2. ValdVin

      I’ve always thought politics is the art of cooperating with someone you’d rather not care if they lived, as you both need each other to climb out of a well. That’s a bit of exaggeration, but not too much.

  3. BBCC

    Do both biology and political science! Double major!

    …I dunno if IU would allow that combo. Not sure.

    1. Dara

      Sometimes they have to write new rules. But you can bully them into it. (Probably depending upon the school. But it worked for me.)

    2. AntJ

      That would take more than eight semesters, scholarship might expire

      1. K^2

        It’s hard to say for sure without looking at reqs, but if you’re creative about double-dipping you can sometimes fill two full majors in 8 semesters without overloading on classes, which many scholarships won’t pay for. Hopefully, both majors come from the same school, in this case Arts and Sciences unless IU is weird about it. That will have a lot of overlapping requirements. Languages and fine-arts should be set out of the gate. Then you start double-counting. For starters, you get your humanities req in bio major filled with poli-sci courses and science reqs in poli-sci with bio. Then you start looking for courses that count for both majors. That’s easier for some majors than others, but something in environment conservation might actually count for both in this case. In some cases, you have to get creative and get department permission to count a specific course for your major which they may or may not do. Offload what you can with electives, and that usually leaves just a few loose ends. Taking care of these usually involves two things. One, you’ll almost certainly have some missing pre-reqs for higher level courses. It’s usually enough to have professor’s permission to bypass these. Second, most universities will let you test out of some year one and two courses. You’ll have to fill the hours anyways, but they effectively turn into spare electives. This does require some preparation and might require you to buy extra text books, but very doable if you’re willing to put in the time. It’s a lot of maneuvering, restricts greatly what you can actually study, adds a lot of additional study time to an already busy schedule, and might also require you to be able to convince advisors and professors to let you do this, but technically doable for most remotely reasonable combinations of majors without stepping outside the degree requirements of a scholarship. Of course, individual cases will vary, and you can always get stuck with a professor or dean that just won’t budge on some minor technicality. I’ve had that ruin my plans for my second minor when CS department decided that a third year numerical methods course from math dept isn’t a suitable substitute for a similarly titled second year course from CS.

        1. Dara

          Exactly all this. It can be done and in four years, double-dipping as much as you can is incredibly critical, etc.

          (CS/Math/Studio Art, four years.)

    3. Keulen

      Or she could major in political science and minor in biology.

    4. BBCC

      I double checked – there is no rule against her double majoring.

      BECKY FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS.

      1. SillyGoose

        I love that you double checked.

        BECKY FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS.

        1. BBCC

          Looking at the requirements, it might be hard to do in eight semesters, but hopefully by that point she can get more scholarships – some for LGBTQ+ students, some for broke women, some for merit, etc.?

  4. Chris

    Do the requirements to keep the scholarship, then use the rest of your credit hours for what you really want to do.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      ^This!

      Academics isn’t a straight path. Badum tiss ^^

    2. Regalli

      Come on Becky, we know you can think creatively! How else did you scam your way into a scholarship? This isn’t even all that unusual, just tricky.

    3. Julez

      Double major, bb! (Honestly, she can take all the science classes she wants and as long as she graduates with a decent GPA most graduate programs won’t super care what her actual major was.)

  5. NinjaNick

    A major in politics who side with science FTW!

  6. Bagge

    as long as it is a fuckin’ scientist, I’m good.

    1. lsdf

      I think that’s in the biology department. Or maybe anthropology.

    2. brionl

      Fuckin’ Scientist. That sounds like a lot more fun than Christian Scientist.

      1. SillyGoose

        Now would a fuckin’ Christian scientist be horny and Christian, or would that be a scientist who has sex with Christians?

        1. LynziGraye

          A fuckin’ Christian scientist would be horny and Christian, and a Christian fuckin’ scientist would be one who has sex with Christians. Syntax is fun!

