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Notes -
They play cooperate for at least one round.
In less abstract terms: They give you a credible, costly signal that they're no longer interested in defecting against you. You can argue that camo-cans and country music ads are neither credible nor costly enough, but announcing that you will from now on be a defect bot against them no matter what is not a sound strategy.
A couple of good counterpoints have been raised in this thread:
Beat up the biggest meanie in prison: This is the first right-wing protest that has legs. The right needs to prove that they can sink an opponent.
Pour encourager les autres: The right needs to send a signal to other players that they are not to be screwed with. This is more valuable than cooperation with Bud.
Don't sell yourself short: The right can't give in right away because that sends the signal that defecting against them is a mistake that can easily be corrected.
But then again, forgiveness can be advantageous. Take the Heckler&Koch example. Their social media manager went on a "as a woman" tirade, was subsequently relieved of her duties and HK announced that they don't "do identity politics". The right quickly backed off and celebrated the move. That's what I mean by rewarding backpedalling.
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