i mean, basically a golden opportunity to give real teachings and undoing any potential damage Robin would have influencing over any actual susceptive kids or so lol
which would bring more Schadenfreude at Jason’s expense? several of them laughing in his face now, or Dorothy yelling at him for wasting her afternoon on a fool’s errand.
I like Becky’s relationship with her two living moms. She pushes back against both of them for different reasons, but can’t seem to quite escape either Robin or Leslie entirely. Both care about her, but between Leslie coming on too strong and taking it personally that Becky shies away from her motherly overtures, and Robin being like the posterchild of “disaster bisexual”, along with Becky’s abandonment baggage, it’s a constant push and pull.
I mean I know that she’s been well established as “The Smart One™” among them, but I feel a twinge of sadness at how quickly and happily Joyce points to Dorothy as “the smarty one”.
joyce has been described as blonde before even tho it’s more of a ‘dirty’ blonde/darker, but i’m sure it’s better off if she didn’t write any political text books even with help lol
Yep. HueSatLight speaks the truth! And also I can’t remember in what strip it’s said but she’s kiiiiind of indebted because campaigning and then dropping out comes at a steep price o/
Yes! This one. Between the ominous “she’ll learn” of the alt-text and not having a golden parachute but only getting a tenure, I don’t think she’s all that loaded.
Comfortable maybe, and she’s probably kept the flat she was sharing with Becky. Which is a lot to say in this economy! But not rich-rich.
C.T. Phipps
Didn’t her sister mention she had like three houses?
HueSatLight
This is a trick to get me to read all the Roz and/or Robin strips.
HueSatLight
Didn’t find it, but she does refer to her place in Bloomington as both an apartment and a house. Wjatever it is, she’s probably renting. And I think it’s pretty common for members of congress / Senators to have a residence near DC, with a big variation of how fancy they are. Like a bunch of them sharing a house where they ate off of Frisbies all the way to luxury homes.
Plus Robin’s nominal home in her district was probably in her hometown, New Albany I think. That’s three, and would be down to two, and it’s plausible that an adult sibling (and potentially their family) is the actual resident in her New Albany home.
I like that Becky passes on it – she’s not interested in Robin’s campaign anymore. As for Dorothy, yeah, that’s gonna be rough to think about. I seriously hope her trauma doesn’t actually end in her giving up.
The real question here is…
Does Dorothy really want to do it?
Besides the fact that Robin hasn’t exactly been one to take Dorothy very seriously, I daresay that if he finds out that Becky refused, he’ll find some excuse to do it later.
And as for Dorothy, if she refuses, I think the only one who will be worried is Joyce.
I’m crossing my fingers Dorothy isn’t going to take it. It hurts that Joyce is so quick to put herself down and prop Dorothy up… When her friend doesn’t want her to. She’s become so unhappy in that pedestal everyone (including herself) put her on, it broke her.
Doing this kind of detailed work is grueling. Doing it as ghost writing, not even exposure, would be a shit deal even if she were healthy – and she does need time to heal.
Yes, exactly, not only Walky, everyone who knows Dorothy and even herself, have put that pedestal that has been a great inconvenience.
It seems that Walky is already somewhat aware of what is happening, I mean, they had that conversation, I know they don’t It is correct to say that he finally opened his eyes, but at least it is seen that he is not condemning her for making some new decision in her life, it seems that it will be Joyce who will make Dorothy’s possible decisions in a not positive way.
If she’s not even getting credit for it, she may as well sabotage the whole thing. Not like she understands politics well enough to write a competent textbook anyway, so there’s no reason to bother trying for free.
The quality of the thing doesn’t even matter, because it’s just a grift motivated by Robin’s realization that she can force people to buy it regardless.
Taffy
Exactly. Even if she were stupid enough to listen to this random Englishman she doesn’t even really know, and even if Robin hasn’t forgotten about the whole concept because she blinked in the last few seconds, there’s absolutely no incentive for Dorothy to put the slightest bit of effort into this dumbass book idea. She could just copy/paste the phrase “political science is the science of political” a few thousand times, add some photographs of Skittles to keep it visually interesting, and call that a textbook.