    3. Wizard

      As the home of the Kinsey Institute, I think I can safely say that IU is all about fucking science.

  7. leaf

    That’s, like, really upsetting. Becky should be allowed to major in whatever she wants.

    1. I don't know my name anymore.

      To be fair it makes sense. She got the scholarship by virtue of working in politics. It wouldn’t make sense for a biochemical lab to fund a poli-sci degree, just as it wouldn’t make sense for a political think-tank to fund a biology degree. They’re assuming the degree their funding is to the future of their respective fields.

      1. leaf

        Yeah I mean it makes sense, but it’s still really sad that Becky has to pursue a career so far removed from what she’s actually interested just because it’s all her circumstances will allow.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Welcome to capitalism.

    2. woobie

      Money donors are allowed to use their money to as they wish (within the law).
      If I want to establish a scholarship fund in memory of my nuclear engineer mom, if someone wants to pursue a path other than nuclear engineering they are free to find other financing.
      There will probably be minimum grade requirements, too.

      1. Uly

        This is actually a problem with some scholarships – sometimes, the scholarship was funded in a way that made sense at the time, studying a then cutting-edge field, but nowadays you can’t find anybody to take it because nobody studies that anymore.

  8. abysswatcher1993

    Goddammit scholarship terms!

    Welp, Becky can study how to be like Vetinari.

    1. Bagge

      But rad!

      1. abysswatcher1993

        Lord Vetinari is rad.

        1. Bagge

          ….no. The dude who reads classical music rather than listening to it is many things, but rad is not one of them.

          (OK, the events of Jingo and Raising Steam might be a point against my argument, but those were more like vacations for him)

        2. Bagge

          Come to think of it, Pratchett doesn’t really do “rad”. Cheri Littlebottom might be the closest. She, at least, is a trendsetter.

        3. Bagge

          Wait, no, Imp y Celyn, obviousy. But he is more “cool” than “rad”, and either way it’s treated more like a metaphysical disease than a personality trait.

        4. SillyGoose

          Mistress Weatherwax is rad.

        5. Emperor Norton II

          Mistress Wearhewax would turn you into a frog* if she ever heard you call her “rad”. She’d be seriously insulted.

          *or rather, she’d make you believe you’d been turned into a frog.

        6. SillyGoose

          She would, and that would be pretty rad.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      But didn’t Vetinari actually get his education from the Assassins’ Guild?  The fact that he is capable of out-Machiavelli-ing Machiavelli himself was just ‘natural talent’, if you know what I mean.

      1. Khyrin

        I mean… Yah.
        He was using those skills while still being educated.
        THE MAN FAILED HIS STEALTH COURSE BECAUSE THE INSTRUCTOR NEVER SPOTTED HIM.

      2. CJ

        I think it was stated somewhere that he just wanted to excel, not make the grade. Night watch, probably where we see him while still in the guild.
        And, the guild is for nobleman, who, at least in Pratchett’s world view, are much too lazy to take things serious.

  9. Newllend(henryvolt)

    Becky could have a minor in a nother scientific field.

  10. Schpoonman

    Political scientists can double major in biology. Would make her more qualified to debunk idiot phrenologists, even.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Debunk climate change deniers, debuk flat earthers, debunk creationists…

      Stupid pseudosciences.

      1. Reltzik

        Don’t forget antivaxers, homeopaths…

    2. BBCC

      For real, we need more scientifically literate people in politics anyway.

  11. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Wait, Beckie scammed herself into a scholarship with terms that limit her major? I thought tuition was supposed to be payment for a job. Much like Robin sleeping on Beckie’s couch and treating the apartment like it was still hers, I’m disappointed and a little angry at the ways Robin twists the deal

    1. King Daniel

      She altered the deal. Pray she did not alter it any further.

      (At least she’s out of congress now, according to a Willis comment on a recent Walkyverse-rerun strip.)

      1. Keulen

        This deal’s getting worse all the time!

