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Comment by vel0city | Hacker News Reader

Tell me again about how this applies to a candidate showdown like James Talarico versus Ken Paxton.

> There's no such thing as people voting against their own interests.

This is truly as nonsensical opinion as people always choose healthy choices. People can absolutely make self destructive choices. A smoker choosing to smoke isn't making a good choice, but to you they couldn't possibly choose something against their interests. It would be in their interests to stop smoking, but they're unable or unwilling to make that decision.

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You're almost there.

Now see if you can figure out why self-destructive choices can be rational at times?

Can you formulate a hypothetical where smoking is a rational decision? I can.

> self-destructive choices can be rational at times

It's not a rational choice. It's choosing to make the irrational choice.

A drug addict choosing to shoot up isn't making the rational choice. It's a choice we can examine on why they made that choice, but it wasn't reason that drove them to make that choice.

Thinking Trump is the anointed one isn't a rational decision. Voting for Trump to get rid of corruption isn't a rational choice. Voting for a rapist in the middle of a big pedophile ring isn't the rational choice at fighting the pedophiles.

Is it irrational to smoke cigarettes if you're in a concentration camp?

Is it irrational to take out yourself as well as your enemies if you have no realistic prospects for improving your situation but you do have the ability to hurt people who hurt you?

> Is it irrational to smoke cigarettes if you're in a concentration camp?

Yes, I'd agree it's irrational to willfully give yourself a chemical addiction in a place where you are already have enough stressors and it'll be hard for you to continue to feed that addiction once started. It's probably a terrible choice to start an addition in a concentration camp. I can understand why people would choose it, and I don't fault them for making such a decision in such a bad place, but it's definitely not the rational choice.

Have you ever really been at any kind of rock bottom? Or known people who have been around situations like that? Just purely from a self-improvement standpoint, you should try to open your mind to what that might be like and how people make decisions in those kinds of situations.

Yes, I've been homeless, in debt, with only a minimum wage job.

Just purely from a self-improvement standpoint, you should try and not assume you know everything about someone through a short conversation.

I'm not passing off a moral judgement over someone choosing to smoke in a concentration camp. I don't fault someone making that choice. There's a good chance I might make the same. That doesn't make it a rational choice.

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