That’s not fair. She knows exactly how the US government is structured to work, under ideal conditions, in a frictionless vacuum.
thejeff
Which frankly a lot more people need to know. If you want to pressure a system, you need to know which parts can be forced because they’re just custom and what parts are actually part of the structure and can’t be ignored.
Robin’s class leans so heavily into the corruption and cynicism that the class doesn’t seem likely to learn anything else. Most likely because Robin probably doesn’t know much.
The key bit is that you can ignore anything you want if you have a sufficiently shameless Supreme Court, because it doesn’t matter what anything actually says. All that matters is what five justices say that it means.
thejeff
To some extent, but there’s only so far even that can get you.
In some cases, a President really can just ignore the Supreme Court (illegally), but not in all cases, because some things you can do just by ordering your own subordinates, as long as they’ll obey, but in other cases you’d need to rely on federal and state judges, who will listen to the SC.
Or I’ve heard people who vaguely know that the filibuster is just a matter of Senate Rules and can be changed, think that also applies to needing a supermajority for an impeachment conviction.
Or people who see a President doing something on his own authority in one area and decide if he doesn’t do what they want somewhere else where he lacks Constitutional authority or previous authorization from Congress, then it can only be because he doesn’t want to.
Even working within the system, you need to know what the rules are in order to exploit them. Or where and how far the Court will let you do so.
Maybe Robin is cursed to be subverted every time she delegates. Becky completely inverted Robin’s campaign platform. Now Dorothy has a chance to ignore the charge, research and write a book-length diatribe on the contrast between the stated goals of the system and the ways it’s been perverted over the years.
102 thoughts on “Smarty”
Ana Chronistic
“in my dreams it was UNASSUMING satisfaction”
Ana Chronistic
alt: to be fair to Robin, she said CRUSHES
JASON is the one assuming
Ryan
Her seven evil exes, no doubt.
SpaceDorf
I think if Robin is involved it will be glorious in some way.
Or at least sparkly.
anon
i mean, basically a golden opportunity to give real teachings and undoing any potential damage Robin would have influencing over any actual susceptive kids or so lol
NGPZ
*plays “Defying Gravity” from Wicked Sountrack on hacked muzak*
NGPZ
It’s what she worked, and waited foooor…
She can have all she ever wanted.
“But I don’t want it…”
“No, I can’t want it anymoooore…”
True Survivor
*thunderous applause*
Sirksome
Or how about no to shameless spec work? Don’t work for free folks. Especially not in college.
anon
it could go to raising her gpa, a ‘free’ A tho i doubt she needs it lol
tho at this point busywork might be good for her
Joe Moose
Still better than exposure, I reckon.
Sirksome
It’s Jason’s satisfaction though. I think I’d prefer the exposure in that case.
Proxiehunter
Depends on who he’s exposing himself to.
someone
Look at him, does he look like a man who expects to have any satisfaction in his life?
HueSatLight
Tell them your deadline, Jason.
HueSatLight
which would bring more Schadenfreude at Jason’s expense? several of them laughing in his face now, or Dorothy yelling at him for wasting her afternoon on a fool’s errand.
clif
What we have to keep in mind is that Dorothy has it 9/10ths written already just because.
Pylgrim
It’s Dorothy. She has had a finished manuscript since before joining uni. All that’s left is a 15th rewrite.
Mark
“Oh, she wants it tomorrow. That’s clearly impossible so I’m ignoring the deadline. You should too.”
anon
Well, robin said ‘by tomorrow’ but i imagine by then she’d forget lol
DailyBrad
I like Becky’s relationship with her two living moms. She pushes back against both of them for different reasons, but can’t seem to quite escape either Robin or Leslie entirely. Both care about her, but between Leslie coming on too strong and taking it personally that Becky shies away from her motherly overtures, and Robin being like the posterchild of “disaster bisexual”, along with Becky’s abandonment baggage, it’s a constant push and pull.
mneme
Yes! Also I love the way Jason is doing the assignment while throwing out all the warning signals he can stomach, because goddamn it Robin.