    2. woobie

      Robin the politician likely had access to a political science scholarship only.
      Cry for the probably more qualified almost-recipient who doesn’t get a scholarship now.

      1. regina phalange

        I find it more likely that the school (maybe with pressure from Robin, maybe not) made up an unofficial scholarship and awarded to Becky independent of existing scholarships available for other applicants. It would be a fair investment; the school would retain a girl who made national news as a student, and if they invest in her political career and she ends up being successful, they can advertise her as a famous alum.

        I mean, schools rarely, if ever, have pre-existing scholarships for second semester and on as opposed to second/third/fourth *year.*

        1. Needfuldoer

          But we saw in a bonus strip that Dean McHenry didn’t like Robin, and she’s no longer a politician.

          I wonder if it’s actually a scholarship, or if Robin is just calling her “‘kay I’ll pay yer tuition but a gotta…” fund a scholarship so it sounds good on her resume.

        2. Agemegos

          Setting it up as a scholarship probably has tax advantages. Endowing a scholarship is a charitable donation. Giving a gift to Becky isn’t.

          On the third hand, paying Becky for her campaign work is an expense, which can be billed to Robin’s election fund.

        3. SillyGoose

          Do it like the Trumps and deduct it twice.

        4. Bicycle Bill

          Then deny it ever happened at all.

        5. He Who Abides

          Then blame it on Obama.

        6. woobie

          I would figure Robin set it up before resigning/ withdrawing/ w/e.

    3. regina phalange

      Sounds like the school awarded her a scholarship sometime after Robin conceded the race. I mean, I assumed Robin was only paying Becky’s tuition for as long as she was working for her–but either way, her deal with Robin isn’t really a “scholarship.”

      If it’s school-sponsored, it makes more sense that the terms are limited. Though I don’t see why Becky couldn’t double-major.

      1. BBCC

        Robin couldn’t pay for tuition while Becky worked for her because Becky wasn’t enrolled yet. Becky made it clear she expected to be paid whether Robin won or not.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Correct. Becky was presumably getting a regular salary as Robin’s campaign staff, like Frieda and Aide were before they quit.

        2. BBCC

          She was, but one of the conditions she made for being employed was Robin paying her tuition. That held whether Robin got elected or not.

      2. Swissaboo

        Election funds that remain after the election are perfectly fine to service debts incurred by the campaign, so the question becomes whether an agreement to work in exchange for paying for tuition constitutes a Debt Incurred By The Campaign.

        1. thejeff

          Pay the tuition up front. Campus will be happy to accept it.
          At least for the semester, possibly for multiple years.

    4. Agemegos

      Robin still sucks.

  12. Smithy

    I want Becky to just be able to do whatever she wants, but I really wish that more politicians actually knew a damn thing about the scientific process, so go for the double majooooor! ;D

    1. Agemegos

      Do political scientists even get to be politicians? I thought most politicians had law degrees, and that poli scientists taught poli science.

      1. Uly

        I know of at least one who took a sabbatical to move back to Japan and run for office.

      2. Council

        Everyone “gets” to be a politician. You don’t have to know a rat’s ass about running a community to be elected or born into a leadership position. Polisci, law, logistics etc. “only” make you qualified for the job.

        1. Agemegos

          That is an admirable ideal. On the other hand, there are 315 lawyers out of 535 members of the current US congress.

        2. Agemegos

          Sorry, that’s an error induced by hasty Googling. Lawyers are being squeezed out of Congress by business grads, and at down to only 242.

        3. Sunny

          Frankly, I’d rather have lawyers in legislation than business graduates. I’d rather have seats being randomly assigned among everyone in the country through a lottery than I’d have any sort of legislative body populated entirely by people who “studied” “business”. Running a business is a craft and should be taught while on the job. Macroeconomics can make a solid case for being a field that can be scientifically studied, but the way it’s been going it’s all about developing models and then trying to make the world fit those models.

