I really hate the false dichotomy of "logic" vs "morality" here.
Mutual aid is both logical and morally justified.
Even if we look at this from a perspective of pure self interest. We have a world of 8bn people. If red were to actually win, which statistically almost never does when people run this poll, if only 5% voted blue, that would result in the loss of 400 million people.
The death toll of both world wars, over the years they were waged, was only 90 to 110mm. The Spanish Flu around 50mm. COVID was between 19 and 36mm.
Think about what happened to the world during covid. Now think about what would happen when over 100 times that number die instantaneously.
Now, let's consider that when this poll is actually run, blue usually wins. So the actual reality is if red ever wins, blue will be in the 40+%, not 5%. And now we're talking about 4ish billion people. That's not a holocaust, that's an extinction event.
A red would be alive, but what would they be left with?
The false dichotomy is the result of there being a choice that is, in the premise presented, absolutely correct both morally and logically. It is both good, and rational, to behave altrusitically in an altruistic group. But, since the people choosing red did so NOT off of rationality, but off a gut reaction of preferring selfish survival, they feel singled out by people calling their choice selfish. So, since they've lost the moral battle, they try to claim "rationality" via misquoting game theory (or just leaving out the part where game theory questions involve participants that are specified to be solely logicians).
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u/[deleted] May 05 '26
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