Lokitsu
I didn’t know that “disaster bisexual” was a thing until today. Thank you.
a/snow/mous/e
I’ve heard “disaster gay”; guess it can come in different stripes…
(didn’t originally intend the queer flag pun but i ran with it)
Jamie
Yeah. I was pretty sure Robin had nothing to offer Becky, and Becky would make sure to get paid in something.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Did Robin bother to change the passwords on the campaign accounts?
IntangibleMatter
I mean I know that she’s been well established as “The Smart One™” among them, but I feel a twinge of sadness at how quickly and happily Joyce points to Dorothy as “the smarty one”.
You’re smart too, Joyce, you were just in a cult
John Campbell
“Christianity” might not be a cult, but a lot of groups that identify as Christian are.
Nymph
True. And the one Joyce grew up in certainly qualifies.
Mark
Thank you — I feel a little less isolated now.
deliverything
He said “smarty… blonde”, though. Is Joyce blonde? Her hair looks more light brown to me.
anon
joyce has been described as blonde before even tho it’s more of a ‘dirty’ blonde/darker, but i’m sure it’s better off if she didn’t write any political text books even with help lol
Charles Phipps
Isn’t Robin rich from all her grifting and abuse of America or did she spend all of her money on jeweled cadburry eggs?
HueSatLight
She forgot to be corrupt in the way that got her a golden parachute. https://www.dumbingofage.com/sneakinta/
Sirksome
She should’ve sucked up to the NRA then started an alt right podcast. What an amateur.
HueSatLight
Gotten in on the Lincoln Project scam.
Dante
Yep. HueSatLight speaks the truth! And also I can’t remember in what strip it’s said but she’s kiiiiind of indebted because campaigning and then dropping out comes at a steep price o/
HueSatLight
https://www.dumbingofage.com/properly-2/ this one maybe?
Dante
Yes! This one. Between the ominous “she’ll learn” of the alt-text and not having a golden parachute but only getting a tenure, I don’t think she’s all that loaded.
Comfortable maybe, and she’s probably kept the flat she was sharing with Becky. Which is a lot to say in this economy! But not rich-rich.
C.T. Phipps
Didn’t her sister mention she had like three houses?
HueSatLight
This is a trick to get me to read all the Roz and/or Robin strips.
HueSatLight
Didn’t find it, but she does refer to her place in Bloomington as both an apartment and a house. Wjatever it is, she’s probably renting. And I think it’s pretty common for members of congress / Senators to have a residence near DC, with a big variation of how fancy they are. Like a bunch of them sharing a house where they ate off of Frisbies all the way to luxury homes.
Plus Robin’s nominal home in her district was probably in her hometown, New Albany I think. That’s three, and would be down to two, and it’s plausible that an adult sibling (and potentially their family) is the actual resident in her New Albany home.
CrazyJ
How much is vainglorious satisfaction worth in exposure?
Needfuldoer
That has to be worth at least three exposures, or fifty “really appreciate it”-s.
BBCC
I like that Becky passes on it – she’s not interested in Robin’s campaign anymore. As for Dorothy, yeah, that’s gonna be rough to think about. I seriously hope her trauma doesn’t actually end in her giving up.
Coatl
The real question here is…
Does Dorothy really want to do it?
Besides the fact that Robin hasn’t exactly been one to take Dorothy very seriously, I daresay that if he finds out that Becky refused, he’ll find some excuse to do it later.
And as for Dorothy, if she refuses, I think the only one who will be worried is Joyce.
jeffepp
So it’ll be Robin’s job to lay, er, get Dottie layed.
David DeLaney
somewhere i can hear a whole STACK of spreadsheets perking up
i have no idea how i even know what that sounds liiike
David DeLaney
also thus is Lewis’ island where dreams come true
too late to run now, Dorothy, they’re mania-festing
Yotomoe
Vainglorious Satisfaction sounds like a Euphemism and a half.
Lynzigraye
Vainglorious Satisfaction is the name of my goth metal band.
milu
(He has his own tiny bow tie.)