        4. Needfuldoer

          oh no

        5. SillyGoose

          It might be that law and politics attract the same people, rather than it be an informal precondition.
          It might be that it helps tremendously to have a law degree, with the networking factor when you study law mattering more than the actual knowledge of law.
          It’s probably a bit of both.

        6. Agemegos

          So about 45% of US legislators are lawyers, though only 0.4% of US adults are: lawyers are over-represented by a factor of 110.

          Meanwhile in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK (where the court systems and legal professions are similar to those in the USA, and the political system is not vastly different) only 13%, 15%, 14%, and 13% (respectively) of national legislators are lawyers.

        7. CJ

          Well, while I think it wise to have people who make the law understand how law works, being a political should be about finding solutions and understanding problems. Which should make Design Thinking a mandatory training once you start on the job.

        8. Agemegos

          Maybe, but legislators no longer actually draft the laws they enact. In countries (etc.) with the Parliamentary system, the laws are actually written by lawyers who work for the government department that will enforce the law. In the US system the laws are written by lawyers who work for the lobby groups who will have the law enforced to their benefit.

        9. thejeff

          More true in the states. Republican states in particular.

          Look up ALEC. There’s nothing like it on the Democratic side.

      3. thejeff

        I wonder if many/any of those lawyers studied political science as an undergrad. There is no undergrad law program, so polisci could be a decent intro leading to a law degree and then into politics.

    2. Sporky

      Why stop there? She should become a triple ma-jor, who teaches sometimes unless that’s not a thing they do.

      1. Mariah Hardnett

        Is… is that a she ra reference?

  13. Yotomoe

    Political Science…The worst Science.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      It could be worse: she could study chiropratic. That is a fake science.

      1. Council

        Chiropractic is even worse than that: It’s fake science that stumbled onto a a real thing by accident, and since they manage to treat chronic back pain pretty well, they use being right once (as would a broken clock) to justify the rest, which is total hogwash.

        1. clif

          Economics is even worse than that. Trust me on this.

        2. He Who Abides

          Broken clocks are right twice.

        3. Roborat

          Depends if they are digital or analog, and if they display 12 hours or 24 hours.

      2. Ana Chronistic

        Ain’t nothing faker than homeopathy

        1. Sporky

          What about balarogreology? I just made it up! Nothing can be faker than that.

        2. Eldritchy

          I’m getting a mental image of a dwarf professor doing a lecture on Balrogs…

        3. Sunny

          It’s already getting more real than economics and homeopathy then.

  14. Lawzlo

    Wait, has Becky seen Ghostbusters?

  15. Undrave

    Well Becky is surprisingly good at politics after all.

  16. Reltzik

    Maybe she could do science communication. Like being Carl Sagan, except instead of educating the masses she could educate politicians.

    …. yes, I know that’s harder.

    OOOH, or she could be Science Advisor for President Williams-Keener*! Hijinks ahoy!

    * Shut up and let me ship.

    1. Bagge

      Becky would be the BEST science communicator. “Hey, you! Who wants to hear some rad facts about corn?”

      1. Reltzik

        She’d tweet random science facts out to the general public roughly once ever twenty minutes.

        …. or whatever the equivalent of Twitter would be X decades hence.

        1. Chris Phoenix

          https://xkcd.com/2365/

      2. Bicycle Bill

        I remember when Fred Grandy (“Gopher” from Love Boat) was a US Representative from Iowa.  He may have won the election on the basis of name recognition, but once in office he took it seriously. I was there one day when he was asked if he thought people came to his speeches because of his policy or because he was Gopher — he said, “They may have come to see Gopher, but they’re going to hear my views on farm policy regardless.”

  17. jo

    what even happened in the election? that was during the timeskip right? is he going to retcon it into 2020 and just not talk about it until after this year’s election? has he ever brought up politics past becky/robin?