BarerMender
Vainglorious satisfaction is a euphemism for being taken advantage of.
Taffy
I really hope Dorothy isn’t actually gonna bother. It sounds about as fun as the R.A. “election” story.
anon
lol imagine if Roz is like “oh /i’ll/ do it to spite my sister” and makes dorothy wanna do it to spite roz
HueSatLight
the perfect Jason story would be Lawsome.
Dante
I’m crossing my fingers Dorothy isn’t going to take it. It hurts that Joyce is so quick to put herself down and prop Dorothy up… When her friend doesn’t want her to. She’s become so unhappy in that pedestal everyone (including herself) put her on, it broke her.
Doing this kind of detailed work is grueling. Doing it as ghost writing, not even exposure, would be a shit deal even if she were healthy – and she does need time to heal.
Coatl
Yes, exactly, not only Walky, everyone who knows Dorothy and even herself, have put that pedestal that has been a great inconvenience.
It seems that Walky is already somewhat aware of what is happening, I mean, they had that conversation, I know they don’t It is correct to say that he finally opened his eyes, but at least it is seen that he is not condemning her for making some new decision in her life, it seems that it will be Joyce who will make Dorothy’s possible decisions in a not positive way.
Bash
There’s been a lot of people being treated how their first semester selves established they would like to be treated going around lately.
Archieve
I’d say there’s a half chance Dorothy initially agrees, then self sabatoges by writing something ridiculous that Robin get published anyway.
Taffy
If she’s not even getting credit for it, she may as well sabotage the whole thing. Not like she understands politics well enough to write a competent textbook anyway, so there’s no reason to bother trying for free.
John Campbell
The quality of the thing doesn’t even matter, because it’s just a grift motivated by Robin’s realization that she can force people to buy it regardless.
Taffy
Exactly. Even if she were stupid enough to listen to this random Englishman she doesn’t even really know, and even if Robin hasn’t forgotten about the whole concept because she blinked in the last few seconds, there’s absolutely no incentive for Dorothy to put the slightest bit of effort into this dumbass book idea. She could just copy/paste the phrase “political science is the science of political” a few thousand times, add some photographs of Skittles to keep it visually interesting, and call that a textbook.
Needfuldoer
That’s not fair. She knows exactly how the US government is structured to work, under ideal conditions, in a frictionless vacuum.
thejeff
Which frankly a lot more people need to know. If you want to pressure a system, you need to know which parts can be forced because they’re just custom and what parts are actually part of the structure and can’t be ignored.
Robin’s class leans so heavily into the corruption and cynicism that the class doesn’t seem likely to learn anything else. Most likely because Robin probably doesn’t know much.
John Campbell
The key bit is that you can ignore anything you want if you have a sufficiently shameless Supreme Court, because it doesn’t matter what anything actually says. All that matters is what five justices say that it means.
thejeff
To some extent, but there’s only so far even that can get you.
In some cases, a President really can just ignore the Supreme Court (illegally), but not in all cases, because some things you can do just by ordering your own subordinates, as long as they’ll obey, but in other cases you’d need to rely on federal and state judges, who will listen to the SC.
Or I’ve heard people who vaguely know that the filibuster is just a matter of Senate Rules and can be changed, think that also applies to needing a supermajority for an impeachment conviction.
Or people who see a President doing something on his own authority in one area and decide if he doesn’t do what they want somewhere else where he lacks Constitutional authority or previous authorization from Congress, then it can only be because he doesn’t want to.
Even working within the system, you need to know what the rules are in order to exploit them. Or where and how far the Court will let you do so.
Mark
Maybe Robin is cursed to be subverted every time she delegates. Becky completely inverted Robin’s campaign platform. Now Dorothy has a chance to ignore the charge, research and write a book-length diatribe on the contrast between the stated goals of the system and the ways it’s been perverted over the years.
Mark
Or a scathing examination of the limits of politics and social structure.
Dorothy ends up so depressed, she doesn’t show up to accept her honorary doctorate.
Pergola