    1. BBCC

      He does not mention current politicians in the main strip. Once they’re no longer in office, they’re fair game. He does occasionally mention them in patreon bonus strips, which, while canon, are a little more fast and loose with the timeline.

      1. King Daniel

        On the rare occasion that current politicians are mentioned in the main strip, they’re still typically not referred to by name; off the top of my head, the only example where a current one has been explicitly-mentioned-by-name in the main strip was when Robin accused AOC of “stealing her look” in her resignation video.

        1. King Daniel

          (For an example of a current one being mentioned but not explicitly named, look no further than Joe claiming his “Do List” was just as presidential as anything Dorothy’d ever done.)

        2. Ray Radlein

          I think that Sarah Palin got a similar mention from Robin way back when?

        3. King Daniel

          Sarah Palin hasn’t held public office since 2009, over a year before Dumbing of Age even began – she doesn’t count as a “current politician” for the comic’s purposes, thus.

        4. BBCC

          No, but early!Robin was very much a Sarah Palin joke. Robin is whatever politician is in the news or was in the news relatively recently – she’s also been Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, the evil Cheeto and AOC.

        5. Sunny

          There was that time Robin said she knows Ted Cruz. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/02-to-remind-you-of-my-love/clocked/

        6. BBCC

          Note that he avoids mentioning Ted Cruz is currently in office or what office he holds though.

    2. thejeff

      But to answer the question, Robin conceded the race before the timeskip. In theory, there could be more drama – it was late enough she’d still be on the ballot so she could have won anyway, but until we see something about it, I’d assume she’s out of office this year.

      1. King Daniel

        Willis said Robin’s congressional days are over in Dumbing of Age, so I’d assume that means she lost after her concession.

      2. Needfuldoer

        In the real world, IU Bloomington started its spring semester on January 13th. Season 1 of DoA followed 2010’s calendar; we’ll have to wait for more clues to see if Season 2 uses 2011’s, or if it jumped ahead*. January 13th 2011 was a Wednesday, so “today” could be any time after the 8th (the weekend before the closest Monday). The new Congress should have been sworn in by now, so Robin may already be out of office.

        https://registrar.indiana.edu/official-calendar/official-calendar-spring.shtml

        (*DoA is always “this year”. I’m not saying this storyline takes place in 2011, just that it might use the same calendar as 1983, 1994, 2005, 2011, 2022, 2033, etc. to line up its dates and the days of the week.)

  18. goki

    Drat those terms and conditions!!!!

  19. Geneseepaws

    Dina getting close personal contact with her fave person makes her smile. Dina interacting with someone and smiling that big makes me smile.
    Remember her puzzled and often concerned looks, when she was first interacting with other people? Asking Amber all the time, “Is this what’s happening, here? Do I understand?”
    That hurt my heart to see.

  20. BenRG

    I smell Robin’s self-interest-covered-by-claims-of-good-intentions in this!

  21. Keulen

    DoA Book 11: My Existence Does Not Require The Supernatural

  22. Wagstaff

    Even if Dina differed remarkably from the norm, she that would only suffice to prove the non-existence of God.

    “I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”

    “But,” says Dina, “I am kind of a dead giveaway, am I not? I am living proof you exist, and so therefore you do not.”

    “Oh shit,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that!” and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

    “Oh, that was easy!”, says Dina, and for an encore attempts to dissolve an anti-vaccine protest just before she sees them splattered all over the next zebra crossing.

    1. C.T Phipps

      Hitchhiker’s deserves one line in the Bible, “Sorry about the mess.”

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

  23. Masumi

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    That’s not a real science
    I want Becky do become a real scientist D:

    1. Council

      I want the study of the world around us would not be a part of our perpetual tribalistic tugs of war where we undermine the legitimacy of one another based on arbitrary criteria.

      1. Council

        I also want a comment section where I can fix grammatical errors in my posts

    2. Valerie

      It’s a real science. It’s just soft instead of hard.

  24. Wraithy2773

    Becky, here’s something that you should remember and treasure:

    Electives are super awesome.

    You have to take them for graduation, but they can often be some of the best courses you ever take at college. There’s a lot of freedom in what courses you pick, and there’s a lot of them that go into interesting subjects.

    For example? Instead of doing another year of a foreign language that, even then, I could barely remember, my CompSci major allowed me to fulfill that elective with a course on Linguistics, basically the study of languages, their evolution, associations, general rules, all of that. I probably remember more from that than like 90% of the CompSci classes I ended up taking anyway, and it actually occasionally comes in handy in real life (…unlike, uh, 95% of my CompSci classes >_> ).

    Besides, “Political Science” is a legit fascinating field of Sociology, it’s not just “Politician Internship 101”, it’s about how the structures of power are created, designed, maintained, and how they’re actually used…

    …because we all are bound by those structures of power one way or another, and if you don’t know how to steer the boat, you tend to end up being one of the rowers.

    1. K^2

      Absolutely. I was dreading fine arts requirement, then discovered that I can fill that with architecture, and it was an absolutely amazing course. For anyone going through this right now, read that catalogue and pay attention to what credits things count toward. Some of them will surprise you.

    2. Daibhid C

      When I was at uni, I managed to utterly fail the physics course I was actually there for (turns out undiagnosed dyscalculia isn’t great for a science career!) but did reasonably well at the Celtic Civilisation course I took on a whim.

      The only downside was that, since the timetables assumed physics students would be taking secondary courses vaguely related to physics, my schedule was shot to hell.

      1. Roborat

        I did something similar, managed to fail a second year calculus course that was a pre-req for over half the following courses (I was in engineering). In my defense, over half the class failed, and the engineering faculty banned that prof from ever teaching engineering students again. So I had to retake the course, and couldn’t stay on the predesigned schedule, resulting in my degree taking 5 years instead of 4, which in retrospect was a godsend, as the 4 year program had a very heavy course load.

        1. Agemegos

          I was in a second-year computing class, a core requirement for the degree in computer science, which two thirds of the enrolment failed (because the compiler for the lecturer’s pet programming language didn’t work). That would have added at least a semester to everyone’s degree if the faculty committee had not waived its prerequisite status for the third-year core subjects.

      2. Agemegos

        When I was a first-year electrical engineering student I had 36 hours per week of classes and labs in my core subjects (including classes from 9 AM to 9 PM on Wednesday, and Fridays afternoons off). The only general studies elective that fit in to that schedule was “Social and Political Change in the Pacific Islands”, so my whole class of 170 was enrolled in that. During the first week I found that by accepting a night class on Tuesdays I could swap into a course on Utopias instead.

  25. sun tzu

    “Just to be clear, I’m disappointed FOR you, not IN you.”

  26. He Who Abides

    Wait, isn’t Dorothy a PoliSci major?

    Feck.

    (Drink! Arse! Girls!)

    1. fire_daws

      Well as long as she doesn’t have to be taught how perspective projection works she should be ok.

      1. He Who Abides

        I was thinking that, at some point, Becky’s whole overdone “best frenemies” schtick’ll come up in class, abd that’s the point where Dorothy finally snaps about it.

  27. Shawn Levasseur

    Political Science? Damn near everyone I know with a degree in that, isn’t involved in politics.

    I guess they really didn’t like seeing how the sausage gets made. (Or it was the closest thing to a generic degree without becoming a Liberal Arts major)

    1. Agemegos

      Political science isn’t really about how the sausage gets made. It’s about what Plato, Aristotle, Macchiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Benthman, Mill, Montesqieu, de Tocqueville, Marx etc. wrote about Monarchy, Oligarchy, and Democracy.

      1. Needfuldoer

        I liked what Vallance, Perry, and Tyler wrote about the ultra-rich class producing nothing but wealth for themselves.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-0lAhnoDlU

  28. DarkoNeko

    a political scientist uh

  29. ValdVin

    Becky has red freckles, and they’re drawn a touch brown when they’re in the shade. I guess I never noticed before.

    I’ve always appreciated Willis’ lighting of characters’ hair, where it shows up in three or four colors. This is another neat piece of effort which should not gone unappreciated.

  30. Rabisch

    Oh no! Another political student!? What a waste of talent.

  31. Spacebabie

    Political science…like Darcy from the MCU?

  32. FacelessDeviant

    For someone pledged to biology, she sure avoids a big part of biology.
    Talking about them loins here!

  33. Exarch

    Considering that Willis contrived all these scenarios, Becky is encroaching a little close to the 4th wall with her rationale for worship

    1. Borkborkbork

      If you really think about it, isn’t all of human religion just mankind’s attempt to figure out where the fourth wall actually is?

      1. Spencer

        *hits blunt*

  34. Jhon

    Emperor Hirohito really wanted to be a marine biologist.
    If only…

  35. Sombrero

    Yup, the terms of the scholarship are just a convenient excuse for Becky to fight her nemesis. A couple timeskips and DoA Season 4 will be all about the Keener vs MacIntyre campaign and full of cliffhangers about who will get Brown for VP in the ticket.

    1. John

      Or, Becky gets over trying to force some sort of arbitrary rivalry between them, they become friends, and have their name on the ballot together.

      1. BenRG

        FWIW, I have wondered before if Becky will end up as President Dotty’s White House Chief of Staff.

        “The President is a nice woman; she doesn’t hold grudges. She pays me to hold them for her.“

        1. C.T Phipps

          I’d vote for Becky over Dorothy. Mind you, I’ve maintained Dorothy thinks President is what she wants but it doesn’t actually fit her skill set. I think she’d do better as the next Ginsburg.

          She has to find that out about herself, though.

        2. Mariah Hardnett

          Yeah and hate to break it to her but a athiest will never become president at least not right now. Becky while being a lesbian would still have a better chance.

        3. Agemegos

          Religiosity in the USA is declining fast, according to surveys by Pew etc. Atheists may soon rate as more popular than terrorists.

        4. C.T Phipps

          Ironically, a lot of the younger fundamentalists are more tolerant of gays and more into the “love and peace thing” that is causing a lot of them to stop attending church. This is very frustrating for the older generation who can’t seem to understand that they are actually doing it right.

        5. Agemegos

          Yeah. Becky cares about policies and rights. Dotty’s only political opinion is that she ought to be president.

        6. Schpoonman

          She volunteers at a soup kitchen and volunteered for Manley, Robin’s opponent.

          Try again.

        7. fire_daws

          “Please, I don’t get upset. I have people to do that for me.”

  36. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    Now I want this to be one of those deals where she gets a full ride at the university as long as she keeps a B average and doesn’t have a degree yet. Where they forgot the time limit.

    (ObSF: Doorways In The Sand by Zelazny, Moving Pictures by Pratchett)

    1. Bagge

      any day when I see a Zelazney reference is a good day.

      1. Bagge

        as for me, I’d rather want to see the kind of deal where Becky has to spend a night in a haunted house to get her scholarship, but it turns out that the ghost is just an old guy in a mask who would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those darn kids and their dog.

        1. thejeff

          That would fit Becky better.
          And we’d see Snoop again. Dogs make everything better.

    2. Agemegos

      My father had a classmate at the University of London, called Fouquard, who had been left an annuity in the will of a wealthy aunt “for so long as he is an undergraduate in his first degree”. He chose medicine because it was the longest undergraduate course available, and commenced in 1913. He was careful to pass just enough classes each year to avoid expulsion for lack of progress, and after taking four years’ leave to serve (as an artillery officer) in WWI, he graduated in 1938. And burst into tears.

      1. Agemegos

        Fouquard got fictionalised in Doctor in the House I understand.

  37. Deanatay

    Twenty years from now, Becky and Dorothy are both campaign managers for competing Presidential candidates.

    Only question is, which one is Red, and which one Blue?

    (Before the screeching starts, assume that both parties have undergone… significant policy alterations in twenty years. I mean, they’ll kinda have to…)

    1. CJ

      I think it was 20 or 30 years ago that someone expressed the conviction that the business dinosaurs (who didn’t have women in high positions) would die out soon. Sometimes, institutional inertia is extreme.

      1. C.T Phipps

        The thing about today’s GOP is they’re the same GOP from Reagan’s time. Trump was a monstrous joke in the 80s.

        1. thejeff

          This isn’t Reagan’s GOP. Today’s GOP would despise Reagan.

        2. ego

          any incautiously-phrased disagreement about Saint Ronnie (peace be upon him) is likely to precipitate a flame war, which *itself* is strong evidence of the hold he retains on the culture. I think the veneration of RR vastly exceeds that of JHC, among american conservatives.

        3. thejeff

          Absolutely, but that’s because he’s safely dead.

          Someone with the same resume, platform and even charisma running now would be a RINO. They’d hate him.

      2. Borkborkbork

        Aaaaaand now I’m stuck watching every episode of Dinosaur Office. Thanks, CJ.

    2. Agemegos

      Becky and Dorothy are unlikely to be running for the Presidency in twenty years. They’d be only 38 or 39, which is over the Constitutional minimum but very unusually young. Forty or fifty years from now is more likely.

      1. Agemegos

        Oh, sorry! You wrote “campaign managers”. My mistake.

  38. Hielario

    A question because I’m really confused:

    ¿Can someone explain this “half-bath” thing to me? And why does it open to another room?

    1. Bagge

      Two rooms, one bathroom between them with doors to each.

      Saves money and space.

    2. thejeff

      “half” because it has sink and toilet, but no shower.

      I’ve never quite figured out how they work, since I’d want to be able to lock people out while I’m on the toilet and keep them from getting through into my room from the other, but also not be able to lock someone into the half-bath or lock the other room out while you’re not in there and I don’t see a way to make it work.

    3. Agemegos

      I think a half-bath is a “bathroom” with no bath (nor shower), i.e. a toilet with a handbasin and vanity mirror.

  39. Bagge

    I really enjoy how Becky randomly starts to pose in the second panel. For the benefit of God, I suppose.

  40. Robbie

    I’ve tried to come to terms with what happened in the comic. I waited a few strips to see if I was okay with what happened, but I’m not. How could you time skip over Halloween!? I /need/ to know what everyone had as their costume!

    1. Schpoonman

      Willis did that to us so he wouldn’t have to draw it, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

      1. Bagge

        Yeah, I very reluctantly accept that as a fair point.

        and we DID get Dina in the TriceraTop(tm) for her birthday again, so I’m good.

  41. Agemegos

    Maybe, but legislators no longer actually draft the laws they enact. In countries (etc.) with the Parliamentary system, the laws are actually written by lawyers who work for the government department that will enforce the law. In the US system the laws are written by lawyers who work for the lobby groups who will have the law enforced to their benefit.

    1. Agemegos

      How the fuck did that reply end up here?

  42. Roe

    oh gosh, is this what’s going to break Dina and Becky?

  43. Alan in DC

    And through it all, what of Amber?

    Is she taking a semester off for mental health? Did she drop out for lack of finances? Was she kicked out under the college’s Code of Conduct? Did she get a job at a toy store?

    Or will she reappear any minute now?

    1. Bagge

      She desperately needs to pee, since Dina has been lurking in the bathroom since forever, waiting for Becky.

  44. Daniel M Ball

    going from one form of pseudoscience (creationism) to another form of pseudoscience (Political ‘Science’). Becks just can’t catch a break can she?

  45. bcb

    Yea Becky. If you read David Willis’ commentary in Book 1, it sounds like it took more than six days to create the Dumbiverse.

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